Attractions

The Bay Bridge's shimmering Bay Lights art installation will return bigger and brighter this winter. After a decade of captivating viewers, Leo Villareal's 1.8-mile installation on the Bay Bridge went dark in March 2023 due to harsh conditions along the bridge. Illuminate, the non-profit organization behind the Bay Lights, is bringing the iconic installation back this winter with double the number of lights. In Villareal's next iteration of Bay Lights, nearly 50,000 white lights will be affixed to the northern edge of the bridge's western span and wrap around the cables, making the installation's abstract wavelike formations visible from more vantage points. Illuminate raised over $9 million in private donations and $1 million from a crowdsourced fundraiser to restore the Bay Lights and sourced more advanced lights designed to withstand the elements.

The Counterculture Museum, located at the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets, is slated to open in spring 2025. It will explore San Francisco's place at the center of cultural movements that have shaped society, from the Beat Generation and Summer of Love to LGBTQ+ rights.

Smurfs: The Adventure will open in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf in Spring 2025. San Francisco will be painted immersive shades of blue this spring as a new, all-ages interactive adventure transports delighted fans into the forested world of The Smurfs. Through exciting challenges, games, and interactive experiences in a state-of-the-art installation, participants can help Papa, Smurfette, and the rest of the gang defend the village from Gargamel and Azrael. Smurfs: The Adventure will have its grand premiere in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf in the former Wax Museum space. The launch is planned to coincide with the release of the new Smurfs film starring Rihanna as the voice of Smurfette.

Fisherman's Wharf's transformed promenade brings visitors closer to the Bay's natural beauty and the iconic waterfront's rich maritime history. Anchored by the SkyStar Wheel, the $1.43 million transformation features an improved walkway with seven pergolas, local plants, various seating options, planters, and hammocks for visitors to relax.

A new vintage Photo Booth Museum in the Castro is drawing crowds. Photomatica, a San Francisco company renowned for reviving the magic of vintage photo booths, opened the Photo Booth Museum in the Castro in December. The museum features historic analog photo booths, some dating back to the 1930s. Visitors can capture fun memories on film and learn a little bit about the history of the quirky contraptions.

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) opened its newest amenity, a Sensory Room specifically designed for neurodiverse travelers and their families. The interactive room opened in December and offers a variety of experiences. It features an 'Activity Area' with both analog and digital options, a 'Calming/Soothing Area' for contemplation and wonderment, and a life-size 'Cabin Experience' featuring a realistic, full-scale aircraft interior mock-up which allows families to acclimate to the experience of flying before boarding their actual flight. The Sensory Room is located post-security in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 and can be accessed from any SFO terminal via connecting walkways. The unstaffed facility is open daily from 5 am to 11 pm.

Last year, SFO completed the final phase of its award-winning $2.5B Harvey Milk Terminal 1, unveiling a new north check-in lobby, a new mezzanine-level security checkpoint, two additional aircraft gates, four new concessions and a new connecting walkway that links all SFO terminals post-security

An urban bathhouse inspired by nature's elements is slated to grand open in 2025. Designed by architect Olle Lundberg and drawing inspiration from the landmark Sutro Baths, the spacious Alchemy Springs will feature a thermal bathhouse and over 2,500 square feet of outdoor thermal spa amenities, including a freestanding circular performance sauna accommodating 40 people in a zen garden, refreshing ice baths, thermal benches, fire pits and outdoor showers. Additional programming will include sound baths, meditation, yoga and pop-up events.

Sports Events

The San Francisco Bay Area boasts a star lineup of premier sports events over the next 18 months. In 2026, the Bay Area will become the first metropolitan area in the U.S. to host both the Super Bowl and the FIFA World Cup in the same year.

The roster:

• The 74th NBA All-Star Game takes place at San Francisco's Chase Center on Feb. 16, 2025. From Feb. 14 to 16, those without a ticket to the coveted NBA All-Star Game can enjoy a robust range of activities celebrating the NBA All-Star Game.
• The high-octane SailGP San Francisco Grand Prix returns to the San Francisco Bay on March 22 and 23, 2025.
• The NCAA Men's Basketball West Regional is at Chase Center from March 27 to 29, 2025.
• The Golden State Valkyries, the new WNBA expansion team, kicks off its inaugural season at Chase Center on May 16, 2025.
• The T100 Triathlon World Tour San Francisco on May 31, 2025, coincides with the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon.
• The San Francisco Marathon runs the city on July 27, 2025.
• The world's best in men's tennis converge at the Chase Center in San Francisco for the Laver Cup from Sept. 19 to 21, 2025.
• 2026 Super Bowl LX takes the field at Levi's Stadium on Feb. 8, 2026.
• Levi's Stadium hosts six 2026 FIFA World Cup matches from June 13 to July 1, 2026.

New and Expanded Parks

A new Outpost Meadow in the 1,500-acre Presidio of San Francisco is set to open in July. The Outpost Meadow will add 1.5 acres to the popular 14-acre Presidio Tunnel Tops, which debuted in 2022. The new gathering space near Presidio Tunnel Top's popular Outpost nature playground will offer additional seating, shade, gardens, bike parking, food trucks, and other amenities for visitors to that area of Presidio Tunnel Tops.

By this spring, a two-mile stretch of the four-lane Great Highway along the city's western oceanfront will become a full-time 17-acre park. The southern section of the Great Highway, which runs parallel to Ocean Beach in the city's Sunset neighborhood, became car-free on weekends in 2022 under a pilot program. That year, the New York Times named the recreational promenade a “must-go destination, pointing the way for post-pandemic urbanism.” Following voter approval last November, the stretch will transform into a dedicated recreational area early this year. The first phase of the Great Highway's transformation includes the installation of over a dozen sculptures, street murals and sculptures. Dune restoration work is also underway, led by San Francisco's Recreation and Parks in conjunction with the National Park Service and the Surfrider Foundation.  

A six-acre waterfront park is slated to open on San Francisco's Treasure Island this summer. The park is part of the ongoing transformation of San Francisco's Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island into new environmentally sustainable 21st-century neighborhoods. Once completed, the Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island development will encompass 300 acres of parks, trails and open spaces, new restaurants and shops, public art installations and 8,000 new homes. Last year, Panorama Park opened on Yerba Buena Island, which is connected to Treasure Island by a causeway.

Two new parks opened on San Francisco's waterfront: Bayfront Park and 900 Innes Ave.

Bayfront Park, a 5.4-acre open space between Chase Center and the San Francisco Bay in Mission Bay, is the newest attraction on the city's central waterfront. The park features open lawns, a section of the 350-mile Bay Trail, plazas and numerous trees and native plants. Large quantities of reclaimed steel from the old Bay Bridge were used to create shade structures, site furnishings and other features, reflecting the site's maritime industrial heritage. Bayfront Park adds to a network of over 40 acres of park and open spaces within Mission Bay, including the popular five-acre China Basin Park, which opened just across McCovey Cove from Oracle Park last spring.  

The opening of 900 Innes Ave., the southern half of the $200 million India Basin Waterfront Park project, marked a milestone for one of the most significant park projects in modern San Francisco history. India Basin Waterfront Park, an environmental justice investment, is transforming a former brownfield into a thriving public space, providing waterfront access in Bayview-Hunter's Point for the first time in generations.  900 Innes Ave., combined with the adjacent India Basin Shoreline Park, creates a spacious 10-acre park with miles of winding trails, waterfront recreation, and shore access. New buildings include a food pavilion and a makers' shop for boat building and community projects. The historic Shipwright's Cottage, a San Francisco Landmark, now serves as a welcome center. Other features include two new public piers, a floating dock, restrooms, an accessible walkway, and native landscaping.

Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden unveiled a redesigned plaza surrounding the garden's historical pagoda. Award-winning Japanese Garden designer Hoichi Kurisu redesigned the plaza, adding new paths, a small, serene space behind the pagoda for contemplation and seven Japanese black pines cultivated by Kurisu and his family. The more open Pagoda Plaza is now a gathering space for taiko performances, bonsai demonstrations and other cultural events, and builds on the restoration of the 109-year-old pagoda in 2022. The Japanese Tea Garden is the oldest public Japanese Garden in the nation. Its pagoda was built as a temporary indoor display in the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition's Palace of Food Products and relocated to the Japanese Tea Garden in 1916.

2025 Anniversaries

• 150th anniversary of the Palace Hotel.
• 110th anniversary of the Panama Pacific International Exposition, the world's fair.
• 70th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg's first reading of Howl—a pivotal moment in the Beat movement that birthed the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance.
• 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead.
• 55th annual San Francisco PRIDE
• 40th anniversary of the GLBT Historical Society.
• 25th Anniversary of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Held annually in Golden Gate Park, Hardly Strictly is one of the largest free music festivals in the U.S.
• 20th anniversary of the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD). The museum will close in March for interior upgrades and reopen in October to celebrate its anniversary.

 

SAN FRANCISCO TRAVEL

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