5 Best Museums San Francisco

Why it made the list: One of the largest modern and contemporary art museums in the country, hugely expanded a few years back, seven floors of it, plus a free-to-visit ground floor and a living wall on the sculpture terrace. It's the anchor of the city's art scene and a full afternoon on its own.

Why it made the list: The city's fine-arts museum, in a striking copper-clad building in Golden Gate Park, American art, textiles and global collections, plus a free observation tower with one of the best views in the city. The park setting makes it the most pleasant museum day here.

Why it made the list: An aquarium, a planetarium, a natural history museum and a four-story living rainforest under one living roof, directly across from the de Young in Golden Gate Park. It's a genuine wonder and the best family museum in the city, with enough for adults to lose a day in too.

Why it made the list: The original hands-on science museum, sprawled across a pier on the Embarcadero, hundreds of interactive exhibits about perception, light, sound and the physical world, all meant to be touched and played with. It practically invented the format everyone else copied.

Why it made the list: A Beaux-Arts palace on a headland at Lands End, with the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific behind it, European old masters and a famous Rodin collection inside, and one of the most dramatic museum settings in the country outside. Worth it for the site alone.