Cable Car Museum

Recreation center with a children's play area.

A compact Chinatown play space with a clubhouse and restrooms, in a neighborhood with very little open space.

A small playground on a pretty lawn, with the turtle fountain nearby and plenty of places to sit.

One-floor Chinatown museum in a Julia Morgan building. Small enough for a rainy half hour, and better with school-age kids than toddlers.

A climbable water dragon wrapped around a two-level tower and slide, and a fiery phoenix between the tot and big-kid zones.

A grand old Nob Hill hotel with beehives in the rooftop garden and a family room with a bunk bed. A band plays on a boat in the Tonga Room, the hotel's old indoor pool, and at the holidays there's a life-sized gingerbread house.