A super slide about 45 feet long set into the hillside, a shipwrecked boat to climb, a sand table with a water channel, and its own area for ages 2 to 5.
Thought to be the country's first public playground, with the old concrete slides, a wave-shaped climbing wall and a 1914 carousel of 62 painted animals.
Free parkland over the tunnels with the Outpost, a two-acre natural playground of slides, tunnels and a giant birds' nest built for two to twelve, with water features.
Free museum with live animals in their habitats, a model railroad, and hands-on labs and studios.
Two decks of shops and food built out over the water, with a carousel at the end and the sea lions barking off the far side. Loud, flat and easy to push a stroller round.
A free gondola runs to the rooftop park, where the play area sits three levels above the street.
A downtown play stop near the carousel, bowling, skating and the children's museum.
Free, and fun for machine-obsessed kids: you can watch the giant wheels pulling the real cables under the streets.
Logs, stumps and boulders to climb, with the shoreline walk and the EcoCenter alongside.
The slide is the whole attraction here, good for a short burst of play, with wheelchair-accessible toilets on site.
Trails through cypress and eucalyptus along the cliffs, down to the ruins of Sutro Baths, with the Golden Gate in view and old shipwrecks below.
A free room at the wharf packed with working penny arcade machines, from a hand-cranked carnival to old strength testers.
A small public square off 24th Street with a slide set into a low mound, room to run and seating all around the edge. The neighborhood farmers market takes it over on Saturday mornings, often with live music.
A market hall of food stalls with the ferries going out the back. Good for grazing lunch with kids, and the Saturday farmers' market spills onto the plaza.
A free art-deco building shaped like a ship at the end of Aquatic Park, with WPA murals inside and sand right outside the door.
A free single room opposite the Ferry Building with a streetcar cab kids can sit in and work the controls, right on the F line.
A brick fort tucked directly under the Golden Gate Bridge. Free, echoing spiral staircases, cannons to climb near, and the bridge roaring overhead.
A Chinatown alley the width of a hallway where two women fold cookies off a hot press by hand. Two minutes, a sample, and worth the detour.
Dozens of sea lions hauled out on the floating docks, barking and shoving each other off. Free, visible from the walkway, and most reliable in winter.
1,017 acres holding what's thought to be the country's first public playground (now Koret), a carousel of 62 animals, and rowboats on Blue Heron Lake.
A free room of hand-drawn engines, brass helmets and 1906 photographs, kept by volunteers.
