My Guide to the Sunset District

Here's my guide on things to do, what to see, and where to eat, in my long-time neighborhood, the Sunset District. I lived out here in the Avenues, as the locals call it, for 26 years and loved it! 

The Sunset District has long had the reputation of being the cold and foggy area of San Francisco, way out by the ocean, where nothing interesting ever happens. Until recently, that is, when it seems to have become "trendy". 

Neither view really captures the essence of the Sunset...except for the foggy part, but that's part of its charm, IMO.

• Things to do and see
• Outer vs Inner Sunset
• Eat & stay
• History
• Oddities

Why is it called "the Sunset"? I assume because it faces west and the setting sun (no one really knows). The western edge of the district is the Pacific Ocean, so there are gorgeous sunset views in the evening (except in the summer, when it's fogged in, of course).

It's called "The Avenues" because the streets are laid out in a grid, using numbers or names, and are called avenues, as opposed to "streets" as in most of the rest of San Francisco. 16th Avenue is in the Sunset District, while 16th Street is in the Mission District.

(And actually the Richmond District, just north of the Sunset, is also included in the Avenues, for the same reason.)

It's usually divided into the Outer Sunset and Inner Sunset.

---

What's out there? Is it worth a visit?

Yes, the Sunset is worth seeing for it's natural beauty, parks and beaches. Cute pastel houses, mellow places to eat, and quiet places to stay. You're in the San Francisco city limits, but you feel like you are miles away! But it's just a quick ride into the center of things.

The Sunset District is primarily a residential neighborhood, with single family, row houses lining the streets. It has a suburban feel, unlike most of the rest of San Francisco. It's quiet and safe, and has some lovely parks and a couple of lakes.

The entire western edge of the neighborhood is a 3-mile-long beach, Ocean Beach, a great place for long walks, bonfires and flying kites. But beware the rip currents (and occasional great white sharks!); not a safe beach for swimmers. It is a popular surf beach, however.

Golden Gate Park runs along its northern edge, and Lake Merced (yes, SF has a huge lake within the city limits) and San Francisco State University are on the southern border. The SF Zoo and a nice mall, Stonestown Mall, are down there, too.

---

Things to do and see in the Sunset District

Golden Gate Park

Golden Gate Park. SF's best park forms the northern border of the neighborhood, with some great museums (de Young Art Museum, California Academy of Sciences), and the Botanical Gardens, Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Garden, Blue Heron Lake (aka Stow Lake) paddle boats, miles of walking trails and other gardens.

---

Beaches in the Sunset District

Ocean Beach. Three miles of beach front on the Pacific Ocean. Great for walks, ocean gazing, and surfing.

Looking for surfing gear in the neighborhood? Check out Mollusk (sales) at 4500 Irving Street, or Aqua Surf Shop (sales and rentals) at 3847 Judah Street.

Fort Funston Beach. SF's wildest beach, with plunging cliffs and hang gliders. Best dog beach, too. A little south of the Sunset.

Swimming in the Sunset?

Tempting as it looks, swimming is strongly discouraged at Ocean Beach (and most SF beaches). The surfers know how to handle the rip currents, but sadly, they claim the lives of inexperienced swimmers almost every year.

More on why you shouldn't swim there.

---

Climb the tiled stairs

The pretty SF stairs. San Francisco has many beautifully stairways to explore. Some of them are in the Sunset, like the 16th Avenue Stairs, and the Hidden Garden Stairs. They are two blocks apart; you can see both in the same visit.

16th Avenue Stairs: 16th Ave and Moraga St.
Hidden Garden Steps: 16th Ave and Kirkham St.

But keep going! Climb the stairs across the street from the top of the 16th Avenue Steps to the top of Grandview Park. A little known but great San Francisco viewpoint! See below...

---

Great views

Grandview Park. After you've climbed the 16th Avenue Tiled Stairs, head to the top of Grandview Hill (aka Turtle Hill). There are amazing views from the summit of Grandview Park. The whole Sunset District is below you, plus views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Golden Gate Park, and downtown San Francisco.

Looking north (below): the Richmond District, Golden Gate Park, SF Bay and Angel Island.

Sutro Heights Park. A little north of the Sunset District, this park was once part of Adolf Sutro's estate and has a super view of Ocean Beach and the coast. I got a glimpse of some whales passing by here once.

---

More things to see and do...

The San Francisco Zoo. Visit the lions, tigers and bears, plus the cute meerkat village and prairie dog town. Ride the little steam train and the beautiful carousel.

Mount Sutro. San Francisco has mountains! This one has miles of trails through woodlands. Near the Inner Sunset.

Stern Grove concerts. All summer there are free concerts in Stern Grove, a redwood-shaded park in the Outer Sunset. Wide variety of music. See Stern Grove schedule.

Great dog park: Pinelake Park is next door to Stern Grove and a favorite park, surrounded by trees, with a lake and a popular dogpark.

Lake Merced. There's a huge lake in the neighborhood most people don't know exists. Popular with runners and walkers, and a pretty setting for the golf course.

---

Outer Sunset vs Inner Sunset

The Outer Sunset is the largest area of the district, with street after street of single family row houses. You feel kind of like you're in the suburbs. It's quiet and more family-oriented than urban San Francisco. It stretches from 19th Avenue (a major thoroughfare) all the way out to the ocean.

The main commercial streets are Judah Street and Taraval Street, lined with shops. Both of those streets have a street car line that runs from the beach all the way back to downtown San Francisco.

The Inner Sunset has a slightly more urban feel, with lots of two story buildings with flats and apartments. This is a great neighborhood for shopping and eating.

The area of Judah Street and 9th Avenue has a concentration of interesting shops and eateries. Golden Gate Park is right next door and it's a short walk to fun attractions like the Japanese Tea Garden, California Academy of Sciences, deYOung Museum, Botanical Gardens, and more.

The streetcar line N-Judah runs through here and takes you out to the beach or downtown from there.

---

Weather in the Sunset District

San Francisco weather is heavily influenced by the cold ocean current running offshore, and that goes double for the Sunset District. 

Winter weather is pretty much the same all over San Francisco, but in the summer, there is often a 10 degree F difference between the western and eastern sides of the city. The Avenues (Sunset and Richmond Districts) are fogged-in most of the summer months of June, July and August.

See San Francisco weather for more info on the weather in SF and the rest of the Bay Area.

---

Eat and Stay in the Sunset

Best places to eat in the Sunset

My favorite burrito place is here, plus a number of other good places to dine.

I collected my suggestions on my places to eat near Ocean Beach page.

---

Want to stay in the Sunset District?

Ocean Park Motel. There's a charming, vintage motel in the Outer Sunset, a couple of blocks from Ocean Beach. Highly rated, in a safe, quiet neighborhood. 

See my article on the Ocean Park Motel for more info, photos and booking.

Also see my post on places to stay near Ocean Beach.

---

History of the Sunset District

The area now called the Sunset District was ceded to the U.S. government from Mexico in 1848 by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. At the time, it was empty, windswept sand dunes stretching out to the Pacific Ocean, called the Outside Lands. 

The city of San Francisco got possession of it in 1866; the origin of the name "Sunset" is in dispute. Gradually the land began to be developed for housing and the city named the north/south streets in alphabetical order (starting with Anza Street in the Richmond District and ending with Yorba Street in the Sunset). The east/west streets were called avenues and given numbers, so navigation is pretty easy.

In the late 1800s, people started living in cars that had been dumped out by the beach and the area was called Carville-by-the-Sea (sounds nice!). And later, over 5,000 tiny houses were built out there to house people who lost their homes in the 1906 earthquake.

The Sunset District is known for it's profusion of Doelger homes, built in the 1920s and later by Henry Doelger. The style was an attached house with two bedrooms and one bathroom, with the living area on the second floor above a garage.

You'll see this style and variations of it all over the neighborhood. They have stucco fronts, usually pastel colors, and very small front yards (and unfortunately often cemented-over by some of the residents). See more on history of the Sunset.

---

Sunset District demographics

Who lives out in the Sunset? When the homes were first built out here on the sand dunes, many of the families living out here were Irish Americans. There are still a lot of Catholic schools and Catholic churches in the Sunset, reflecting its original residents. Over the years, more Chinese residents started to move out into the Avenues.

As of 2025, Sunset Residents are:

46% Asian (mostly Chinese), 36% White, 10% Hispanic, 2% Black.
Median age 43.4; median household income $154,199; 2.6 persons per household.
Married households 50%, median value of owner-occupied houses $1.525 million.
62.2% bachelor's degree or higher, 35.2% foreign-born (75% Asian, 13% European, 8% Latin American).

From a few hundred people in the 1880s, the population of the Sunset is around 100,000 now.

See more population stats for the district per Census Reporter.

---

Sunset Oddities

The Doggie Diner

There used to be a collection of old-time, San Francisco and Oakland fast-food restaurants called the Doggie Diners.

The eateries are long gone, but the signature doggie head from one in the Sunset was preserved and is looking over Sloat Blvd, on the road to Ocean Beach.

---

Patty Hearst and the SLA

Patty Hearst was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in 1974, and transformed into the radical, "Tania". Her first public appearance in her new identity was her participation in a bank robbery in San Francisco.

The bank the SLA targeted was the Hibernia Bank in the Sunset District, at 1450 Noriega Street. During the robbery, Hearst shouted, "I'm Tania. Up against the wall!"

The bank later became a Bank of America branch, and currently houses an insurance company (with a B of A ATM outside).

---

A Famous Duel: Broderick vs Terry

Possible the last famous duel in the U.S. (due to the practice of dueling falling out of favor) was a match between a United States Senator (Broderick) and the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California (Terry).

Formerly good friends, they had a falling out over their political differences. Each blamed the other for their professional failures, and then some harsh words resulted in feelings of honor being questioned. The U.S. Senator, David Broderick, lost the duel and died from his wounds three days later. Some felt it was unfair because he wasn't as experienced with the pistols. 

The duel was fought in the woods near Lake Merced, in the Sunset District at 1100 Lake Merced Blvd. (technically, just over the county line in Daly City). Lake Merced is a large lake with a pretty golf course next to it. The site is now an official California Historical Landmark. A sign marks the beginning of the trail that leads to the site.

See Wikipedia for more details on the duel and the Historical Marker Data Base for photos of the men and the scene of the duel.

---

How to get to the Sunset District

From downtown San Francisco:

There are two streetcars lines that run from Market Street downtown (under Market Street, it's a subway there). Both lines run through the Sunset, all the way out to the ocean.

The N-Judah line is the northern route, which runs through the commercial area of the Inner Sunset (shops and restaurants on Judah Street). 

The L-Taraval line is the southern route, which is closer to Lake Merced and the SF Z00.

---

Share this page: 

---

Best things to do in San Francisco

Top San Francisco Attractions

---

SF Bus, BART & Cable Car Routes

---

---