Fountain in Ghirardelli Square.

Ghirardelli Square

The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers

LoginSave

Willy Wonka would tip his hat to Domingo Ghirardelli (gear-ar-deli), whose business became the West’s largest chocolate factory in 1893. After the company moved to the East Bay, two sweet-talking developers reinvented the factory as a mall and landmark ice-cream parlor in 1964. Today, the square is getting comfortable in its third incarnation as a boutique luxury time-share/spa complex with wine-tasting and a new cheese-making school – care for wedge of Mt Tam and some merlot with your Ghirardelli chocolate sundae?

The square is lately looking even spiffier, with local boutiques such as elizabethW, plus a new minigolf operation, a brewpub and the nearby Cartoon Art Museum.

Transportation

  • tram: Powell-Hyde
  • bus: 19, 30, 47

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

  • An aerial view of Golden Gate Park from the Pacific Ocean. Golden Gate Park is the third most visited city park in the US.

    Golden Gate Park

    4.1 MILES

    When Frederick Law Olmsted, architect of New York's Central Park, gazed in 1865 upon the plot of land San Francisco Mayor Frank McCoppin wanted to turn…

  • High-angle view of the San Francisco Ferry Building during the morning.

    Ferry Building

    1.73 MILES

    Hedonism is alive and well at this transit hub turned gourmet emporium, where foodies happily miss their ferries over Sonoma oysters and bubbly, SF craft…

  • Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, USA.

    Alcatraz

    1.43 MILES

    Alcatraz: for over 150 years, the name has given the innocent chills and the guilty cold sweats. Over the decades, it’s been a military prison, a…

  • Exploratorium

    Exploratorium

    1.36 MILES

    Is there a science to skateboarding? Do toilets really flush counterclockwise in Australia? At San Francisco's hands-on science museum, you'll find out…

  • Balmy Alley

    Balmy Alley

    3.78 MILES

    Since at least the 1980s, if you stroll through San Francisco's Mission District you've likely noticed the neighborhood's profusion of colorful murals and…

  • Sun shining through the redwood tree forest in Humboldt County, California.

    Muir Woods National Monument

    10.18 MILES

    Muir Woods National Monument is located just a few miles north of San Francisco in Marin County, and is a prime peaceful destination for reflection within…

  • APRIL 24, 2018: Victorian-style homes in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.

    Haight Street

    2.86 MILES

    Was it the fall of 1966 or the winter of ’67? As the Haight saying goes, if you can remember the Summer of Love, you probably weren’t here. The fog was…

  • SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. 15th August, 2017: historic san francisco chinatown neighborhood

    Chinatown Alleyways

    1.11 MILES

    If you look close today at the clinker-brick buildings lining these narrow backstreets, past the temple balconies jutting out over bakeries, acupuncture…

View more attractions

Nearby The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers attractions

1. Cartoon Art Museum

0.04 MILES

Founded on a grant from Bay Area cartoon legend Charles M Schultz of Peanuts fame, this bold museum isn't afraid of the dark, political or racy – cases in…

2. Maritime Museum

0.1 MILES

A monumental hint to sailors in need of a scrub, this restored, ship-shaped 1939 Streamline Moderne landmark is decked out with Works Progress…

3. National Park Visitors Center

0.14 MILES

San Francisco grew from its docks, and this 10,000-sq-ft visitors center for the nearby maritime national historical park details how, with a permanent…

4. Aquatic Park

0.14 MILES

Everyone loves this easy-access cove at Van Ness Ave's northern end, flanked by the massive comma-shaped Municipal Pier, where fishermen cast their lines…

5. Maritime National Historical Park

0.19 MILES

Five historic ships are floating museums at this maritime national park, Fisherman's Wharf’s most authentic attraction. Moored along Hyde St Pier, the…

6. Lombard Street

0.33 MILES

You’ve seen the eight switchbacks of Lombard St's 900 block in a thousand photographs. The tourist board has dubbed it ‘the world’s crookedest street,’…

7. George Sterling Park

0.33 MILES

'Homeward into the sunset/Still unwearied we go/Till the northern hills are misty/With the amber of afterglow.' Poet George Sterling's poem 'City by the…

8. San Francisco Art Institute

0.34 MILES

Since the 1870s, SFAI has been at the vanguard of Bay Area art movements – including 1960s Bay Area abstraction, 1970s conceptual art and 1990s new-media…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting: 
    {
  "url": "usa/san-francisco/the-marina-fishermans-wharf-and-the-piers/attractions/ghirardelli-square/a/poi-sig/383931/1329639",
  "destination": "The-Marina,-Fisherman’s-Wharf-&-the-Piers",
  "continent": "North-America",
  "country": "USA",
  "region": "California",
  "city": "San-Francisco",
  "neighborhood": "The-Marina,-Fisherman’s-Wharf-&-the-Piers",
  "position": "superzone"
}