The tour is supposed to start at precisely 11:00 daily at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. We left our house in the East Bay at 9:30am, drove to BART, BARTed into the city, hiked the 3 blocks to the Westin St. Francis and arrived at 11:04. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (truthfully I was more upset than anyone else) we talked with the valet parking guy. He said that the tour had just left and that we could probably catch them if we took a taxi to Octavia and Post (though it should have been Octavia and Sutter). So we hopped a taxi and arrived a minute or two before the rest of the group. Even though it looks dark and dank, it didn't actually start raining until we were done with the tour.

The first part of the tour is an exploration of the interior of the "Queen Anne Hotel" of San Francisco. This hotel used to be an all-girls finishing school. Lots of lush details.

The tour then wandered around the area in a guided, non-athletic exploration of the neighborhood. Jay, our tour guide, knew a lot about the homes in the area. There were just too many Sticks and Italianate to take pictures of them all.

Our guide, Jay.

View along the tour of the Exploritorium with the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

I highly recommend the tour if you're ever in SF with $20 to spare and an itch to see some nice Victorian homes.