enclosed booths and long mahogany bar, this is classic San Francisco. No reservations are taken.

Walk through the Beaux Arts Ferry Building and Farmer’s Market . Once the hub of one of the most extensive ferry systems in the world, the 1898 Victorian clock tower survived the 1906 disaster but fell into neglect after the building of the Bay Bridge. A recent multimillion-dollar restoration has brought it back to life as a soaring public space with a European-style gourmet mar-ket hall.

Let a stroll through Golden Gate Park become a time tunnel. The recently restored 1879 Conservatory of Flowers is the old-est wood-and-glass conservatory in North America. The band shell at the Music Concourse has been hosting concerts since 1900. The Japanese Tea Garden was originally built for the 1894 Midwinter Expo-sition and is the most popular spot in the park. The Portals of the Past—the portico from a Nob Hill mansion destroyed in 1906 that now overlooks Lloyd Lake—is the most poignant relic of the earthquake.

Have a steak and a martini at John’s Grill in Union Square. Though it dates “only” from 1908, John’s is a classic San Francisco icon, even making an appearance in Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon. Crisp white tablecloths and wood-paneled walls lined with old photographs set the retro mood.

Visit the Camera Obscura at the Cliff House and watch a 360-degree moving panoramic image of Ocean Beach and the Pacific Ocean. Though it wasn’t erected until 1946 (as part of Playland-at-the-Beach, a long-defunct amusement park), the “giant camera” was a popular form of entertainment at the end of the nineteenth century (many U.S. parks and scenic overlooks had them). This one escaped demolition thanks to a grass-roots movement; it is one of the last remaining. Then walk down to the ruins of the Sutro Baths, a Victorian bath complex built in 1886 by Adolf Sutro, owner of the original Cliff House. In the Cliff House lobby look at photos of the baths in their heyday, when as many as 25,000 people a day visited. This complex outlived the 1906 devastation but later fell out of public favor. Today’s Cliff House, freshly renovated and sporting a sleek Art Deco look, makes a perfect spot for a sunset cocktail.

Have a drink at the bar at Boulevard , one of San Francisco’s finest restaurants (or if you can get a table, splurge on dinner). Boulevard is located in the 1889 Audiffred Building, one of the most beautiful and fortunate earthquake survivors (it was relatively unscathed). Though the restaurant opened in 1993, its classic belle-époque atmosphere (handblown Art Nouveau light fixtures, pressed-tin ceilings) brings diners back to another age.

Book a room (or have a drink) at one of three grand survivors, the Fairmont (which had just been completed at the time of the quake), the

St. Francis , or the Palace . All three have been extensively renovated, but each one exudes early San Francisco elegance. For the kitsch factor, have a mai tai in a grass hut while a “thunderstorm” booms around you in the Fairmont’s Tonga Room, a survivor of a more recent era—the 1950s.

Or, for a true Victorian experience, stay at one of Alamo Square’s surviving structures. The Archbishop’s Mansion was built in 1904 for the arch-bishop of San Francisco. Each room is named for an opera, and the spaces are opulent. Around the corner, Chateau Tivoli is an 1892 landmark, built for the owner of San Francisco’s first opera house, the Tivoli. Many famous writers and artists are said to have stayed here, and some have rooms named after them: Jack London, Enrico Caruso, and Lola Montez.