Dolores Park.

By Elizabeth Castoria

The San Francisco summer is best spent lazing around in this popular park.

Dolores Park
501 Dolores Street
Mission

One of San Francisco’s best-loved sunbathing spots, Dolores Park sits right between two of the city’s most fun neighborhoods, the Mission and the Castro. In this part of town, you can actually see the sun (sometimes it’s even warm!), and there are hardly any tourists wandering around miserably in their emergency-purchase San Francisco sweatshirts. Whether you’re leaving a gut-busting brunch in the Mission or need a place to relax and enjoy one of Ike’s Place famous sandwiches, Dolores has the perfect patch of grass. If you prefer to picnic, grab a bottle of wine and some snacks at Bi-Rite Market, a tiny but immensely wonderful grocery store. During the summer, there are outdoor movie screenings, too, so if you pack layers you can sit in the park all day and then take in a movie from the same spot.