Leaving your heart at Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf has been drawing people to San Francisco's waterfront for more than 150 years, and it's easy to see why. On this walking tour, you'll trace the arc of this legendary stretch of shoreline, from its origins as a fishing settlement to its current life as one of America's most beloved urban waterfronts.

The tour starts at Pier 33, where ferries depart for Alcatraz – home to Al Capone, Whitey Bulger, and Machine Gun Kelly during its years as a federal prison. You'll stroll west along the Embarcadero, stopping at Pier 39 to watch nearly 900 sea lions jostle for space on the K-docks, play coin-operated arcade games from the 1920s at the Musee Mecanique, and explore two extraordinary World War II vessels. The tour winds up at Boudin Bakery, where sourdough has been made from the same starter culture since 1848.

Along the way, you'll learn how Italian immigrant fishermen replaced their Chinese predecessors, bringing lateen-rigged sailboats and operatic singing traditions with them, and how the 1906 earthquake – which destroyed three-quarters of the city – actually provided the rubble used to build the very ground you're walking on. The tour ends at Boudin Bakery and Café on Jefferson Street, where a bowl of chowder served inside a freshly baked sourdough loaf is the perfect reward after a morning on the waterfront.

On this 60-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:

• See where prisoners boarded ferries for Alcatraz beneath the 1914 Ferry Arch at Pier 43
• Play coin-operated fortune tellers, arm wrestlers, and guillotine games at the Musee Mecanique
• Tour the USS Pampanito, a WWII submarine that sank six Japanese ships and earned six battle stars
• Walk the decks of the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, one of only two unaltered Liberty Ships still afloat
• Browse the sidewalk seafood stalls on Taylor Street for fresh Dungeness crab and steamed shrimp
• Watch bakers shape bread into life-sized animals in the window at Boudin Bakery

You may leave your heart in San Francisco after this tour – but you'll almost certainly leave with a bag of sourdough animals and the strong urge to come back.