Kidding Around San Francisco Kid-Friendly Hotels, Trolley Rides And Hands-On Museums Entertain Children Of All Ages

San Francisco may be heaven for honeymooners.

Few would dispute its status as gastronomic capital of the West Coast and a great place to club-hop.

And certainly it’s the most gay-friendly city in the country.

But San Francisco doesn’t necessarily open its golden gates to kids.

Or, at least, that’s what I had been told by friends who couldn’t find a high chair or a children’s menu outside a McDonald’s. And the section on kids’ stuff was mighty slim in the guidebooks I checked out.

Still, I wasn’t deterred. I wanted to take my 5-year-old daughter to the city where I had spent my first few years - to ride the cable cars, feed the ducks at Golden Gate Park and troll Chinatown for ticky-tacky souvenirs just as I had.

And, once we arrived, it became apparent that San Francisco is as accessible to kids as any other big city. So what if they don’t have a children’s theater program? They have a teddy bear factory where your young one can stuff their own cuddly toy.

Who cares if little ones don’t get a break on the price of admission to some of the attractions? There are at least a dozen strictly kid sights, including a hands-on science center and an off-shore safari zoo.

Maybe what this city needs isn’t more kid’s stuff, but better guidebooks.

Even some hotels try hard to make their smallest customers feel right at home. We stayed at a couple of places where kids are treated like special guests.

The lobby of the cozy White Swan Inn, for instance, is crammed with teddy bears and a vintage carousel pony (for looking, not riding, sorry). Cookies and milk (and tea for the adults) are served every afternoon at this comfortable English-style hostelry.

At the elegant Clift Hotel, children receive a note from the general manager on arrival and are welcomed with special surprises in their room. (More about that later.)

We arrived in the city on a rainy afternoon and decided to walk from our hotel the seven blocks to Chinatown. This section of the city, concentrated within a 24-block radius, looks largely the same as it did 30 or more years ago. Shops are crowded with tourists browsing among the kind of bric-a-brac that captivates kids. So, allow plenty of time of ogling.

Older children might enjoy a behind-the-scenes perspective on this interesting community via a walking tour given by cookbook author Shirley Fong-Torres. Though the tour purports to be geared for cooks, it’s wide-ranging and includes a visit to a fortune cookie factory, a tea ceremony and lunch at a Chinese restaurant.

Take kiddies with adventurous eating habits to The Oriental Pearl, where the staff dotes on children. Or, if you don’t mind waiting in line, try The House of Nanking. In that tiny restaurant, diners can practically feel the heat of the woks. It’s the best kind of display kitchen. Go in the early evening to avoid the rush.

After we were done absorbing the atmosphere in Chinatown, we headed over to San Francisco’s Little Italy, North Beach, another great neighborhood to explore.

And getting there by cable car was more than half the fun. Those hill-climbing trolleys, often packed with a mix of visitors and locals, are undoubtedly the single biggest public transportation thrill in the country.

If you’re lucky, you’ll get a friendly and informative brakeman. Ours kept up a running commentary about interesting places we passed. (If you want to get the lowdown on how these contraptions work, check out the Cable Car Barn Museum.)

After we hopped off, I asked my daughter how she liked riding the open air trolley. Her response: “I was so happy I couldn’t even talk.”

The next day, the skies cleared and we decided to investigate Golden Gate Park. This enormous green oasis (it’s three miles long and 1.5 miles wide) is home to a host of attractions, including one of the largest playgrounds I’ve ever seen. It’s located at the far east end of the park.

If you have time and energy, check out the California Academy of Sciences, with its planetarium, aquarium and natural history museum. But be sure and call ahead to see if you’ll be jostling among groups of students who frequently take field trips there.

Elsewhere in the park are riding stables where you can rent a pony, and a fly-casting pool if you’ve remembered to pack your rod. Or, rent a boat at Strawberry Hill and drift around Stow Lake.

After an hour at the playground, we wandered around the Japanese Tea Garden. (There’s an admissions charge for adults, but kids under 12 are free.) The massive bronze Buddha and the Shinto wooden pagoda are especially picturesque, and we were lucky enough to catch an explosion of blossoms on wisteria and cherry trees.

We concluded our garden tour with jasmine tea and cookies at the open-air tea room.

On the way out of the park, we walked through the immense and recently refurbished botanical gardens and stumbled onto a spot where kids - and adults - are encouraged to touch things. A fragrance garden reeked with heady aromas, herbs and flowers which left their scents on our hands. We saw a family picnicking there.

Because there are so many grownup things to do after dark, we arranged for a baby sitter through the hotel. There are several reputable services in San Francisco, but expect to pay dearly. Ours cost $10 an hour, plus car fare, but we declared it a worthwhile splurge.

We later checked into The Clift, one of the oldest luxury hostelries in the city, and found our room filled with pint-size playthings. (Be sure and give your child’s age when making a reservation so they can gear the goodies for that age group.)

My daughter was thrilled to find a toy grand piano, a stuffed bear to keep her company and a small table and chairs covered with comics and coloring books. There was Nintendo and a VCR with a selection of movies available. Why would we ever need to leave the room with all these distractions?

This cushy treatment is all part of the hotel’s Young Travelers Program, an ambitious service that provides visiting families with such essentials as a baby bathtub, strollers, bottle warmers and all sorts of toys.

They also offer a slew of sightseeing suggestions. We learned from the concierge that our visit coincided with the annual cherry blossom festival in Japantown. We decided to take advantage of this popular event, and - once we found a parking spot (always a challenge in this city) - we enjoyed several free outdoor performances, shopped, and ate interesting ethnic food purchased from a myriad of outdoor vendors.

Unfortunately, our visit to San Francisco was too short. Next time, here are the other kid-friendly places I would like to take my daughter:

The Exploratorium near the Marina District has 650 interactive exhibits designed to teach kids while they play. For instance, you can stick your hand in a tornado, blow bubbles bigger than your head, and trigger lightening bolts. There’s also something called the Tactile Dome, where kids can get in touch with all sorts of textures while crawling around in complete darkness.

Fisherman’s Wharf is a notorious tourist trap, but it’s also home to the brand new aquarium that’s supposed to rival the famous Monterey water park. The Wharf is also home to one of the biggest arcades in the country, and an NFL sports store with every pro team represented.

Most people just drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, but take your cue from locals and walk across. It’s a pleasant, if windy, stroll. The Marin headlands on the other side of the bay is a great spot for a picnic, and offers an incredible view of the city.

Beach Blanket Babylon is a wildly popular, long-running cabaret show that’s a real hoot. Evening performances are for 21 and older since alcohol is served, but the Sunday matinee is open to children. Young ones won’t get all the jokes, but the musical numbers are universally entertaining.

Marine World Africa has been called a cross between Disneyland and Wild Kingdom. It’s located 30 miles northeast of the city, but can be reached by a boat that leaves from Fisherman’s Wharf. Attractions there include a killer whale and dolphin show and an upclose look at sharks when you walk through a clear acrylic tunnel inside a tank filled with the sharp-toothed creatures. Or, for $3 you can take an elephant ride. This is definitely an all-day proposition.

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