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I struggled about whether to give 5 stars or 4. I absolutely love this book. I've done three of the walks so far and I can't wait to do more. My only issue is that I have so far gotten confused by the directions on each walk and wandered away from the intended path. However, getting a little lost is a great way to see the city.
I just met the author and videotaped her on Saturday. She shares her love of San Francisco neighborhoods and the 600+ stairways in our fair city. I've been going on walks from Adah's book for 10 years and they're all fun, good exercise, and a new way to see San Francisco. I highly recommend this book, if you want to see the real San Francisco.[.].
I have used earlier editions of this book. The walks are great and good exercise and I like the fact that it is easy to combine walks. The addition of photographs is really good.
Stairway Walks in San Francisco I have lived in San Francisco all my life and this book has introduced me to all kinds of nooks and crannies that I've never seen before. Instructions are generally good and maps are excellent. There are a few typos, so you have to keep your wits about you.
Also, each walk has a condensed, bulleted list of point-to-point directions, and a separate section of descriptive paragraphs about the walk. Additionally, each walk is not described in length or anticipated completion time. There is a map that is mercifully numbered corresponding to the bulleted instructions, unlike the textual descriptions. The next instruction is to "walk toward Z", and we had no idea where that was relative to where we were. I agree with all the wonderful things said in other reviews, with a few caveats.
We've had the experience of following the instructions to start at the intersection of X & Y. However, walk #16, Forest Knolls took us less than an hour last week, and we were definitely not rushing. We are disappointed that it is cold and rainy and we will not get our "fix" today. Neither is adequate alone, and neither references the other.
So you can flip between descriptive text, bulleted directions, and a map, while you are trying to walk, enjoy the view, and perhaps even chat with your companion. that are described along the way. I admit that my husband and I both have a rather poor sense of direction, so this may affect us more than others. So I prepare ahead of each walk, by going through the fully texted paragraphs and jotting in the number of the instruction from the bulleted list next to the corresponding text. I am taking notes in my book indicating the date we take each walk and how long it takes.
My husband and I have made this a Sunday tradition for the past 3 weeks and have enjoyed each walk immensely. It can be overwhelming. Advance preparation, getting familiar with the map, and making sure the instructions make sense to you, can help things go more smoothly on execution. At some point, the book says each walk is about 2 1/2 hours, with time to view the architecture, parks, views, etc. There is no indication of the distance between each item in the directions. I plan to start wearing my running Garmin during the walks and making notes on distances as well. Before venturing out for your walk, read through and make sure you understand where the starting point is.
In spite of the minor shortcomings of this book, I am taking the time to make these notes because I plan to use it frequently for a long time to come, and to recommend it to friends as well. That makes it easy to flip back and forth between the brief list and the wordier descriptions. For example, in Walk #8, "Left on Bay to Broderick" is one block, and "Right on Broderick to Vallejo" is 8 blocks. It would be nice to be able to choose a longer walk when you have more time, and a shorter walk when you don't. There is nothing else like it, and I have seen beautiful, charming, breathtaking, quirky, and enchanted sights in San Francisco that I never would have seen without the help of this inspired book.
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