San Francisco B&B California, accommodation, hotels, hostels and Bed and Breakfast.

The City and County of San Francisco (2004 estimated population 744,230) is the fourth-largest city in the U.S. state of California and the fourteenth largest in the United States. San Francisco is the Spanish name for the Catholic Saint St. Francis.

A metropolitan municipality since 1856, mainland San Francisco is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula. Insular San Francisco includes several islands in the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Strait, notably Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the Farallon Islands 27 miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean and also most of the privately owned Red Rock Island near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. (See Islands of San Francisco Bay.)

San Francisco is the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area, and forms part of the greater San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area (CSA), whose population is over 6 million. With nearly 17,000 people per square mile, San Francisco is the second most densely populated major American city after New York (which has about 26,000 people per square mile).

The first Europeans to settle in San Francisco were the Spanish, in 1776. With the advent of the California gold rush in 1848, and the Comstock Lode and silver mines in 1859, the city entered a period of rapid growth.

Devastated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt. The phoenix on the city's flag represents San Francisco's "rebirth" from the ashes of the fire that resulted from the quake. A leading international commercial centre, San Francisco is one of 10 Beta World Cities as ranked by Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network. It is also one of the world's top tourist destinations.

San Francisco has many unique characteristics when compared to other major cities in the U.S., including its steep rolling hills, an eclectic mix of architecture including both Victorian style houses and modern skyscrapers, and natural beauty, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. Famous hallmarks and landmarks include the San Francisco cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge, both of which are known worldwide.

San Franciso is also a popular gay destination and it features a prominent gay infrastructure often gay-owned and/or managed. A list of other popular gay and lesbian destinations world round has been included here