Before a family sets off for a museum, five questions decide whether the day works: what it costs, when it is open, whether a stroller or wheelchair can get in, how to get there, and what the children pay. This index checks whether San Francisco’s museums and paid attractions answer those questions on their own websites, where visitors look first. It rewards transparency, not quality: a superb museum can score badly if its website hides the price behind a booking calendar. Free days and discounts are in our companion page, Free Museum Days.
Every venue, scored
Click a heading to sort. “Yes” links to the page where we found it.
No price without a booking
These venues did not show a general adult admission price on their own site without choosing a date or starting checkout:
- Magowan's Infinite Mirror Maze (PIER 39)
- San Francisco Carousel (PIER 39)
- Conservatory of Flowers
- Japanese Tea Garden
- San Francisco Botanical Garden
- Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco
- Chinese Historical Society of America Museum
- Mission Dolores (Old Mission museum)
Checked but not scored
Venues we checked that are closed, have left the city, or are not admission-based museums or attractions:
- Contemporary Jewish Museum: temporarily closed (no reopening date published) (source)
- San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (Hyde Street Pier): Hyde Street Pier closed for renovations (source)
- The Beat Museum: temporarily closed for seismic retrofitting; reopening date not yet announced (source)
- Wells Fargo History Museum: permanently closed (press report) (source)
- Cartoon Art Museum: galleries closed; no reopening date published (source)
- Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICA SF): out of scope, Not scored (judgment call — flag). ICA SF now describes itself as 'Nomadic by design and non-collecting by choice'; current exhibitions are
- Madame Tussauds San Francisco: no longer listed by its operator; closure date not published (source)
- Museum of Ice Cream San Francisco: no longer listed by its operator; closure date not published (source)
- Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center: out of scope, visitor centre and shop
- San Francisco Railway Museum: its website was down on the check date; we will re check it (source)
- Presidio Visitor Center: out of scope, visitor centre
- Presidio Tunnel Tops (Field Station): out of scope, public park with a free nature space
- Lands End Lookout visitor center: out of scope, visitor centre and shop
- Sutro Baths / Cliff House area (NPS): out of scope, Out of scope: Sutro Baths is open-air ruins in parkland (no admission or visitor schedule); the Cliff House restaurant is closed per NPS ('T
- The Mexican Museum: no galleries open while its new home is built (source)
- Pier 24 Photography: permanently closed, 1 February 2025 (source)
- Minnesota Street Project: out of scope, gallery complex (covered by our Gallery Index)
- Letterman Digital Arts Center: out of scope, Out of scope: private office campus (Lucasfilm HQ); only the outdoor lawn and Yoda fountain are public. No museum or scheduled public attrac
- Bay Area Discovery Museum: out of scope, Out of scope: not in SF. Site gives address '557 McReynolds Rd, Sausalito, CA 94965'.
- Angel Island State Park: out of scope, Out of scope per brief: island state park in Marin County, access 'by private boat or public ferry from San Francisco or Tiburon'. (Minor ca
- San Francisco Symphony Davies Hall tours: out of scope, Out of scope: no regularly scheduled public tour found. The Symphony's former tours page now returns 'Whoops! That page can't be found.' Cam
- War Memorial Opera House tours: out of scope, Out of scope: sfwarmemorial.org/tours has no schedule or content (tour inquiries only); campus tours appear to be one-off RSVP events (e.g.
- City Hall docent tours: out of scope, guided tour, not a museum or attraction
- Palace of Fine Arts: out of scope, public landmark and event venue, no admission
- Twin Peaks: out of scope, public open space, no admission
- Ghirardelli Chocolate Experience (Ghirardelli Square): out of scope, Out of scope: a retail store and sundae shop ('The store is vibrant and welcoming'), not a museum or ticketed attraction; no admission or to
- San Francisco Dungeon: no longer listed by its operator; closure date not published (source)
- The Interval at Long Now: out of scope, Out of scope (judgment call): describes itself as 'bar, cafe, community space, and home to The Long Now Foundation' with exhibits; no admiss
- Precita Eyes Muralists (mural tours): out of scope, tour operator
- Salesforce Park: out of scope, public park, no admission
How we built this
Sources
- Each venue’s own website, or its official operator’s (for example the National Park Service for Alcatraz and Fort Point). Third-party ticket sites, review sites and guidebooks never count.
Method
- We fixed the five criteria and what counts as a pass before checking any venue. Price: the general adult admission price as a number, or a statement that admission is free. A price visible only after choosing a date in a booking widget does not count. Hours: opening days and times. Access: a statement about wheelchair or mobility access. Getting there: transit directions or parking details, not just an address. Children: a child price or the age under which children are free.
- Before scoring a criterion as “no”, we checked the home page, the visit or plan page, tickets, accessibility and FAQ pages.
- Where a venue’s own site says admission is free for everyone, the children criterion counts as a pass, because the site has told families what children pay.
- Every venue was checked on 18 September 2026. We record the page where each basic was found; the CSV includes those links.
What this data cannot tell you
- This is a test of what a venue publishes, not of what it offers. A venue may be fully accessible but not say so.
- Websites change. A venue that fixes its site will score higher at our next check; tell us and we will re-check it early.
- The list covers museums and admission-based attractions inside San Francisco. Parks, visitor centres, tours and galleries are excluded (galleries have their own index).
Found an error? Tell us. Corrections are made on this page and dated in the log below. See our editorial standards.
Download and cite
The full table is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Please credit Project SF and link to this page.
Project SF (2026). San Francisco Museum & Attraction Transparency Index 2026. Updated 18 September 2026. https://projectsf.com/data/sf-attraction-transparency-index/
Update log
- 18 September 2026: First edition: 40 venues scored. Next full re-check: September 2027, with year-on-year change.