Don’t miss Haight Ashbury – San Francisco’s peace and love capital
Find yourself in hippie heaven. Haight Ashbury’s history is almost as colorful as the houses that line its streets. Duck into one of the many unusual shops to pick up bohemian staples like a tie-dye t-shirt, or put flowers in your hair and hang out in Golden Gate Park.
Our San Francisco Bus Tour passes right through the spiritual home of hippiedom, Hop off and wander streets where an entire counterculture was born. The shops might be a little more commercial these days but you’ll still find radical bookstores and even the odd original hippie.
How a legend was born
The area around Haight Ashbury was a magnet for beatniks and students from the 1950s onwards. But in the mid 1960s, a photo of legendary hippie band The Grateful Dead on the corner of Haight and Ashbury Streets confirmed its status as the global center of the peace and love movement.
Other interesting facts about Haight Ashbury
- The heyday of Haight Ashbury culminated in 1967’s famous Summer of Love, when hippies descended on the area from all over the world
- The two streets are named after pioneer and banker Henry Haight and member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Munroe Ashbury
- As well as the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin and Crosby, Stills and Nash all lived within a short distance of each other
- The neighborhood is divided roughly in two – Upper and Lower Haight. The Upper is more upmarket shopping while the Lower boasts more nightlife
- Before the completion of the Haight Street Railroad in 1883, the area was mostly sand dunes and isolated farms
