Lafayette Park

I prefer Lafayette Park to the more popular Dolores, mostly because it is closer to my house and I think the views up top are amazing. Although you do have a trek up hill (as most places in SF) Lafayette Park is never very busy so you can always find a spot to camp out for the day. A ice mix of families, young adults, kids, and very dog friendly. There is a whole foods just a block away so grab a bottle of wine, some snacks, and enjoy!

Great recreational area in Pacific Heights. Fantastic place to chill out or play tennis. Unlike most of the parks in the city, however, it is missing a basketball court.

Great park for kids! Fun play area that keeps them entertained for a while. Great view too!

Love this park. While most people like to flock to Dolores on a sunny Saturday, I much prefer the much more tranquil and peaceful Lafayette Park. Lafayette Park is a little chilly, unsurprising because it’s on top of Pac Heights, but when the sun is out, it’s a pretty great place to hang out. It’s very family friendly, lots of kids running around and new families. Lots of dog walkers, a pretty nice play structure, and plenty of green space for you to sprawl out on a picnic blanket and enjoy your weekend. The views of the Marina from the top of the park are pretty spectacular.
tldr; underrated park to hang out in, this place is great

This update is long overdue.
I must give credit where it is due, this park got a MAJOR renovation a couple of years back and I’m thrilled to say is now quite beautiful and well-​maintained.
Great to see so many SF parks getting fixed up lately (including Dolores Park and the DiMaggio Playground in North Beach). Apparently Alta Plaza and South Park are up next, can’t wait!

Saturday afternoon, sun is out, cookies in hand, great company.
We had time to kill before dinner so we decided to come here to chillax. Some tips before heading here:
1) bring a blanket– you’ll want to lay on the grass and rest your eyes like some people or as my friend would say, lay the f*ck down and stop being so alert like a dog
2) bring sunglasses– cover your eyes from the sun; cover your eyes from dogs approaching you to lick your face; cover your eyes from watching attractive people tan half naked in the sun; cover your cougar eyes for drooling over little boys with rock hard abs run around the park
3) bring food/​drinks because the nice view and weather could have you staying out here for hours
Overall, this park has it all. There’s an area for dogs to roam around and make new friends with other dogs and humans. There’s a play structure area for kids. There’s a nice open lawn for small groups or large groups to get together and relax. There’s flat areas and hills with endless paths for you to run around and get your workout on. There’s clean bathrooms. There’s a nice open space for bbq, bring your own grill. The crowd is similar to the crowd at Dolores but the «mature» version.

This is one of my favorite parks in the city. It has exceptional landscaping that makes it fun just to roam around in the park and enjoy the flora. It’s very dog friendly and has a nice play area for children. The park is on a hill and along the the north side you get some nice views of the bay. This is an excellent choice if you’re looking for something more scenic than just grass.

I love this park, but beware of a Rottweiler owned by a young white male. The dog was off leash (not in the off leash section) and attacked my dog by the neck approximately 3 weeks ago. I did not take further action at the time because I gave the owner the benefit of the doubt, assuming it must have been the first time the dog had attacked and that the owner would be more responsible in the future. To my dismay, the Rottweiler was in the park again off leash this morning (not in the off leash section) and came after my dog a second time.
It is a medium sized Rottweiler that usually has a stupid looking bandanna tied around it’s neck. I am looking for the owner. If you know his name and/​or contact information, please respond to this post.

Love this park. The dogs (many of whom are off leash and that’s technically a no-no.but they are well behaved and quickly followed by their owners) are abundant so if you are a canine hater. don’t go here. There is also a wonderful playground area for the two-​legged little loves (I’m talking human kids here, guys) with lots of climbing and sliding fun to be had. Each time I go there’s some sort of birthday celebration going on so it’s an all around family friendly place to go. whether your family dotes on dogs or kids (or both).
There’s also tennis fun to be had if there is a court open. There are two or three courts, but it’s a first come first served situation. If you’re lucky and the people on the court watch the minutes on their Fitbit bands, then you can get on a court in a timely manner. but if they aren’t the courteous type, you might end up just chasing someone else’s dog around the dog run. Either way, bring some water and a blanket and enjoy the park.

Love the park and the neighborhood. A great park to bring you dog.
Here are so of the videos I filmed up there and shared on YouTube.
and more.

A surprisingly large park right atop Pacific Heights — a view of the Marina to one side, a view of downtown (ish) to the other. Walking distance from your Japantown goodies, along streets with beautiful, quintessentially San Franciscan homes.
There’s plenty of picnic tables, a dog park, a play area for kiddos, and open grassy space to lay a blanket out and day drink with your friends if for some crazy reason you don’t want to sit in Dolores, you maniac.

Lafayette Park is Awesome! When I moved to SF, I got lucky enough to find an apartment on Sacramento St. directly across the street from Lafayette Park. I thought, «Wow, this park is pretty nice!» Well, it didn’t take me long to realize, after viewing some of the other parks in town, that Lafayette Park is actually the nicest park in all of San Francisco!
The grass is green, the views are dope, the landscaping is superb, the bathrooms are clean, the tennis courts are, well… tennissy, and the playground looks fun even as a 26 year old manchild.
I’m so stoked that I get to come to this park every morning, day or night, and I can’t imagine living anywhere else in SF!
Oh! And not to mention all the pup dogs! Lafayette Park is also an awesome dog park! On a sunny Saturday you might see every single breed of dog in existence! And who doesn’t love dogs?! I sure do, that’s why I love Lafayette Park!

This is a really clean and dope park. I rated it 4 stars because there is a lot of lose dogs around the park but what I like is that the park is gated off all around.

What an awesome park! There are baby swings and big kid swings. There is a toddler and big kid play structure and a nice water play area (but they turned off the water probably due to the drought). Tons of places for kids to climb. It is also hated all the way around. Wish there was more shade.

Lafayette Park is one of the best parks in the city. It has a great play area for kids, an amazing dog park area, and a ton of other great spots to relax and enjoy a great view. This park is a worthwhile visit for any age.

Pretty little park is a nice place to hang out for a while. I love the towering palm trees facing the entrance on Sacramento St. There’s not much else to say about it, just another one of San Francisco’s pretty parks.

One of the most pristine parks in a San Francisco Neighborhood.
Hey, it’s Pacific Heights, you know… only the best slopes for neighbors and their dogs and their kids.
There are free tennis courts towards the top of the hill.
There’s a dog run/​play area that fenced so the balls won’t go loping off onto Sacramento or Gough Streets. Great place to socialize with dog lovers and their parade of pets.
The view of the Pac Heights homes is very, very nice on either the South or North sides. You can also sunbathe on the grassy slope on the south side.
The kids play area is shielded with fencing so dogs can’t get into the swing or other play areas.
Well planned with drought-​resistant plants as well as older established trees, Lafayette Park offers a family – oriented ambiance in the midst of the City.

This is my favorite park in all of San Francisco. I’ve moved far far away from it and miss it so much. I use to go every weekend with my dog and it is just beautiful. I love the hills and how serene it feels. The people that usually visit this park are folks that live in Pac Heights and Nob Hill so there tends to be a lot less Dolores Park hippies and wafting smells of marijuana circling you.
It’s an absolute gem of a park in the city. A perfect place for dogs to meet and mingle, a perfectly romantic scroll with your sig. other, as well as an amazing place to exercise (those hills, though). The views out toward the Marina are just spectacular and unlike anything you can find in any other city.
My perfect Saturday is stopping at the Trader Joe’s (on Hyde & California St.) or Whole Foods (in Pac Heights) and picking up a picnic and then meeting friends for an afternoon snack and reading sesh in the park.
If you haven’t been, you’re missing out.

Oh yes… I am a fan.
Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time in this neighborhood and I’ve never seen my dog happier thanks to his thrice-​daily visits to Lafayette Park. It’s green, it’s lush, it’s expansive, it’s perfect for picnics or lazing, the views are hashtag-​worthy, and there’s a dedicated dog park area filled with dozens of potential four-​legged friends for Sasha.
What’s not to love?
Well, there is one thing. The dog park is only fenced in on three sides, which means if your dog spots an interesting friend advancing up the hill en route to the dog park area, he may zoom out of the semi-​enclosed area, toward the street. That’s enough to cause any pup parent some panic, if your dog isn’t the best with recall. So my advise is to practice plenty of recall before trusting your pup off leash in the dog park area! Of course, the cherry on top would be the park management finishing the job and sealing off the area completely.

It’s a standard grassy area in the center of a small town. I did see a small wedding at the gazebo there so it’s nice. But my issue is that the energy of the shops around the park was lost because the park seemed expansive. If it were smaller I think the shops would benefit.
But I can see how the park would be really nice in the summer for people to throw around a frisbee or for dogs.

Cathy: «Smell the heather, Heathcliff… Fill my arms with heather. All they can hold. Come on.» Do you remember the scene in «Wuthering Heights» when Laurence Olivier filled Merle Oberon’s arms with bunches and bunches of heather up on Penistone Crag as the ultimate act of romantic yearning? Well, Hollywood gossipmongers claimed Merle hated Larry because she said he spit when he talked. Also, heather isn’t exactly lavender, but they both grow like weeds in the Moors. Well, don’t even think about recreating that classic movie scene here because the lavender makes a nice aromatic fringe as it falls along Sacramento Street. They have laws against that, don’t you know?
I’m not a local to this charming neighborhood, a denizen who is able to enjoy the park on a daily basis with a French toy poodle, neutered of course, but I have been aware of it by its formerly seedy reputation as a cruising hangout after dark for wanton men. Back in those days, I always navigated around the park even if I had an opportunity to enter it for fear of being propositioned. Or maybe not propositioned. I don’t remember which offended me more at the time. Now I’m envious of my friend Maggie who lives barely half a block away because the $ 10 million renovation has given this four-​block park a facelift that should be the envy of any San Francisco neighborhood (photo:
).
Yet, I noticed it was fraught with controversy over what elements should be redesigned. There’s a small meadow area that looks like it’s being set up for public performances since they added terraced grass seating to make it feel like you should perform Hamlet’s soliloquy (photo:
). Some apparently don’t like the idea of it. Less controversial are the two dog play areas and the expansive playground that has quite a stone water feature for frolicking toddlers (photo:
). Gratefully, there are plenty of benches for people like me who just want to enjoy the view of Lower Pac Heights from here (photo:
). Worth a pause. And smell the heather. Or the lavender. Whatever.