A Local's Guide to the Filbert Steps

How to find the Filbert Street Stairs

The stairs, which are actually a series of stairways, connect Coit Tower on the top of Telegraph Hill, to the Embarcadero neighborhood near the bay, where you can find the Ferry Building, the Exploratorium and Alcatraz Landing.

Walking up. This is the most common approach to experiencing the Filbert Steps. The stairs begin just past Levi's Plaza, an attractive park with fountains and gardens which is also the corporate headquarters of Levi Strauss, creators of denim jeans for the gold miners.

Levi's Plaza is on the Embarcadero, on the San Francisco waterfront.

Straight ahead to the Filbert Steps

Some very limited parking at the base of the stairs. 

View of Levi's Plaza from Filbert Steps

Walking down. Or you can start at the top and walk down. From Coit Tower, walk down the road to where it starts to curve, then look for the stairs leading down. (The other popular stairway down from the tower is the Greenwich Steps, which begins just after leaving the Coit Tower parking lot.) See below...

Coit Tower to Stairways

Filbert Stairs almost to the top

Climbing the Filbert Steps

I have no idea how many steps there are to the top, but there are a lot! However, you don't have to climb it all in one go; there's lots to see on the way up, so you can rest and admire the views here and there.

View of first set of Filbert Stairs

Starting the Climb

After the first long stretch of stairs, you'll come to a road, Montgomery Street. Cross the road and climb up the rest of the way.

Montgomery Street, midpoint Filbert Steps

You can see Coit Tower waiting above. Almost there...A few public parking spots on Montgomery, but don't count on them!

Montgomery Street

Last set of steps to the top

What to look for on the Filbert Street Steps

The plantings are lush on the hillside, with plenty of flowering bushes in the spring and summer.

There are some charming wooden houses from the late 1800s tucked here and there, and one little "lane" with more houses off the stairway.

Plus, as you go up, there are some great views of San Francisco Bay, the piers, and the Bay Bridge.

Wooden stairs partway up

Houses on the stairs

Imagine hauling your groceries up here if you lived in one of these houses! No cars up here, either.

Hidden house on the Filbert Steps

Napier Lane on the stairs

House gate on the stairs

Great views from the stairs

The Filbert Steps look out on the Embarcadero, where some of the San Francisco piers are located.

You can see Pier 27 where the cruise ships dock. And get a glimpse of the Bay Bridge heading to Oakland, Berkeley, and points east.

Cruise ship in port on the Embarcadero

Bay view from the Filbert Steps

SF Bay Bridge view from the stairs

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

If you're lucky, you may see some of the parrots as you climb the Filbert Steps. They come and go, but this area was their earliest hangout.

One of the Cherry-headed Conures in SF

There is a large flock of red-headed parrots, also called cherry-headed conures, which has established itself on Telegraph Hill and surrounding areas. 

Their origin in San Francisco is unknown, but it's most likely they were pets that escaped or were released years ago. They've adapted really well to city life and their numbers have grown considerably. The parrots are native to Ecuador and Peru, so were probably brought here as pets originally.

They are very noisy and are one of the most talkative (to one another) species of parrots. They have their own dialect, unique to them, and different from other flocks. If they are on the hill when you are there, you will likely hear them before you see them! You might also see them in the Presidio or in the trees near the Palace of Fine Arts. Apparently, their territory extends to the Mission Dolores, Ferry Building, and down the peninsula to Brisbane and Sunnyvale.

At the moment, there are between 200 to 300 of the parrots in the Bay Area.

The following is an interesting documentary about the formerly-homeless man, Mark Bittner, who befriended and cared for the parrots on Telegraph Hill.

Mark Bittner wrote about his experiences with the parrots in a New York times bestseller, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (available on Amazon).

A famous film was also created about them, also called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. It is still shown in theaters off and on, and the DVDs are available on Amazon.

The bird rescue organization, Mickaboo, has been involved in protecting the parrots, and caring for the sick and injured ones.

History of the Filbert Steps

The steepness on the eastern side of Telegraph Hill was in part due to the quarrying done on the hillside to get rocks for ballast for shipping. There have been stairs going up the hill for a long time, but the cement stairs at the base were likely built around the time the Levi's Plaza buildings were created in the 1980s.

The remaining two sets of stairs are wooden and take you up to the road leading to Coit Tower (Telegraph Hill Road).

The Grace Merchant Garden

The hillside was in a sorry state into the 1940s due to people dumping stuff there. But in 1949, Grace Merchant, a resident on the hill, worked to create a beautiful garden in the first section of the hill above where the cement stairs are, on the second set of steps. She created a beautiful space with many flowering plants and maintained it for 33 years.

A neighbor, Gary Kray, started helping her towards the end and took over the care of the garden after Grace died in 1982. Gary died in 2012, and the garden is maintained by volunteers now. In 1985, the area survived a close call with developers, but was protected by being established as an historic district.

Grace Merchant led a colorful life before moving to the house on Napier Lane and creating the garden. See Grace Merchant Garden for more on the history.

Guided tours of the Telegraph Hill Stairs

SF City Guides Tour of Telegraph Hill

There is a free, guided tour of the stairways on Telegraph Hill, given by the highly-respected, San Francisco City Guides, a non-profit organization.

This tour takes you either up the Filbert Street Steps or the parallel sister-stairway, the Greenwich Street Stairs, and fills you in on the fascinating history of this area of San Francisco.

See Telegraph Hill Stairway Hike for more info and scheduling. You don't have to register, but they recommend it. You can also just show up at the meeting point.

Urban Hike: Coit Tower, Lombard Street & North Beach

Climb up the Filbert Stairs up to Coit Tower, then head down into North Beach to explore San Francisco's Italian neighborhood. Walk up the curvy block of Lombard Street. Check out MacCondray Lane from Tales of the City, then descend the Greenwich Steps to where you started. Great views, and two famous stairways in one tour. Highly rated.

Pretty strenuous, but you see a lot. 3 hours.  See Stairways, Lombard & North Beach tour for info and booking.

Getting to the Filbert Steps

Taking the bus

Coit Tower bus stop

It's easy to get to the top of Telegraph Hill where Coit Tower sits by bus from Fisherman's Wharf. From there you can walk down the Filbert Stairs. Coit Tower Bus #39 takes you to the entrance to Coit Tower.

Catch it across the street from Pier 39, or on at other locations along the route in Fisherman's Wharf (see Google map).

To approach the Filbert Steps from the bottom, you can take the F-line street car that runs along the Embarcadero from Fisherman's Wharf to downtown SF, along Market Street. Get off at Sansome Street and walk towards the tower.

Walking to the Filbert Steps

From the top. From Washington Square Park in North Beach, it's just a three-block walk to the eastern approach to Coit Tower, Greenwich Street access.

From the bottom. The Filbert Steps begin just a couple of blocks off the Embarcadero, where Levi's Plaza gardens sit across from Pier 27 (where the cruise ships dock). You can walk down the Embarcadero from Pier 39, probably a 15 minute walk to the base of the stairs.

Parking for the Filbert Steps

Starting at the bottom. Aside from some very limited parking at the foot of the stairs, and some scarce parking on Montgomery Street halfway up the stairs, your best bet is to park in one of the parking garages near the Plaza. You can book a space via Spot Hero (see links).

• Levi's Plaza Garage, 101 Lombard Street. 
• ParcTel Garage, 1603 Montgomery Street.

For details on parking in this area, maps of the garages and lots, and my recommendations for the safest choices for your car, see my article on Embarcadero parking.

Insider tip: there is a large, convenient parking lot a couple of blocks from Levi's Plaza, the Big Triangle Lot at 1040 Front Street, on the Embarcadero. However, there have been many reports of car break-ins there, so I don't recommend it.

Starting at the top. If you want to walk down from Coit Tower, there is a free parking lot at the entrance to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill Blvd (extension of Lombard Street). You can usually get a spot there, or after a brief wait, since the lot isn't very large. 

Caveat: there's a 30 minute limit for the Coit Tower lot. For decades, most of the time they haven't been enforcing it. However, there has been a rash of ticketing in December 2024, so be aware. How long this will continue, who knows.

Coit Tower parking lot

Otherwise, you'll need to look for street parking on the streets leading up to the tower, like on Greenwich (on the North Beach side of the hill) where it dead-ends into Telegraph Hill. On this side of Greenwich, there are a few stairs leading up to the tower. Cross street is Grant Ave.

The famous Greenwich Steps climbing up to the tower are on the other side of the hill near the Filbert Steps, facing the Embarcadero.

Street parking on Greenwich, other side of Coit Tower

This is also the walking route to Coit Tower from North Beach, heading along Greenwich Street.

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