The Hidden Favorites Folder

While you can add items to the favorites folder in Finder with Cmd-Shift-T, there's no easy way to get to it, or, any indication of where it is. To start off, the favorites folder is at (Your_Home_Folder)/Library/Favorites/. Now, you can add aliases to that folder by simply selecting a file/folder and hitting Cmd-Shift-T.
With this in mind, you could add the favorites folder to the dock, or, to the sidebar.