Some of our favorite things to see and do in the Bay Area

We have a reasonable number of friends and family come to stay and we often end up scrambling for suggestions (in fact we have friends on the way over as I write this). To try and avoid that in the future and for the benefit of others, here’s our curated list of places and things we like to do! I’ve purposely left out many of the classic tourist destinations but you should absolutely do those too!

Hiking

Palo Marin Trail
Oakland Redwood Forest
Muir Woods
Stinson Beach: Just past Muir Woods and you’re at Stinson Beach.
Inspiration Point, Tilden Park
Briones Regional Park
Lands End
Ross
Stanford Dish: Near Stanford University this is a very light paved hike/run with a nice backdrop.
Lake Chabot
Tilden Park, Inspiration Point
Ross, Marin: Natalie Coffin Greene Park

Food

Chez Pannise: Famous Berkeley restaurant founded by Alice Waters and known for its involvement in the organic food movement and helping define Californian cuisine. The restaurant must be booked weeks in advance (cancellations possible) and has a set menu that ranges from $60-110 or so. The “cafe” is a la carte, easier to book and also excellent.
Lo Coco’s: Excellent family run and authentic Sicilian cuisine with locations in North Berkeley and Piedmont Avenue, Oakland. Great food at reasonable prices.
Great China: Downtown Berkeley modern and upscale Chinese restaurant. Great for larger groups with round Lazy Susan tables.
Yank Sing: Based in San Francisco, this is a relatively upscale Chinese restaurant with two locations (the Rincon Center location also has a takeout). Great for dim-sum.
Cheeseboard Pizza or Sliver: Cheeseboard is Berkeley’s famous pizza restaurant on Shattuck Avenue in the “Gourmet Ghetto”. You often see lines going around the block and a jazz band playing inside, they have one pizza each day and it’s always vegetarian. It’s a unique sourdough style and I like it. Sliver was founded by some Cheeseboard employees has similar pizzas but a slightly more commercial approach with multiple locations.
Top Dog: This is a solid hot dog joint with two locations in Berkeley, well known by anyone who’s gone to school here. The Durant Avenue branch is open late.
Artichoke Pizza: This is a takeout pizza joint on Durant Avenue. It’s open late every night and does excellent slices - especially their signature Artichoke Pizza.
Jasmine Blossom Thai: This is one of our favorite Thai restaurants and we’ve tried most of them! Based in Emeryville, it’s clean and comforting inside. The food is excellent and the prices are around $10-15 for a main dish.
Cha-Ya: Vegetarian Sushi restaurant on Shattuck Avenue in North Berkeley. I’ve never had sushi quite like this and it really is tasty and very well presented. Cash only and feels somewhere between a restaurant and canteen inside.
Tony’s Pizza
In-n-Out: You can’t visit California and not go to In-n-Out. Classic American burger chain with friendly and clean service, a limited but excellent menu with a few hidden extras.
Chick-fil-A: Another American classic, famous for it’s Chick-fil-A Sandwich and very friendly service. The closest one is in Walnut Creek but worth a drop in if you’re going shopping.
Comal: Upscale Mexican restaurant in downtown Berkeley with decent food at fair prices. Nice atmosphere in here and a nice area out back for drinks.
Benchmark Pizza: Excellent Neapolitan Pizza restaurant in Kensington that is reasonably priced, family friendly and has good ambiance.
Crepevine: A solid brunch spot with outdoor seating and locations in Rockridge and Berkeley.
Rangoon Ruby: Burmese restaurant in downtown Palo Alto, great quality food and a decent atmosphere. Can get busy so reservations recommended.
Sotto Mare: Authentic Italian seafood restaurant in North Beach, San Francisco. Fast although sometimes pointed service, gets busy so reservations recommended especially to get a table upstairs or outside.
Skates on the Bay: On a stilted building in Berkeley Marina, this is a solid seafood restaurant but the best thing is the view - try to book early to get a window table.
Kokkari Estiatorio: Fantastic Greek restaurant in San Francisco. High quality food, excellent ambiance and prices to match. Reservations recommended.
Burma Superstar: Burmese restaurant in Temescal, Oakland. Superb food, famous for their Tea Leaf Salad. They don’t take reservations over the phone so you often see a big crowd of people outside.
Hog Island Oyster Co in Tomales Bay: If you’re in to Oysters this could be for you, and rather than go to the SF branch, best to make a trip to Tomales Bay where they farm them.
Chez Maman: Cute French restaurant in Dog Patch with excellent food and service. I’ve only ever had the burger here but it’s one of the best.
House of Prime Rib: Another San Francisco classic, if you’re in to Prime Rib it doesn’t get much better and you’re guaranteed to leave full. They also have fish dishes for pescatarians. Reservations required.
Madera at Rosewood: This is an upscale Michelin starred restaurant in the Rosewood Hotel on Sandhill Road (Menlo Park, South Bay). Excellent food, service and views.
Nick’s Pizza: Hole in the wall pizza joint in Bushrod, Oakland (where I live!) - great authentic sour dough crust pizza at great prices!

Drinks

Eureka: American style pub with a good selection of beers, wines and spirits. They have a “steal the glass” event every Wednesday where for one beer, you get to keep the branded glass when you’re finished. Solid pub style food here too.
Drakes Dealership: This is quite a unique pub in Oakland, converted from a used car dealership. It is a large space with indoor and outdoor sections and an excellent lively vibe.
Rosewood: If you want to see where VCs, lawyers and startup executives let off some steam this is a good place to come. Thursday night’s have an interesting history too.
Beer Barron: Solid bar in Rockridge, Oakland.
Freehouse: Right next to Berkeley campus, a pub with great ambiance in an older building. Outdoor seating is nice too with decent food.
The Big Five:
The Claremont:
The Starry Plough:
Novella:
The Tonga Room:
Sens Bar:

Things to see

University of California, Berkeley campus: Berkeley has an awesome campus with varied architecture and landscape. Be sure to check out the campanile (you can go up it for great views at the top and to watch the carillon being played), the business school, Sproul Plaza (site of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement), the T-Rex in the Valley Life Science Building and the Bancroft Library.
Stanford University campus: In contrast to Berkeley, Stanford’s campus is vast, a little more homogenous, immaculate and filled with gems. It’s a perfect campus to walk or cycle around. Check out the Rodin Sculpture Garden, the Chapel, the Graduate School of Business, the Oval, the Art Gallery and of course the Main Quad.
Filoli: This is a stately home in Woodside (South Bay) set over 16 acres. Take a walk around the garden, the house and go on a hike.
Lindsay Wildlife Center: This is a wildlife rehabilitation center in Walnut Creek with a museum. You can see many animals including owls and birds of prey.
Oakland Zoo:
California Academy of Sciences:
The Exploratorium:
Treasure Island: Great views of San Francisco. Also some great restaurants/cafe’s here.
Coit Tower:
Alcatraz: Just be sure to book early!
China Town: Choice of both San Francisco and Oakland China towns.
Chabot Observatory: Friday night star gazing.
Laurence Hall of Science: This is a science museum up in the Berkeley Hills and close to Lawrence Berkeley Labs, where the first cyclotron was developed and Berkelium was discovered. The views here are killer too.
SFMOMA:
Lunch in North Beach:
Explore the Mission:
De Young Museum:
Palace of Fine Arts:
Legion of Honor:

Shop

Livermore Premium Outlets: Now called San Francisco Premium Outlet mall even though it’s nowhere near, this is a huge outlet mall complex with about every shop you can imagine. You can probably get all of your shopping done here.
4th Street, Berkeley: This is an upscale shopping area in West Berkeley. They have an Apple Store here, an Amazon 4-Star shop, Sephora, the Berkeley Vivarium, Anthropologie, Soul Cycle, Warby Parker and more.
Walnut Creek: Downtown Walnut Creek has turned in to an excellent shopping destination with plenty of shops along the lines of 4th Street (above).
Stanford Shopping Mall: Another upscale shopping mall with some of the high end brands. Very close to Stanford University.
Westfield San Francisco: Just off Market Street in San Francisco, this is a large shopping mall with a good variety of shops and a large food court in the basement.
Union Square: Many of the expensive fashion shops are dotted around Union Square with several flagship stores on Union Square itself such as Nike, Neiman Marcus and Apple.
The North Face Outlet: Based in Berkeley, the North Face Outlet can be hit or miss but you can sometimes find a great bargain.
Costco and Walmart: I love shopping at these places, mainly because of the breadth of items and the every day low prices.

Things to book

Theatre & Performances: Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, Orinda Theatre, Zellerbach Hall & Cal Performances, Berkeley Jazz School, Fox Theatre.
Music: Greek Theatre, Bill Graham Auditorium, SF Symphony, UC Theatre, Cal Performances, StubHub
Sport: SF Giants, Oakland A’s, Cal Football, 49ers, Cal Basketball, Bank of the West Classic (Tennis)

Events

General: There are no end of talks, meetups and conferences happening throughout the Bay Area. If you’re interested be sure to check university events pages, MeetUp (the app), Eventbrite, Facebook events, the Commonwealth Club.
Alameda Antiques Fair: First Sunday of the month
Oakland Art Murmur: First Friday of the month
Sonoma Raceway: If you haven’t seen drag racing before it’s well worth watching! Check out their events calendar to see what’s going on.

Day trips

Cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge: If you like cycling, this a must. There are several variations but the best is starting at Embarcadero, cycling along the waterfront, past Fisherman’s Wharf and Fort Mason, up and across the bridge, through Sausalito and then on to Tiburon. Either from Sausalito or Tiburon you can catch a ferry back to Embarcadero and return your bike if needed. With stops and lunch it can take a whole day. You could also add in Angel Island by ferry too.
Drive to Napa: If you want to see wine country a Napa tour is a great place to start. Napa Valley is actually quite big so you may only want to fit in two or three wineries. There are some great tours, some of which you have to book in advance, others that are more commercial and you can just show up. Napa is about 1hr drive from Oakland and occasionally longer on the way back around 5pm with traffic.
Drive to Sonoma: Similar to Napa but perhaps less commercial, Sonoma has some great wineries and is home to the raceway.
Drive to Santa Cruz:
Silicon Valley Tour: Walk around the Googleplex, have your photo taken by the Facebook like sign, go to the Goole and Apple visitor stores, check out the Computer Science Museum and drive by the garage where HP was founded. Also check out Stanford University while you’re there.
Half Moon Bay:
Cycle from Napa to Yountville: This is a nice bike ride that goes past many wineries and avoids most of the traffic.
Cycle from Oakland/Berkeley to Treasure Island: You can now cycle from Oakland/Berkeley to Treasure Island using the pedestrial/cyclist part of the Bay Bridge. It’s a nice cycle ride with some great views and there are good places to eat on Treasure Island.
University of California, Davis:
University of California, Santa Cruz:

Longer trips

Yosemite: About 4 hours drive
Lake Tahoe: About 4 hours drive
Los Angeles: About 6 hours drive with a stop
Big Sur:
Monterey and Carmel:
Mendocino:
National Redwood Forest:

Vinyards

Peju:
Chateau St Jean:
Hendry Winery: Based near downtown Napa and started by George Hendry, a physicist who graduated from Berkeley and worked on early Cyclotrons. He has a scientific approach to wine making and his tour is an excellent one, be sure to book.
Thomas Fogarty Winery: Based in Woodside in South Bay this winery was founded by legendary namesake cardiothoracic surgeon and prolific medical device inventor (including the Fogarty Embolectomy Catheter). I haven’t visited this one yet but it’s next on my list!
Hall: