Bay Area (California)

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Ringing the San Francisco Bay in northern California, the Bay Area is a home to more than 7 million people. Once the site of Spanish missions and Gold Rush prospectors, the Bay Area is best known now for its liberal politics and its high-tech industry.

Although it doesn't have any firm boundaries, the Bay Area is composed of several counties: Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, and Contra Costa. The southern parts of Sonoma and Napa counties are considered part of the Bay Area for this guide, since their culture and economies face towards the Bay.

Temperate in summer and mild in the winter, the Bay Area is an excellent place to visit year-round.

	bay area (california) Travel Guide : 1 Regions 1.1 North-South-East-Peninsula 1.2 Counties 1.3 Other Regions 2 Cities 3 Understand 4 Get in 4.1 By plane 4.2 By car 5 Get around 6 See 7 Do 8 Eat 9 Drink 10 Get out

Regions

A small region of its own, the Bay Area still has distinct areas with their own attractions and cultures. The sub-regions of the Bay Area are described several ways, which may give the first time visitor the impression that the Bay Area is bigger than it really is. In fact, the unique geography of the Bay Area makes it relatively easy to get a sense of where you are.

North-South-East-Peninsula

• "The City" is what locals call San Francisco
• The East Bay lies across the bay from San Francisco, and includes Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, and the city of Oakland.
• The Peninsula stretches down from "The City" across San Mateo County and into Santa Clara County.
• The South Bay includes most of Santa Clara County, and the city of San Jose.
• The North Bay is where you arrive when you cross the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco: Solano, Marin and Sonoma Counties

Here's a handy rule of thumb: the telephone area code 415 means the City or the North Bay; 510 and 925 mean the East Bay; 650 is for the Peninsula, and 408 is for South Bay numbers.

Counties

• Contra Costa County
• Alameda County
• Marin County
• Napa County
• Solano County
• Santa Clara County
• San Mateo County
• San Francisco County

Other Regions

• Napa Valley
• Monterey Bay
• Silicon Valley

Cities

There are scores of cities that surround the Bay; these are some of the most famous.

• Berkeley
• Oakland
• Palo Alto
• San Francisco
• San Jose
• Santa Cruz

Understand

Get in

By plane

There are three airports in the San Francisco Bay Area: San Francisco (SFO, located about 10 miles south of the city), Oakland (OAK, in the East Bay), and San Jose (SJC, in the Silicon Valley, about 1 hour south of San Francisco). Both Oakland and San Jose are served by discount airlines such as Southwest. All three airports may be reached by inexpensive public transit.

By car

From the east, the entrance to the Bay Area is superhighway Interstate 80, which wends its way all the way from New York several thousand miles to pass through Lake Tahoe and Sacramento and end up in San Francisco.

From the south, the lovely Highway 101 runs from Southern California through the Central Coast to Silicon Valley and up the Peninsula to San Francisco. Some people prefer Highway 5, which travels more directly through the San Joaquin Valley to highway 580 and then into the Bay Area through the East Bay.

From the North Coast or the Pacific Northwest, the story is similar. Coastal highway 101 is more scenic, while highway 5 is efficient but somewhat boring. Highway 5 hits highway 80 around Davis.

Get around

The Bay Area is well served by a network of freeways. Highways 280 and 101 run up the Peninsula from the Silicon Valley to San Francisco, and 101 continues into Marin County across the Golden Gate Bridge. Highways 880 and 580 run the length of the East Bay, and Highway 24 runs out to Contra Costa County. 101 and 880, as well as most bridges, can be pretty heinous at commute times, however.

Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART (http://www.bart.gov)) is a nice regional train system that connects San Francisco to the East Bay and Contra Costa County, as well as parts of the Peninsula, the eastern half of Silicon Valley, and the San Francisco and Oakland airports. BART is also useful for getting around within SF and Oakland. Ticket prices vary by distance travelled, but usually run about $2-5 one way. Trains run about every 10-20 minutes starting around 6AM and closing just after midnight.

Caltrain (http://www.caltrain.com) is a commuter train system running from San Francisco, down the Peninsula, all the way to Gilroy. Ticket prices vary by the distance between stations, but usually run around $3-$6 one way. Trains run about once an hour, on average, with some more trains running during commute hours.

A full list of Bay Area public transportation agencies, as well as a refreshingly useful trip planner, can be found at 511.org.

See

• The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco often called one of the modern wonders of the world.
• Muir Woods in Mill Valley is a beautiful forest with some of the few remaining old-growth redwood trees in California.
• Alcatraz, the former Army post, then federal prison on an island in the San Francisco Bay, today a National Park Service museum. Be sure to get Alcatraz ferry tickets at least a couple days in advance. There is also a night tour that is sort of spooky.

Do

• Ride the glass-faced elevators on the outside of the Westin St. Francis at Union Square for a spectacular view of the city.
• Rudy Colombini's Center for the Performing Arts, 1353 Bush St, San Francisco, 415 240-5554, 1 (http://www.musiccitysf.com). Music museum, cafe, nightclub, and performing arts space.
• Rock ?n' Roll Hall of Fame, 1335 Bush St, San Francisco, 2 (http://www.rockhallsf.com). Exhibits focused on musicians from San Francisco and who changed the San Francisco music scene.

Eat

The San Francisco Bay Area has a broad array of cuisines from various countries of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. While San Francisco probably has the widest variety of any of the Bay Area cities, locals will often tell you to go outside of San Francisco for the best of some cuisines, such as Fremont for Afghan or Indian, or Burlingame for Jewish. The area has also developed its own array of localized Chinese cuisines; this started in San Francisco and has expanded throughout the Bay Area in recent years.

Drink

• Peet's Coffee and Tea, at the corner of Walnut and Vine in Berkeley, 3 (http://www.peets.com). Founded in 1966 as a pioneering effort to bring fresh-roasted "gourmet" coffee to the American palate, Peet's coffee shop started a revolution in American coffee tastes. When Starbuck's was founded in Seattle, they initially bought their coffee from Peet's. Peet's is now a small chain throughout the Bay Area. As part of the coffee revolution, you will also find many fine independent coffee shops throughout the Bay Area, as well as the ubiquitous Starbuck's which has more locations than McDonald's.

Get out

• Monterey Bay

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