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.

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 cities of Oakland, Berkeley, and towns including El Cerrito, Albany, Emeryville, Alameda, Hayward, and Fremont.
 • The Peninsula stretches down from "The City" across San Mateo County and into Santa Clara County, and includes Pacifica, Half Moon Bay, and Davenport along the coast, and South San Francisco, Daly City, Burlingame, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Los Altos among its major towns along the Bay side.
 • 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.

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 ) 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 traveled, but usually run about $2-5 one way. Trains run about every 10-20 minutes starting around 6AM and closing just after midnight.
 • Caltrain 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.

Attractions

• 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.
• The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco often called one of the modern wonders of the world.
 • Ride the glass-faced elevators on the outside of the Westin St. Francis at Union Square for a spectacular view of the city.

Dining

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.