Visiting a place where you know nobody has a certain magic, but a destination where you do also boasts considerable benefits. Local knowledge adds another dimension to any location, and you are lucky when you get to take advantage of it – as I did when staying with friends in the city of Berkeley just to San Francisco’s east.
Berkeley is technically a separate city but the Bay Area Rapid Transit metro system, known as the BART, runs through it, and my friends both commute to work in the centre of San Francisco.
I had been to San Francisco twice prior to this visit, which meant most of the main tourist to-dos were already ticked off, leaving us free to some different activities.
Here are six places my local friends introduced me to in and around San Francisco.
- Land’s End
Land’s End is a park that forms part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, with hikes that offer exceptional views of the coastline, across the bay, and the Golden Gate Bridge itself. We visited on a blustery winter day, when it was rather cold, but impossible not to enjoy with such views. The walk itself was rather easy, as we chose the popular Coastal Trail, which is mainly flat and quite short – I think the entire loop took us less than an hour including photo stops.
Part of the loop involves walking along the road for a short distance before passing a golf course, so if that doesn’t sound like your style you can also simply skip that section and return from the viewpoint along the path you came.
- Mill Valley
Mill Valley is a small city of roughly 14,000 people about 30 minutes’ drive from San Francisco, in pretty Marin County. The city’s position amid forested canyons below Mount Tamalpais makes for a very picturesque setting, and the quiet main streets have a real small-town feel with boutique shops and independent cafes. While we were there we popped into a wine-tasting room and our designated driver watched as two of us became increasingly giggly sampling seven varieties for $25, which made the town all the more enjoyable I must say.
- Wine tasting
The wine-tasting room in Mill Valley was not my only experience of this nature over the course of what was a very relaxing holiday. Less than an hour outside San Francisco is the Livermore Valley wine region, where numerous vineyards await, offering a perfect opportunity for a wine-tasting crawl – as long as you have a designated driver!
We visited the Darcie Kent Vineyard, where the tasting takes place in a small timber house with an open porch overlooking the vines themselves and a spacious indoor area. The Vineyard is named after the fifth-generation vintner and artist who runs the winery, and paints all the labels featured on the bottles herself. The labels are so beautiful I brought an empty bottle back to Amsterdam in my suitcase where it sits on my desk, home to a pink tulip, as I write this very sentence.
- Mount Tamalpais State Park
The pristine scenery of Mount Tamalpais lies about 30 minutes by car from the centre of San Francisco, where you can choose from multiple hiking trails or simply sit with a bottle of wine and take in the view – as we did on New Year’s Eve. The mountain features steep canyons in parts and rolling hills at their very best in others. Though it is a popular destination to escape the city, the Park is large enough that you can easily find a peaceful spot to yourself.
We didn’t bother to drive very high up onto the mountain, instead contenting ourselves with an epic view across the ocean where the sun slowly dipped below the horizon. From different points around Mount Tamalpais, you can enjoy views San Francisco Bay, the Marin County Hills and Mount Diablo.
- Twin Peaks
If you prefer views of the city, visit Twin Peaks, which offers an unobstructed vista across San Francisco, the bay, and the hills beyond. Where you stand to admire the outlook, the hillside drops away beneath your feet revealing the city at a distance with the road up to the viewpoint winding its way toward you in a most alluring manner. It’s a place made for Instagram photos.
- Berkeley
Known as one of the most politically liberal cities in the US and home of the oldest University of California campus, Berkeley has a long history of activism – even recently, in April this year, there were protests against current President Donald Trump where many were arrested.
That long-standing attitude of freedom and liberalism played a strong role in my impression of the area, which was full of interesting boutique stores, cafes, long lines at hipster cafes where people patiently wait for brunch, and those wide residential streets lined with trees that look like a movie set to foreign eyes. Berkeley has a completely different feel from San Francisco proper, almost like a Brooklyn to Manhattan, and is therefore an appealing spot to explore.
Courtney Gahan is a serial expat, traveller and freelance writer who has bartered with Moroccan marketeers, seen the sun rise at Angkor Wat and elbowed her way through crowds on NYE in NYC
