Day trips from San Francisco

One of the many reasons I love living in the San Francisco Bay Area is that there are so many wonderful places to visit close by. Some are just minutes from San Francisco, while others are an hour or two away.

Let’s start with those closest to the city.

Alcatraz Island

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Alcatraz used to be a federal prison where notorious criminals such as Al Capone were locked up. You can take a guided tour of the island compound that gives you a real (if eerie) feeling for what it must have been like to live there during the time it was in operation from 1934 to 1963.

If that is a little depressing, just go outside and enjoy the truly spectacular view of San Francisco, only 2 km away.

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North of the City

Sausalito

Located at the northern end of the Golden Gate bridge,Sausalito is a picturesque little town offering spectacular views of the SanFrancisco Bay, shopping, and dozens of restaurants serving delicious seafood.

Sausalito used to be a major shipbuilding center duringWorld War II, and you can see that it is still closely connected to the sea:Hundreds of yachts are moored in its marina, and at the northern end of town are more than 400 houseboats.

You don’t have to take a tour boat to get there. Just hop on the regular ferry that runs from Pier 41 in San Francisco several times a day.

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Sausalito is also the place to catch a shuttle bus that will take you to the next stop on our tour: Muir Woods.

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Muir Woods

Even if you are not a true nature lover, I recommend you spend a few hours at this lovely, peaceful preserve of old growth coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens). Walk along one of the many meandering trails and gaze up at these quiet giants, the tallest of which is 79m high.

I find it extraordinary to realize that most of these trees that are between 500 and 800years old, with the oldest at least 1,200 years, all grew from a seed that is no larger than that of a tomato.

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Stinson Beach

Just a few kilometers up the coast from Muir Woods liesStinson Beach, the local beach for me and my family: 5.6 km of beautiful fine white sand. It’s a great place for long walks, and is especially popular for swimming, surfing or or kayaking. We love the picnic areas with barbecues, but there are many local restaurants as well. If you stay late, you cansee some beautiful sunsets.

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South of the City

Silicon Valley

There is a good chance you are looking at this website on a device that has its origins a just a few kilometers south of San Francisco in the heart of the world’s high tech industry, Silicon Valley.

The San Francisco Bay Area has the largest concentration of high-tech companies in the United States, at almost 400,00 high-tech jobs, andSilicon Valley accounts for almost 60% of them. As a result, it has the highest average tech salary in the United States at over $140,000 per year, and the SanJose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara Area has the most millionaires and the most billionaires in the United States per capita.

Here are just some of the companies in Silicon Valley:

Adobe Systems ■ Advanced MicroDevices (AMD) ■ Agilent Technologies ■ Alphabet Inc. (formerly Google Inc.) ■ Apple Inc. ■ Applied Materials ■ Cadence Design Systems ■ Cisco Systems ■ Cypress Semiconductor ■ eBay ■ Electronic Arts ■ Facebook ■ Hewlett Packard Enterprise ■ HP Inc. ■ Intel ■ Intuit ■ Intuitive Surgical ■ Juniper Networks ■ KLA ■ Lam Research ■ Maxim IntegratedProducts ■ NetApp ■ Netflix ■ Nvidia ■ Oracle Corporation ■ PayPal ■ Salesforce.com ■ Sanmina ■ Square, Inc. ■ Symantec ■ Synnex ■ Synopsys Inc. ■ Tesla, Inc. ■ Twitter ■ Visa Inc. ■ Western DigitalCorporation ■ Xilinx  

Take a look at the new Apple campus:

But if you have time to stop at just one of these, I recommend theGoogle campus. A former student of mine works there and can arrange a visit.Quite apart from anything else, you will love their wonderful gift shop!

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Carmel and Monterey

A little further south you come to two truly beautiful seaside towns: Monterey and Carmel.

Monterey Bay is set on a spectacular stretch of the CaliforniaCoast line, with amazing vistas, perhaps none more beautiful than the so-called17 Mile Drive that meanders along the ocean between stately mansions and world-class golf courses.

Be sure not to miss the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Located in a former sardine cannery perched on the edge of the bay, the aquarium hosts more than 35,000 plants and animals from 550 species. I particularly love theKelp Forest, Splash zone and the open Sea Gallery. You might also enjoy the exhibit featuring Monterey’s mascot, the sea otter, where the animals entertain visitors in their two-story home.

If you enjoy quirky, charming and romantic little beach towns, you will love Carmel-by-the-Sea, as it is officially called. Here you will find a bit of everything: colorful streets packed with hundreds of quaint shops, great restaurants and gorgeous white sand beaches. You might choose to visit the historic Carmel Mission, or the Whaling museum in the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve.

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Big Sur

Out final stop on this journey to the south is the incredibly rugged 140 km stretch of Pacific coast line known as Big Sur. I guarantee the pictures you take here will amaze your friends and family back home! The stunning views, redwood forests, hiking, beaches, and other recreational opportunities have made Big Sur a popular destination for those of us who live within a day's drive and for visitors from across the world. The Big Sur coast has been called the "longest and most scenic stretch of undeveloped coastline in the [contiguous] United States," and "one of the most stunning meetings of land and sea in the world.”

Besides sightseeing from the highway, Big Sur offers numerous opportunities for hiking and and other outdoor activities. There are a large number of state and federal lands and parks, including McWay Falls at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, one of only two waterfalls on thePacific Coast that plunge directly into the ocean. The trails in the park are well-maintained and all are very picturesque and scenic, and there is even a self-guided nature trail. There is a large campground in the park and many campsites along the Big Sur River. If camping is not for you, check out Big Sur Lodge in the park, which has 61 guestrooms.

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