San Francisco
Reach staggering heights with spectacular views along this staircase connecting North Beach with Russian Hill – ideal for working off a pasta dinner…
Must-see attractions in Northern California
North Beach & Chinatown
Upstart San Francisco artists buck art-world trends and kick out brave new work at the backstreet Mule Gallery. Recent shows have featured artworks by Bay…
Napa Valley
The tasting room is a garage, where you may even meet Mr Arroyo, known for his all-estate-grown Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon. They're distributed…
Museum of Art & Digital Entertainment
Oakland
If you love video games, the MADE is the heaven you go to when you die and are all out of extra lives. It's a museum of sorts, but more a sort of time…
San Francisco
Scramble up the red rocks of 520ft-high Corona Heights for jaw-dropping, 180-degree views at the summit. Face east as the sun sets, and watch the city…
Napa Valley
Begin or end the day with a glass of bubbly or Pinot at Artesa, southwest of Napa. Built into a mountainside, the ultramodern Barcelona-style architecture…
Yosemite National Park
At one of Yosemite's iconic falls, the thundering waters of the Merced River tumble 317ft down on the way to meet Yosemite Valley below. Mist Trail, the…
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
Bordering long stretches of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, this national forest area, named after the enormous Sequoia trees it contains, was…
Sequoia National Park
Jaw-dropping spectacular view of the Sierra Mountains. It's reasonably easily accessible via a 1-mile walk along the High Sierra Trail from Crescent…
Oakland
Along the western shore of Alameda Island, Robert W Crown Memorial State Park sees flocks of East Bay locals on a sunny day. The sandy beach stretches 2.5…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
A curiosity cupboard of major Bay Area talents. Works showcased here are entrancing and meticulous – past shows have featured Dana Hemenway's dazzling…
North Coast & Redwoods
This New England-style lighthouse dating to 1856 still operates on a tiny, rocky island that you can easily reach at low tide. Walking around outside is…
Yosemite National Park
Just off Hwy 41, immediately east of Wawona Tunnel, is the parking lot for this spectacular viewpoint where you can take in much of the valley floor,…
Yosemite National Park
Spectacular views await from these falls, ricocheting 594ft as part of the 'Giant Staircase' leading the Merced River down into Yosemite Valley. Most…
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
Panoramic roadside pullout on the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway with soaring views of Rodger's Ridge, Spanish Mountain, Deer Ridge, Deer Canyon, Crown Rock,…
South Lake Tahoe & Stateline
Swoon-worthy views of Emerald Bay, as the camera-wielding crowds testify.
Yosemite National Park
A dirt road, closed to cars, dips steeply down the smallest, densest and quietest sequoia grove in the park.
Big Sur
This is a raw, breathtaking spot where crashing surf salts your skin. On the steep, half-mile dirt hike down to the cove, you’ll cross a cool bridge and…
San Francisco
It's hard to imagine from these ruins, but Victorian dandies and working stiffs once converged here for bracing baths in woolen rental swimsuits…
San Jose
This ridiculous yet fascinating Victorian mansion is filled with 160 mostly non-utilitarian rooms with dead-end hallways and a staircase that runs up to a…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Willy Wonka would tip his hat to Domingo Ghirardelli (gear-ar-deli), whose business became the West’s largest chocolate factory in 1893. After the company…
Monterey
Find out what's currently open at Monterey State Historic Park, grab a free map and buy tickets for guided walking tours inside this 1847 adobe building,…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Fisherman's Wharf – the Embarcadero and Jefferson St waterfront running from Pier 29 to Van Ness Ave – includes Pier 39, the Musée Mécanique, the Maritime…
Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks
Tragically, Converse Basin once contained the world’s largest grove of mature sequoias, but it’s now an unsettling cemetery for tree stumps. In the late…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Like a fossilized party favor, this romantic, ersatz Greco-Roman ruin is the city's memento from the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. The…
North Coast & Redwoods
It’s hard to miss the giant statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox towering over the parking lot at Trees of Mystery with a gondola running through…
The Haight & Hayes Valley
Like surviving members of the Grateful Dead, this purple Victorian sports a touch of gray – but during the Summer of Love, this was where Jerry Garcia and…
Oakland
An urban respite, Lake Merritt is a popular place to stroll or go running (a 3.5-mile paved path circles the lake), with bonsai and botanical gardens, a…
University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz
Check it: the school mascot is a banana slug! Established in 1965 in the hills above town, UCSC is known for its creative, liberal bent. The rural campus…
North Beach & Chinatown
Enter through the Dragon archway donated by Taiwan in 1970, and you'll find yourself on the street formerly known as Dupont in its notorious red-light…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
Explore that splotch of green on the map between Baker Beach and Crissy Field and you’ll find parade grounds, Yoda, a centuries-old adobe wall and some…
Santa Cruz
A kitschy, old-fashioned tourist trap, Santa Cruz's Mystery Spot has scarcely changed since it opened in 1940. On a steeply sloping hillside, compasses…
California State Railroad Museum
Sacramento
Train buffs will delight in this incredible collection of vintage locomotives (even if history buffs will question the candy-coated presentation about the…
The Haight & Hayes Valley
The social center of hip, walkable, tree-lined Octavia Blvd is this pocket park, featuring Burning Man–inspired temporary sculpture installations, picnic…
The Marina, Fisherman’s Wharf & the Piers
The focal point of Fisherman's Wharf isn't the waning fishing fleet but the carousel, carnival-like attractions, shops and restaurants of Pier 39 – and,…
The Mission, Dogpatch & Potrero Hill
Strange fascination is showcased at Jack Fischer Gallery – for example, sketches made by Agelio Batle's graphite skeleton as it jitters across a lab table…
Monterey
Old Monterey is home to an extraordinary assemblage of 19th-century brick and adobe buildings administered as a state park and linked by a 2-mile self…
South Lake Tahoe & Stateline
Heiress Lora Knight's quirky mansion on the bay, Vikingsholm Castle is the focal point of Emerald Bay State Park, and a rare example of ancient…
San Francisco
The sun sets over the Pacific just beyond the fog at this blustery beach. Most days are too chilly for bikini-clad clambakes but fine for hardy…
