Berkeley (UC Berkeley and Telegraph Avenue)

Berkeley is a university city in the East Bay, about 12 miles (19 km) northeast of San Francisco across the Bay in California. The simplest route is BART: Yellow or Orange line trains from Montgomery Street, Powell Street or Embarcadero reach Downtown Berkeley in about 25 to 30 minutes, with trains every 15 to 20 minutes and fares of roughly 4 to 5 dollars with a Clipper card. Rideshare costs about 30 to 50 dollars one way, and AC Transit buses run from the Salesforce Transit Center.

The University of California, Berkeley campus is the main sight. Sather Tower, known as the Campanile, rises above the campus and has an observation deck with views across the Bay to the Golden Gate Bridge. Visitors can wander Sproul Plaza, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Lawrence Hall of Science and the UC Botanical Garden in Strawberry Canyon. A short walk south leads to Telegraph Avenue, a street of bookshops, record stores, street vendors and casual cafes with a long counterculture history. Nearby, the Gourmet Ghetto on Shattuck Avenue north of campus is associated with the birthplace of California cuisine and offers many places for lunch.

A straightforward one-day arc starts with a late-morning BART ride, a walk through campus and a Campanile visit, then lunch in the Gourmet Ghetto or along Telegraph Avenue. The afternoon suits browsing Telegraph's shops, a visit to the botanical garden or a stroll in the Berkeley Rose Garden, and the return to San Francisco in the early evening. Free campus walking tours are offered by the university; check visit.berkeley.edu for current schedules.

Clear days give the best Campanile views, and the campus is lively when classes are in session, typically August to May.