Bay Area

The de facto center and the iconic city of the region, home to such landmarks as the Golden Gate Bridge, the hilly streets with their famous cable cars and Victorian houses, the infamous island prison of Alcatraz, and enough museums and intriguing neighborhoods to keep a traveler exploring for days.

Across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, this area is home to some incredible natural scenery, including the old-growth redwood forest of Muir Woods and the scenic stretch of coastline at Point Reyes, as well as the famed wine-growing region of Napa Valley.

Across the bay from San Francisco, the inner East Bay is an intensely developed area wedged between the bay and a ridge of mountains to the east, while the outer East Bay past the ridge consists of beautiful wilderness and suburban towns with an agrarian heritage. Oakland is the most populous city in this region, with the college town of Berkeley being another major destination.

The suburbs along the peninsula to the south of San Francisco, a major entry point to both San Francisco and Silicon Valley, owing to the presence of SFO airport. The southernmost reaches of the Peninsula are home to some tech giants of Silicon Valley, like Meta, and the prestigious Stanford University.

South of the Peninsula and the East Bay, home to many of the tech companies of Silicon Valley like Apple and Nvidia, and anchored by the most populous city in the Bay Area, San Jose.