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East Bay, United States
Photo: Mx. Granger, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons
The inner East Bay is a dynamic, diverse stretch of urban fabric across the bay from San Francisco. Though this area can be grittier than the outer East Bay on the other side of the Berkeley Hills, its extraordinary patchwork of cultures and history means you'll never run out of new things to discover in this often underappreciated part of the Bay Area.
By car
Entering the inner East Bay by car can be easy or difficult, depending on which road you take and at which time you take that road.
By train
Amtrak serves a major station in Emeryville and also stops in Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland, Hayward, and Fremont. The Richmond and Oakland Coliseum stations have direct connections to BART.
By plane
The main airport in this area is Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK), but also nearby are the San Jose (SJC) and San Francisco (SFO) airports.
By bus
From Marin County, Golden Gate Transit bus 580 is likely the easiest way to get here without a car. It goes from San Rafael to El Cerrito Del Norte BART station.
Public transit in this area is surprisingly decent by American standards, so you may find that you're best off visiting without a car, especially if you're not going too far off the beaten path.
Read in the guideChoose an airport to see hotels, stations, taxi ranks and car rental desks around it.
Oakland · International · OAK
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a small suburban town on San Pablo Bay
World War II industrial history and nature parks with great views of the bay, plus the charming Point Richmond neighborhood
El Cerrito is just north of Albany in the inner East Bay in California.
Albany is a city in the inner East Bay in the Bay Area in California.
Set on sparkling San Francisco Bay, Berkeley (pronounced BURK-lee) will surprise those who recall it as the counter-culture center of the 1960s. Free Speech and flower power are forever in the city "DNA," but Berkeley has evolved into a culinary and cultural travel destination.
a suburb of Oakland that's home to Pixar, big chain stores, and a hub for Amtrak
Oakland is a port city in the Bay Area of California in the United States. Once an industrial area overshadowed by San Francisco, its larger neighbor to the west, this city of 440,000 people (2020) has begun to step out from under San Francisco's shadow with its notable natural and architectural features and its rise as the multicultural "hipster" city of the Bay Area.
Alameda is an island city in the East Bay of the Bay Area, California. It is separated from the mainland by the Oakland Estuary.
San Leandro is a mid-size city of about 90,000 people (2018) in the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States of America.
Castro Valley is an unincorporated town in the inner East Bay in the Bay Area of California. It has a population of about 60,000 and is located north of Hayward and east of San Leandro and south of the Oakland hills.
Hayward is a city in the inner East Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area region of California located next to the San Francisco Bay. Hayward is located near premier tourist locations (San Francisco), first rate educational institutions (Berkeley and Stanford), and an economic powerhouse (Silicon Valley), however relatively speaking Hayward does not have as much to offer as its neighbors.
Union City is a city of 70,000 people (in 2020) in the southern part of the East Bay portion of the San Francisco Bay Area region of California. It is bordered to the north by the city of Hayward and to the south by the city of Fremont.
Fremont is a suburban city in the southern part of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area; it is the 4th largest city in the Bay Area by population. Fremont is in the southern part of Alameda County, California, between Union City to the north, Sunol and the hills to the east, Milpitas and Santa Clara County to the south, and the San Francisco Bay to the west.
Newark is a small community in the East Bay portion of the San Francisco Bay Area region of California. It is an enclave of the larger city of Fremont.
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