Setting
See the following on Berkeley's environs from the department's website:
The Berkeley campus is a lovely park-like setting enhanced by glades, plazas, and a wide variety of architecture, including some graceful examples of the Beaux Arts style. The campus is surrounded on three sides by residential and commercial neighborhoods of the city of Berkeley, a lively part of the conurbation that stretches along the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay. The fourth side rises into the Berkeley hills and a regional park. The climate is temperate year-round, with a pleasant alternation of cooling fog and bright sunny skies, and an even level of moderate to low humidity. Severe smog is rare in San Francisco Bay Area and especially near Berkeley, which is directly exposed to Pacific winds entering the Golden Gate.
Public transportation serving the campus area is good. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system operates trains that provide direct access to downtown Oakland (adjacent to Berkeley on the south) and under the bay to San Francisco. Buses provide access from the campus area to many intermediate destinations. Most of the cultural and recreational resources of the Bay Area are thus accessible by public transit. These include, apart from the museums, theaters, sports arenas, and concert halls of Oakland and San Francisco, the local resources of the campus, which offers a wide range of athletic and cultural events and facilities (many either free or discounted for students), and of the city, noted for its abundance of fine ethnic restaurants, its bookstores, cinemas, repertory theater, and its unparalleled range of musical offerings. There is an excellent network of hiking, bicycling and horseback-riding paths in the East Bay hills.
Housing
For students interested in off-campus housing (which is usually less expensive than on-campus), sublets and short-term leases are frequently available during the summer months. Students should consult the Berkeley Off-Campus Housing portal as well as other local listings. Because campus is served by the Downtown Berkeley BART station and several bus lines, it's possible to find housing slightly farther afield as well.
On-campus housing options for visiting students include the campus dormitories and International House.
Header: the Temple of Wings, a Greco-Roman style private estate built in the Berkeley Hills in 1914.