Exploring the Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area is made up of 9 different counties across 5 distinct regions, as seen in the image to the right (via Wikipedia CC-SA 4.0): the North Bay, the South Bay, the East Bay, and the Peninsula, all surrounding San Francisco.

We've gathered some information about each region so you can make the most of your trip to California!

In general, you'll find that many big names in tech have their HQs here, so look 'em up on the map and head on over if you are interested. Most allow photos outside and a few offer tours (though not on the weekends).




San Francisco

San Francisco is just awesome. Spend your extra time there. The Legion of Honor Museum is not to be missed. Yerba Buena Gardens (South of Market neighborhood) is also awesome and next door is the Metreon theater, which offers IMAX movies.

The California Academy of Sciences is a great place to explore with a rainforest, huge aquarium, planetarium shows and is inside Golden Gate Park. There is a ferris wheel across from the Academy of Sciences (new addition in 2020). You can also walk over to the de Young Museum and can go inside and take the elevator to the roof (all for free) where you are greeted with a beautiful 360 degree view of San Francisco and the bay. You can also find the Japanese Tea Garden inside the park. Stow Lake is a great little hike where you can even do a paddleboat tour around the little lake (you are the horsepower).

Note: Golden Gate Park is not next to the Golden Gate Bridge.  If you want to walk from one to the other it is a good 3 mile walk from the CA Academy of Sciences north through a neighborhood and then through the Presidio. If you have the time, you can walk along Ocean Beach and take the scenic Lands End Trail along the coast then continue walking to the Bridge through neighborhoods and ultimately the beautiful Batteries to Bluff Trail to the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge (this is a 7 mile walk).

It is quite easy to get around on public transportation in San Francisco or a cab/Uber/Lyft ride within the city is rarely more than $30. You can take the Caltrain from San Jose into San Francisco and start your touring of the city by the bay - it’s about a 1.5 hour train ride to the last stop in San Francisco which is a couple of blocks from AT&T Park where our San Francisco Giants (baseball team) play and near our Chase Center where the Golden State Warriors reign (basketball team).

Other cool things to check out in SF: 

For a very detailed 7 page list of things to do/see in San Francisco that we always shared with our Google Code-in attendees.

South Bay

Santa Clara (near Google MP3 Campus)

Mountain View (home of Google headquarters)

Palo Alto

San Jose

Sunnyvale

East Bay

The Peninsula

North Bay

This region is best known for its vast expanses of parkland, breweries, and wineries. While public transit does connect the North Bay with the rest of the Bay Area (buses and ferries), much of it is only accessible if you have a car to drive.