.png)
San Francisco Bay Area Travel Guide: Where to Stay, What to Eat & How to Get Around
- Oct 9, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 13
The San Francisco Bay Area spans multiple cities, each offering a very different travel experience. San Francisco, San Jose, and the surrounding region aren’t organized around a single center, which makes planning where to stay, how to get around, and what to prioritize more important than it might seem at first.
Travel patterns across the Bay Area can shift significantly during peak seasons, major events, conferences, and holiday weekends. Hotels fill up quickly, prices fluctuate, and transportation between San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and surrounding cities can take longer than usual. This guide is structured to help visitors plan more efficiently during busy travel periods, while remaining useful for everyday trip planning throughout the year.
How This Guide Is Structured
Each guide linked above is written with a specific purpose, whether that’s choosing where to stay, understanding transportation options, or narrowing down activities that feel worth the time. Rather than ranking or listing everything available, the focus is on practical planning and firsthand perspective, with updates made as the Bay Area continues to change.
Where to Stay in the Bay Area
This guide focuses on where it makes the most sense to stay based on how you plan to spend your time in the region. It breaks down the major travel hubs of San Francisco and San Jose, along with options across the Peninsula, East Bay, and areas in between, based on access, transportation, and proximity to the experiences you’re prioritizing.
Getting Around the Bay Area
Covers how the region is laid out, how public transportation works across cities, and when it makes sense to rely on trains, ferries, rideshares, or rental cars. Especially helpful for understanding travel between San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and surrounding areas.
Where to Eat in San Francisco, San Jose & the Bay Area
A curated food guide featuring restaurants we’ve personally eaten at and continue to return to across San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and the surrounding region. Includes local favorites, mixed-review spots we enjoyed, and a few honest notes on places we don’t think are worth the price.
Things to Do in the Bay Area
Experience-focused guidance covering free and paid activities across the Bay Area, including San Francisco, San Jose, the East Bay, and easy day trips beyond the major cities, written to help you choose experiences, not check off lists.
Looking for Specific Experiences in the Bay Area
If you already know what you want to do and just need focused planning guidance, these standalone guides go deeper into some of the most searched Bay Area experiences. Each one is written to help you decide whether it’s worth your time, how to plan it efficiently, and what to expect once you’re there.
Golden Gate Bridge Viewpoints
A guide to the best viewpoints for seeing and photographing the Golden Gate Bridge, including easy overlooks, walking-access spots, and lesser-known angles that don’t require a long hike.
Ferry Building
What to eat, when to visit, and how the Ferry Building fits into a day along the Embarcadero or a ferry trip across the Bay. Useful if you’re trying to decide whether it’s a quick stop or a longer food-focused experience.
Alcatraz Island
A practical guide to visiting Alcatraz, including ticket timing, tour options, ferry logistics, and whether it’s worth prioritizing if you’re short on time in San Francisco.
Muir Woods
Everything you need to know about visiting the redwoods, from reservation requirements and transportation options to realistic timing and crowd considerations.
Monterey & Monterey Bay California
A planning guide for a coastal day trip or overnight stay, covering scenic drives, major attractions, and how Monterey compares to nearby options like Carmel or Big Sur.
Final Thoughts
Planning a Bay Area trip can feel overwhelming, especially during busy travel periods. This hub is designed to simplify the process by keeping all major planning decisions in one place, so you can move from big-picture choices to detailed logistics without bouncing between dozens of pages. As we continue exploring the region, this guide evolves alongside the individual posts linked above. Whether you’re visiting during a major event or planning a future trip, this hub is built to remain useful long after any single occasion has passed.