San Francisco Bay Area: Places to Visit from Transit

Even if you are not very interested in railroading or transit, you might still like this list of places to visit and things to do that are easily accessible from the Bay Area's rail-transit systems. For more on Amtrak and the like, see my intercity-railroad page. Or you can simply go to my railroad-yard page.

Now for that list of things to see and do from various BART, and San Francisco Muni-Metro, F-Market, and Cable-Car stations. Strictly speaking, the latter two are surface lines, with an abundance of stops along their routes, but I am organizing this list around the stations of the former two.

BART's Oakland Core Line
- (The Oakland Wye: a Y-shaped track junction; to the Fremont and San Francisco lines)
- 12th St. Oakland - Downtown Oakland. To get to Jack London Square, walk several blocks or take a local bus. There is a lot of shopping and restaurants and other nice things.
- 19th St. Oakland - Inside the station, there is a "Subway" fast-food place (of course!). Or at least there was when I visited it a few years ago.
- MacArthur Blvd.
- (to the Richmond and Pittsburg Lines)
BART's Richmond Line
- (from MacArthur)
- Ashby - On Saturdays, at least, its park-and-ride lot gets turned into a nice little flea market.
- Berkeley - The People's Republic of Berzerkeley itself. The University of California campus there is a few blocks to the east. There are numerous stores and restaurants there, both near the station along Shattuck and University Aves., and also on Telegraph Ave. south of the UCB campus.
- North Berkeley - A few blocks away, to the east on University Ave., is the "Living Foods" health-food store, which sells mostly-vegetarian foodstuffs.
- El Cerrito Plaza - A shopping mall, and a little hill to the west.
- El Cerrito del Norte
- Richmond
BART's Pittsburg Line
- (from MacArthur)
- Rockridge
- Orinda - There is a nice little open-air shopping center near the station; go in the direction of the old-fashioned movie-theater sign that contins "ORINDA".
- Lafayette
- Walnut Creek - You can to that city's downtown shopping mall with a free shuttle bus from that station.
- Pleasant Hill
- Concord
- North Concord / Martinez - Some nice landscaping starting here and going southward almost to downtown.
- Pittsburg / BayPoint - A shopping mall nearby.
BART's Fremont Line
- (from the Oakland Wye)
- Lake Merritt - The Oakland Museum is a few blocks to the east of here, as is Lake Merritt.
- Fruitvale
- Oakland Coliseum / Airport - (self-explanatory)
- San Leandro
- BayFair - The BayFair shopping center is visible nearby.
- Hayward - There is a nice little shopping area on B Street east of the station.
- South Hayward
- Union City
- Fremont
BART's Dublin-Pleasanton Line
- Castro Valley
- East Dublin-Pleasanton - There are some restaurants to the west at Hopyard Rd. on the south side of the station; there are some nice shopping districts accessible from the #10 Wheels bus in both directions: Stoneridge Mall, Dublin Blvd., Santa Rita Rd., downtown Pleasanton, downtown Livermore.
BART's and Muni's San Francisco Line
- (from the Oakland Wye)
- West Oakland
- (The E,J,K,L,M, and N Muni-Metro lines and the F-Market line start here)
- Embarcadero (The California St. Cable-Car Line) - The Embarcadero Place shopping center is a few blocks to the north.
- Montgomery St.
- Powell St. (The Powell-Mason and Powell-Hyde Cable-Car Lines)
- Civic Center - The San Francisco Library and some nice historic buildings are there.
- (BART branches off)
- Van Ness Ave.
- (The J and N Muni-Metro lines branch off)
- Church St.
- Castro St.
- (The F-Market line ends here)
- Forest Hill
- West Portal
- (The K, L, and M Muni-Metro lines continue onward)
The Cable-Car Lines
- California St. It goes all the way to Van Ness Ave., and is relatively uncrowded.
- Powell-Mason It goes to a few blocks from Fisherman's Wharf.
- Powell-Hyde It goes to Ghirardelli Square.
The Muni Metro's Surface Lines
- J-Church (From Church St. to Balboa Park)
- K-Ingleside (From West Portal to Balboa Park)
- L-Taraval (From West Portal to the ocean) - The San Francisco Zoo is at the end of this line.
- M-Ocean View (from West Portal to Balboa Park) - The San Francisco State University and Stonestown Mall are at the westernmost part of this line, on 19th Ave.
- N-Judah (From Church St. to the ocean) - Golden Gate Park is a few blocks north of the western part of this line, and the California Academy of Sciences is north of the 9th-Ave. kink.
BART's San Francisco Line Continuation
- 16th St. Mission
- 24th St. Mission
- Glen Park
- Balboa Park (The J,K, and M Muni Metro Lines)
- Daly City
- Colma
- South San Francisco
- San Bruno - The Tanforan Shopping Center is right next door
- San Francisco International Airport - (self-explanatory)
- Millbrae

In San Francisco, the buses run very frequently, and if you are willing to endure them, there are some nice trips you can take on them. The 30-Stockton electric trolleybus goes north on Kearny St. from near the Montgomery and Powell stations through Chinatown and onward to Ghirardelli Square and the Jefferson Loop, only a few blocks from the Palace of Fine Arts and the Exploratorium. The 38-Geary bus goes from near the Embarcadero station (the Transbay Terminal, a few blocks south of it, to be precise) all the way on Geary Blvd. to near the ocean; down a rather steep cliff is the Cliff House, with its cute little museum of oddities (there are also some old videogame machines, such as one with one of my favorites, Battlezone).

I wish I could say more about San Jose and Santa Clara, but there is not as much that interests me there, though some of you might find Santa Clara's Great America amusement park and the San Jose's Children's Discovery Museum, both accessible from the Santa Clara County Light Rail System interesting.

I have recently moved out of the Bay Area, so it may be difficult for me to properly update this page, but I will accept whatever feedback you readers provide on it.

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