Page 42 - 2025-2026 Travel Guide to California

SPECIAL EVENTS 2025
CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADE: March 1, San Francisco chineseparade.com
CHERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL: April 12-13, 19-20, San Francisco sfcherryblossom.org
SAN FRANCISCO LGBTQ + PRIDE WEEKEND: June 28-29, San Francisco sfpride.org
MENDOCINO MUSIC FESTIVAL: July 12-26, Mendocino mendocinomusic.org
ART AND WINE FESTIVAL: August 30-31, Millbrae millbrae.com/art-wine-festival
ART & PUMPKIN FESTIVAL: October 18-19, Half Moon Bay
pumpkinfest.miramarevents.com
FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS: November 23, 2025 - January 1, 2026, Yountville yountville.com
SAN JOSE CITY HALL, above; Famous illuminated signage shows Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francsico, bottom.
travelers each year to its dense 49 square
miles containing its famously steep hills,
thousands of restaurants, fascinating neigh-
borhoods, parks, Victorian-era houses and
world-class museums and cultural activities.
The city is easy to explore on foot, with
the waterfront Embarcadero, Fisherman’s
Wharf, Chinatown and Union Square all
within a short walk of each other. Colorful
vintage streetcars rumble down the Embar-
cadero and Market Street, connecting to
public transportation that carries visitors to
the city’s many diverse neighborhoods and
to Golden Gate Park, the large greenbelt that
extends to the Pacific Ocean.
The Great Outdoors
One of the world’s largest urban parks—the
Golden Gate National Recreation Area—
stretches over 60 miles of Bay Area coastline.
Among the highlights are the majestic Marin
Headlands and San Francisco’s Presidio and
Crissy Field, a popular walking area and
restored wetlands that also draws kite-
boarders to the white-capped waters at the
Golden Gate.
Spring is an especially ideal time to
explore Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods
in Marin County. Point Reyes National
Seashore’s beautiful coastal terrain contains
an abundance of wildlife. Whales are easily
seen off the coast in migration season
(mid-January to mid-March).
There also is no lack of wide-open
spaces in the East Bay, where the regional
park district includes 65 parks covering
113,000 acres in Alameda and Contra Costa
counties. In the Santa Cruz mountains, just
west of Silicon Valley and San Jose, are vast
open space preserves, including California’s
oldest state park, Big Basin Redwoods,
established in 1902.
Heritage & Culture
Early Mexican and Spanish explorers and
settlers in the Bay Area left their mark,
mostly in place names but also in historic
buildings from that era. San Francisco’s
Mission Dolores, established in 1776, is the
oldest building in San Francisco and the
oldest intact original Mission in California.
The patchwork design of its beamed ceil-
ings resembles local Native American
basket weaving. Other old missions are
found elsewhere in the Bay Area: in
Sonoma, San Rafael, Santa Clara, San Jose
and Santa Cruz.
Vestiges of San Francisco’s colorful past,
when the 1849 Gold Rush catapulted it
from a hamlet to a large city almost
overnight, can still be seen in thousands
of 19th-century Victorians and quaint old
quarters such as Alamo Square and
Jackson Square.
The Bay Area is home to world-class
museums, including the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, the Asian Art Mu-
seum, the de Young Museum and California
Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. In
Oakland, there’s the Museum of California
that celebrates the state. The Cantor Arts
Center at Stanford has a large collection of
Rodin sculptures.
Family Fun
San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier
39 are lined with shops, restaurants, street
performers and even a colony of sea lions
that wows crowds. The pier also offers an
antique carousel and the Aquarium of the
Bay, with more than 20,000 marine ani-
mals. Over in Golden Gate Park, the
California Academy of Sciences draws
families with its penguin exhibit, a walk-
through rainforest and aquarium with a
live indoor coral reef tank.
40 2025-26 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA
SAN JOSE CVB; TRAVELVIEW/SHUTTERSTOCK. OPPOSITE: MARIN CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU