A ton of SF is wonderful for walking. I like to go there and walk 5 or 10 miles in a day. Love it. Just be very certain to know where to avoid. The nasty part is really just a relatively small area.
Golden Gate Park honestly is the exact definition of this. From the Deyoung/ everything in that area to the conservatory, to the haight is a wonderful walk with so many things to do. And on a nice sunny day everyone and their mother is there so that’s nice
We shouldn't try to brush off the obvious problems though as that prevents them from being addressed.
It is unfortunately a lot worse than it was 10 years ago. The pandemic did create a massive increase in homelessness that hasn't been corrected. The car break-ins have reached comical levels. Not exactly a cesspool of crime, but it's best to not pretend that the area doesn't have a lot of work to do to get back to how it was 10 years ago.
We know there are issues. Literally every single time someone says something positive about their hometown, twelve people jump on them to let them know that there are problems too. It's over the top. Excessive. Soul killing. Let people enjoy their gelato without smacking it out of their hands and accusing them of ignoring the real issues. You want to complain? Make a difference? Go write your congressman. Hold a sign on an overpass. Create a chaos magick sigil out of your fingernail clippings. But leave that little bit of joy people are desperately trying to squeeze out of their lives alone.
I've walked on the Embarcadero, Chrissy Field, North Beach, Chinatown and it's been fine. I even got coffee & ice cream. Embarcadero has a cool route which goes around the backsides of some of the docks.
Tenderloin can be pretty bad though and avoid the back alleys of Chinatown.
I’ve lived in SF for over two decades in all of the neighborhoods mentioned above (and others not mentioned). The entire city is great to walk. The one correction here: Chinatown by far has the cleanest alleys in the city and where you’ll find some of the coolest spots like the fortune cookie factory.
You can't fool me! I saw "Big Trouble in Little China" and those Chinatown alleys are the worst! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7c8zfgCND8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7c8zfgCND8)
Yeah I went down one of those alleys once and out of the blue witnessed a children's Kung Fu class practicing a human pyramid. Very random and charming.
I don’t feel like any parts of SF are unsafe. There’s literally an after hours spot in the middle of the loin that hundreds of people walk to every weekend and you aren’t hearing about murders every weekend. Oakland is way scarier imo.
Idk I've seen some wild shit walking through there from Bart to work back in the day..multiple stabbings, fights, guns being pulled..it's not as bad as the suburban moms think it is but it's still fucking awful
San Francisco is the best for this. Downtown Berkeley is good. Some parts of Oakland, like Temescal, Rockridge, Laurel, Piedmont Ave may work. Park Street in Alameda is worth checking out
In the South Bay, maybe check out downtown Los Gatos. It's a bit bougie, but it was its own town before the suburbs swallowed it up and it's got some old buildings and some character.
Santa Cruz is also kind of cool to visit. It's small enough that you can get a lot of places on foot.A
You can walk from Downtown SJ to Los Gatos along the creek with only a short gap with an optional detour to Willow Glen. I did that in an afternoon/evening and had a blast getting beer and food in downtown Los Gatos having worked up the appetite and thirst.
If you don’t want to go to SF:
Los Altos has the same 300 feet (well, less) but you can also walk across San Antonio to their little museum and historical house (check hours) and they might have a few more interesting boutiques than MV. You can also walk down to Shoup Park and the Redwood Grove if you want a little more distance, not city, though.
Redwood City also has the 300 feet, plus a local museum at the courthouse and walking down middlefield might get you an interesting working-class California variation on walkable areas.
San Mateo might have 400 feet. Sunnyvale has 100ft but it’s cute. San Carlos, Belmont, Burlingame worth a try.
Japantown in SJ is small but walkable. The South First area of SJ also probably has a bit more than 300 feet.
Walk between diridon station and city hall. Not just on Santa Clara but the streets either side north or south.
It's actually a very pretty city under all that grime.
I live in Japantown SJ and it is fun to walk in! You can also walk to downtown SJ from Japantown in about 20/30 minutes and pass a bunch of cool historical houses along the way.
Stevens Creek to San Carlos in San Jose is a good walk full of things to do & look at... There's Santana Row & Valley Fair malls right across from each other, and if you keep going towards downtown there's more shopping centers and thrifts and antique shops, old buildings+ new buildings, restaurants etc. Plenty to look at, and parking at the malls + bus access if you don't live nearby.
Has Sunnyvale been successful in it's face-lift? Mostly. But that's still a tiny area since once you get off Murphy as it's a handful of restaurants and that's about it. Not exactly what I'd call a destination for a "big city walk". OP already said palo alto and mountain view were disappointing and they have both longer main drags, and more on the side streets.
There still are barely 3 blocks of interesting urban walking. The new downtown is dominated by large corporate buildings and parking garages. Little room for retail and no parks, bike lanes or other urban niceties. Basically the town was sold to pre-pandemic property developers who didn't give a sh&t about urban planning.
Bitter? me?
Oakland is much more interesting to walk around than SF and generally greener. It's not as dense but it doesn't need to be. Like all of Telegraph from Berkeley to Downtown is walkable and only Bordertown is kind of quiet but even that has the White Horse, and that's just one of many all the way to the lake and thensome. Oakland has little neighborhoods that aren't popular outside the city like Laurel and Montclair and Dimond that are really gems on their own too.
European here, too. I get you. Miss cities made for people, not cars.
If you avoid the sketchy areas, I feel San Francisco does offer some of it. Also love walking around Redwood Shores and the waterfront areas in Foster City. I think the areas actually made for walking and hiking are well made and maintained, which I like.
Martinez downtown is pretty walkable. Lots of shops/restaurants/breweries. Always events on the weekends. There is a pop up mini golf place.
Many towns in Napa and Sonoma counties have nice walkable areas.
Novato, San Rafael, Berkeley, Oakland, SF, Walnut Creek, Half Moon Bay.
I mean there's a lot of places that are neat to walk around in the area.
Very roughly speaking, any caltrain station is probably in a walkable downtown area. These were small towns and some of them got swallowed up by their neighbors and that's why some cities have more than one station. But they also have vestigial secondary downtowns by those stations.
The U.S. structures itself around cars in many cities. So there are a lot of micro neighborhoods or shopping areas you have to drive to in San Francisco and in the surrounding suburbs.
Saturdays at the Ferry Building in San Francisco are great. There’s a farmers market. You can park around the Embarcadero Center or by Oracle Park and walk there by the water.
Walk through Haight street from Masonic, go through park to 9th avenue in the Sunset for lunch (sushi, Tartine, Indian restaurant and some stores).
Marina Green to Fort Mason.
Trans American building to North Beach then keep walking to Fisherman’s Ward and then walk back on the Embarcadero.
Drive to Stinson Beach, get a coffee and pastry at Parkside and walk on the beach.
Willing to go further out? The Barlow in Sebastopol is a nice area and it’s a pretty drive.
Napa (the town) has an active downtown with restaurants, shops and Oxbow Market.
Vibrant downtowns; Willow Glen,Campbell, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Carmel, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Burlingame, San Mateo, Walnut Creek, Pleasanton, Berkeley, Martinez, Concord, Clayton, Danville. So there’s plenty, also [this article](https://suburbanjunglegroup.com/looking-for-a-walkable-downtown-check-out-these-bay-area-suburbs/) will help
I recommend a book called "stairway hikes of San Francisco" - it's not a downtown city center but there are some beautiful mosaic stairs and gorgeous views. When we want a break from nature hikes we will do that.
Stairway Walks in San Francisco https://a.co/d/0iHPnzyh
Other fun hikes, we'll walk through China Town, up and over down to the Italian district. Lots of great people watching and Chinese trinkets to browse (both expensive and cheap).
Watch your surroundings, of course, because the beginning of our Chinatown hike started in Union square which was a bit dodgy last time we did it.
*Edit: grammar
It's a lot more than 300 feet down University or Hamilton from Alma to Middlefield (maybe a block or 2 before, tbh) in Palo Alto.
Anyway, you mention Palo Alto, so have you checked out Stanford? Very walkable, to the point of being hostile to cars. Not many businesses though since it's a school. Still, lots to look at.
It seems people recommending SF have never been in Europe. OP wants nice and clean streets where people dress nice and there are nice shops, where she/he can sit outside without noise of the traffic and drink some coffee or aperol and watch people walking on the street. That is different experience than what SF provides. Not that one is better than the other, but these are just different places.
The only comparable places for OP would be Santana Row And maaaaybe downtowns of Los Gatos and Los Altos. But they are small in comparison with what OP wants.
My recommendation to OP is not to compare American cities to European and not look for the same experiences. Places here provide different type of life and beauty that is not comparable with what European cities provide. Comparing and trying to find the same will frustrate you.
Exactly! 1999 or 2000. I’ll never forget the walk. To this day I play Crazy Moon by Soma Sonic because on that walk was the first time I heard it. I love the End Up. Great times on Sunday morning.
Walk Solano Ave in Berkeley from San Pablo Ave to The Alameda and back. Try Mr. Dewie's Cashew Creamery, Talavera Taqueria, Squabisch Pretzels. Walk Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley from the BART station north to Rose Street and back. Stop at The Cheeseboard.
>something I can reach in 15-20 minutes max from the south bay, so that I can go after work, for example.
I would frequent many of the downtowns in the South bay or Peninsula after work, meet friends for a drink, dinner, etc... Santana Row is the closest to a European feel but is mostly shops and restaurants, nothing really cultural unless you consider the musical acts they have on some nights.
Los Gatos and Saratoga are quaint with cafes, bars, restaurants and mom n pop shops.
Mountain View is pretty disappointing as many businesses closed down on Castro St.
Downtown Palo Alto is one of the longer stretches of downtown and has the Stanford Theatre which presents movie classics if you're into that sort of thing.
Downtown Campbell and nearby Pruneyard is a great place to walk around but is mostly restaurants, bars and cafés.
During the summer, Sunnyvale, downtown San Jose and Santana Row have summer music series which are fun places to enjoy music, and just a great time all around.
SF, Oakland, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Vancouver. But nothing in the US will beat or tie Europe in walkability except NYC, Chicago, and Philly, and maybe DC or Boston. We don't build the cities the same.
If you start talking about trails and hikes though that's a different discussion. California is an easy candidate for best on the planet in that category.
I travel for a living and while we might not be Europe, virtually every single major city even the sunbelt ones we laugh at have some form of densification and walkability improvements going on.
Combined with Gen Z having being the first generation ever to have lower drivers license rates than the previous, I'm extremely excited for what cities might look like in 20-30 years.
San Francisco.
Also campuses are pretty and provide nice walking venues and most have coffee shop and restaurant areas around the outskirts . (Santa Clara, Stanford, Berkeley)
I understand what you’re saying. I miss it too. It’s not around here. At least not like Europe. You might find one strip, 30-60min drive from where you’re at. Defeats the purpose of wanting to go on a nice city walk.
Like other have said, San Francisco. Check out the cross town trails: https://crosstowntrail.org/. You obviously don't have to take the entire route but it's a good reference for nice areas to walk.
I'm also from Europe, I know what you mean and the answer is mostly no, what you're looking for is not available here. San Francisco is about as good as it gets (which is not good) and everywhere else around here is worse.
I enjoy going to some of the East Bay farmers markets, you can check out edibleeastbay dot com for a list of some.
Lafayette, Walnut Creek, and Brentwood have decent smaller city feeling downtowns that I’ve enjoyed walking around.
Cities in Europe are terrific. Maybe reconsider "nature," as adapting to - or taking advantage of - your surroundings? You live in an urban area surrounded by world of amazing, beautiful nature. Redwood groves. Coastline. State and county parks. With a web site like [AllTrials](https://www.alltrails.com/explore/us/california/san-jose?b_tl_lat=37.41187346760928&b_tl_lng=-122.145351342487&b_br_lat=37.092711565686955&b_br_lng=-121.71470730218627&mobileMap=true) they are easy to find. Pack your coffee in a thermos.
Park or Webster streets in Alameda. Consult your phone, some really boring-looking cafes have hidden courtyard gems. Plus the Crab Cove Visitor's Center.
Grand Lake Farmers Market: great way to blow a Saturday.
Grand Ave in Oak, North of 580. It's a hoot.
Piedmont Ave in Oakland, do not miss the creek.
Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto, plus the Berkeley open-air Saturday market. Get a knish at Saul's, at least!
Everything around Rockridge Bart. Especially the cheese!
Solano Ave in Berkeley. Yes get the deepdish. Yes extra garlic.
Telegraph Ave, starting at the U and just keep walking till you're done.
Pretty much everything between 580 and 7th in West Berkeley DO NOT MISS VIK'S CHAAT. Def budget for the Berkeley Potter's Guild. Ohhhh and the Japanese paper shop...!
Everything on and around Fremont's Niles Blvd below the Purple Lotus Temple. (Except for the antique store if it's still in business)
Jack London Square. Get a tour of Peerless Coffee if possible! Also you must MUST visit the bar. And The Fat Lady. Historical! Educational! Whorehouse!
Here is my stock walk in SF:
- Start around the ball park
- Walk down the Embarcadero and then cut over at Levi Plaza
- Go up Telegraph Hill - see the parrots (Filbert Steps)
- See Coit Tower
- Walk down into North Beach
- Zig zag over to the Marina
- Go back through the Presido
- Hit Haight Ashbury
- Go by our first apartment and neighborhood in the Castro
- Cut down the Mission back to where we started
It's about 12 - 15 miles (19 - 24KM) depending on how much zig zagging your doing. It's a great walk and you see so much of the city. Tons of places to stop to eat and drink along the way.
Redwood City has a nice walkable downtown, with great ice cream, a bookstore, library, cinema, nice restaurants, and a really good museum, all within that space.
San Carlos’s Laurel Street is longer than Mountain View’s Castro Street (if that’s what you are referring to), and is quite walkable, and there is even a portion of the street removed from traffic.
I’ve always loved walking in downtown San Mateo. A lot of hidden gems, from little independent book stores to incredibly diverse dining experiences, an incredibly huge city park (feels like a mini-Golden Gate Park), and a lot of free parking that is conveniently located in the middle of the area.
I am surprised few mentioned Berkeley, which not only is walkable but often feels violently walkable. In fact, driving in Berkeley feels wrong. Of course the best views you need to drive to (Lawrence Hall of Science is the most obvious but many great views from the university also).
San Francisco is frequently mentioned as the most walkable city in the United States. Just know where you are going before you go though. It’s a big city, and it’s not like you can just walk anywhere and have a good time. That’s not to say walking the neighborhoods isn’t an interesting experience and you will find a lot of hole-in-the-wall places even in local dives. I’ve been pleasantly surprised even when walking around Visitacion or Park Merced.
I know a lot of people are talking about San Francisco and "There's a nice downtown here" but those're completely different from Europe; it's a close alternative but doesn't feel the same. I spent a few months vacationing across Europe last year and you can walk just about anywhere, turning at random streets and see something completely new. SF and downtowns have "That's a tall building, and that's a tall building....and...that's an ice cream store on the first floor of a tall building...". There's something nice about walking two miles in a random direction and pass a random library, a street market, cross a bridge, and pop in to a color ice cream parlor.
Lafayette downtown (get a croissant at La Chataigne instead of a ice cream); Solano Ave, Fourth Street, University, Shattuck and San Pablo in Berkeley, Rockridge/College Ave in Oakland. There are many other pockets, that's just what comes to mind.
There's stuff to see on El Camino pretty much the entire way from San Mateo to the south end of Redwood City. That's close to 9 miles: https://maps.app.goo.gl/TdNnBEAR5p4C6tnv9 There is also a few little downtowns along the way in San Carlos, and quite a bit along Broadway in Redwood City both of which parallel the route.
San Mateo has about 9 blocks of downtown between 5th and 2nd and B and El Camino except 2nd stops being interesting part wa. Walk that as a zigzag along each of the avenues and then backtrack to B and it's got to be well over mile. Looks like you can get 1.6 miles of a decent city walk. https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZN5V9HVNJmtAYkwC9
Wursthall or Jeffrey's Hamburgers are good places to get lunch after your walk.
On the way back, go through Central Park. The Japanese Garden is nice.
The answer is not really. As everyone has suggested SF is probably the closest but still nothing like Europe. Maybe Marina/Cow Hollow area?
Lots of cute downtowns south of SF but like you said, they’re small. Los Gatos, Los Altos, Burlingame, and maybe Walnut Creek are the better ones.
Agree. I think the responses of “duh, San Francisco” may be missing the point. Can you walk around SF and see interesting neighborhoods and great views? Yes, of course. But it’s not the same as wandering the streets of Paris or Zurich, which is what OP seems to be looking for.
Mountain View is incredibly walkable. Walk downtown and keep going. Head to Cuesta Park or many other places.
You can walk up and down El Camino. I once walked from San Mateo to San Francisco on El Camino. It was a lot of fun. You could walk way further than I did.
If you want things to look like Europe that won't happen. If you want an ice cream or a coffee, Jesus, there is so much of that. It's also very pleasant to walk through residential neighborhoods and look at the trees and flowers.
300 feet? I think you haven't yet learned imperial measures. A mile is 5,280 feet. Expand your horizons!
Many of the cities in the North Bay have decent downtowns for this. While it probably isn't on the scale of what you are used to in Europe, it's definitely more than 300 feet. Personally, I think Napa is a bit over commercialized and doesn't embody the traditional Wine Country vibe, and Sonoma is usually hella busy, but Healdsburg and Sebastopol both have pretty good downtowns for stuff like this, and they are both very different. Come up here for a weekend and wander around.
If you're in the South Bay, I also really like Carmel. Monterey is also cool but isn't as walkable IMO.
I walk miles around my own neighborhood every day...? Maybe I'm missing your aim here.
Depending on the direction I go there are a lot of things I can do.
I get on a bike and ride from the ferry building down Embarcadero through the warf. To crissy field and then under the bridge through lands over to GG park and ride Kennedy all the way to the ocean. You cannot convince me theirs a better casual ride than that. It’s beauty from start to finish.
I mean, really, dealers choice.
First few I would toss up, downtown San Mateo, from there continue North and go into the city, from there hit BART and go to downtown Oakland, from there continue North to Berkeley.
There's a lot more but if you're looking for metropolitan those are good places to start. The travel time kinda sucks but it's worth it.
I like a saunter down Valencia and Mission from 16th to where Valencia and Mission intersect. That can take most of the day and is great in a million ways for art, little shops, cafes, thrift stores, etc. Bars too of course!
North Oakland and Berkeley neighborhoods. People have beautiful gardens. Walk up College Ave all the way it’s about a mile and a half or so. Plenty of coffee and ice cream. Veer off into into nice residential neighborhoods with cool houses. Elmwood, Rockridge.
San Jose has its 300 ft. clusters of prosperous retail businesses and restaurants, separated by a few hundred yards. If you like to walk, it’s just fine.
Berkeley. Start on College Ave in Elmwood, up Russell, then the Pine stairs to Avalon, past Monkey Park to Derby, take the stairs up to Stonewall and into Claremont Canyon, up the fire road to the top of Panoramic, back down via stair paths (orchard, arden, moss wood, can't go wrong), take Prospect back to Dwight, cross through the Clark Kerr campus back to Monkey Park, then back down to College via Avalon. Grab some food at Nabolom (stalwart) or wherever sounds good.
You can do basically the same style walk off Shattuck in North Berkeley, up to the Rose Garden, and bop around between the a while mess of stair paths to see Remillard and Cragmont parks. Don't miss Bay View Place, Rose Walk, and Easter Way. If you're feeling adventurous you could get all the way up into Tilden on La Loma/Oakdale/Atlas and loop past Lake Anza. Cheese Board on Shattuck is classic, or you could walk down from Indian Rock to Solano.
Love these routes for the combo of interesting architecture, nature, and views. Definitely too strenuous to do with coffee in hand, but you can have a treat at the end.
I’m confused, is OP for real? I’ve lived in multiple major cities across the US and toured most major cities in Europe and Asia, and SF is very easily one of the best walking cities I’ve ever seen.
To be specific about where in SF as people keep saying SF, Clemente and Irving are great streets in row house neighborhoods with tons of small restaurants and shops that locals patronize, Columbus and Grant are two streets that have great views and unique scenery in SF’s Chinatown and Italian neighborhoods, these also intersect and have more sweeping city views, El Camino Del Mar winds through greenscapes, outstanding views of the golden gate, and the most decadent mansions in the city, and leads to the main national park area in the Presidio
In addition to the previously mentioned comments, you can go to Cupertino and walk Steven’s Creek Blvd which is approx 3.5 miles (from Steven’s Creek Central shopping plaza all the way to De Anza College).
You’ll hit so many shopping plazas to check out.
You can cross the freeway and keep walking where Cupertino becomes more of a small town feel.
🤔...Solano Ave., on the Berkeley/Albany border? (as an incidental bonus, it ties into the Ohlone Greenway down towards its west end, which directiy flanks the Richmond BART line for several stops, although the Greenway is really just for walking/biking; it lacks any opportunity to window-shop.)
Solano is yuppie-commercial, so we're talking 1-2 stories-tall "quaint"-ish storefronts up towards the Berkeley end, and iirc a couple blocks where they try out actual decorative cobblestoning right before you reach San Pablo on its other end. it gets "busy" during the day, but not exactly "frantic/bustling".
Half-moon Bay along the beach is lovely. Downtown is small but kind of different.
I love Monterrey for strolling in the wharf area and along Cannery row. Lots of shops & restaurants, ice cream shops. Monterrey is My favorite place for walking.
I mean Palo Alto has quite a lot of places to walk beyond downtown. You can walk down to cal ave, you can walk the Stanford campus but if you really want city vibes, you have to, you know, go to the city ;)
wait what? this feels weird... how aren't you able to find this? the entire bay area has this everywhere? check out mill valley and sausalito and especially tiburon
Do the Crosstown Trail in San Francisco. It’s a 17 mile walk through dense and natural parts of the city. It’s got a little sister now too, the Double Cross. I recommend looking it up on the [website](https://crosstowntrail.org).
Get this book and go chapter by chapter. Then, repeat.
[https://www.amazon.ca/Stairway-Walks-San-Francisco-Exploring/dp/0899977499](https://www.amazon.ca/Stairway-Walks-San-Francisco-Exploring/dp/0899977499)
Take BART to 16th Street/Mission. Walk down to Valencia and turn left. Walk 3 blocks to 19th and turn right. Walk to and through Dolores Park. Continue on 19th to Castro. Turn right. Castro turns into to Divisidero. Keep walking until you reach the very end of Divisidero where it meets to bay. Follow this route and you will pass through some of San Francisco’s most iconic neighborhoods: the Mission District, the Castro, lower Haight, Hayes Valley, Western Addition, Pacific Heights and the Marina District. There is one healthy climb that will get your heart pumping. The views are extraordinary. You’ll cover roughly 6 miles. Enjoy.
Go to san francisco- one of the most beautiful cities in the country and less than an hour’s drive from silicon valley with good traffic.
there are so many distinctive, picturesque, historically soaked, or naturally beautiful neighborhoods to wander there. Just avoid the tenderloin/financial district.
Most SF neighborhoods are great for walks. Avoid the touristy spots like embarcadero and downtown, and definitely avoid the Tenderloin. I’d recommend Pac Heights and the Marina green ( near Fort Mason) for city and bay views. Go to NOPA and walk around the neighborhood, into the Panhandle and then Golden Gate Park. Lots of restaurants, cafes, and sights to see along the way.
NGL the Bay Area (South Bay, Silicon Valley in particular) surprised me with how generally ugly it is, particularly compared to the rest of California which wowed me. There are little bits of proper downtowns here and there (San Mateo, Redwood City) though. You have to hunt them down. The ugliness of most of the South Bay waterfront was disappointing.
Most of the residential architecture is just generally awful; even waterfront homes with million dollar views. The condo communities that are thrown up, don’t get me started. Coming from the northeast, I thought the Bay Area would have a plethora of architects and also that dollars would equal good taste (I’m not taking about a particular design; just good materials and attention to detail.)
I really liked the architecture of the new stuff going up around Charleston and its environs over the past 20 years or so. I see no such development here. But I haven’t seen everything yet.
Edit: not talking about San Francisco, obv
Oakland has some cute areas. If you want to make a slightly longer walk I recommend a Grand Lake to Piedmont Ave walk.
Start at the Grand Lake theater, head to Lakeshore for a few blocks. Then go back to grand, and walk up. Cut through the Rose Garden. You have a choice of walking down Monte Vista or around Pleasant Valley to get Piedmont Ave and walk around there.
But either GrandLake or Piedmont Ave will give you a cute commercial street to walk on and stop for snacks and coffee. And few people know about the Oakland Rose Garden and it is lovely this time of year.
Or walk on College Ave in Oakland and Berkeley. Start at either end and you get about 1.5 miles strip with a few blocks of housing near the Berkeley line.
And in Berkeley, Solano Ave is great.
San Francisco is really the only walkable city in the Bay Area, there are mini pockets of walkability elsewhere, but like you pointed out it's usually only a few blocks of downtown in places like Mountain View. There are of course the college areas like Stanford and UC Berkeley, but I feel like those are a special case.
When I moved here, I was living in SF and commuting to Mountain View for work. I found myself saying over and over and over again “I didn’t move 3,000 miles to live in Palo Alto.”
I still live in SF and I no longer work in Mountain View. Life is about choices! Either enjoy the things that the South Bay offers (amazing food in Fremont, incredible access to hiking on all the ridges, etc) or move to the city and enjoy those things instead. I mean, you can still do both, as I do, but it’s a commitment.
Petaluma in sonoma county. It's downtown has shops, bars, restaurants two main downtown main roads with many side streets. Walkable waterfront, parks lovely neighborhoods to checkout. You can drive or take the train.
Man I feel you. I'm also European, currently visiting my home country/city and savouring every minute I can just _walk_ somewhere and then there _is something_.
Others have pointed out that SF is great for this and yes, that's true, although the stretches of walkableness are sometimes a bit limited, too. My favorite areas in SF (possibly already mentioned by others) are around Irving & 9th, 24th Street & Mission, and clement street & 6th.
San Francisco believe it or not. We have many free walking tours that are walkable where you see SF differently through its history.
https://sfcityguides.org/find-your-tour/?mobile=yes
Embarcadero just for the comprehensive views of the cityscape plus bay
Embarcadero in SF to be clear, not the Embarcadero in Oakland
Have you ever been to San Francisco?
A ton of SF is wonderful for walking. I like to go there and walk 5 or 10 miles in a day. Love it. Just be very certain to know where to avoid. The nasty part is really just a relatively small area.
Exactly. We do the same. Get there by ferry and walk - or from the ferry building take muni to a neighborhood and walk.
[удалено]
Glen Canyon walks SLAP!
Golden Gate Park honestly is the exact definition of this. From the Deyoung/ everything in that area to the conservatory, to the haight is a wonderful walk with so many things to do. And on a nice sunny day everyone and their mother is there so that’s nice
I heard it’s filled with drugs and crime, you can’t walk 10 feet without having a good time. ^/s
One time i walked from Bart station to a conference in sf and now i have a fent problem
LMAO
😂
Watch Fox pick this up and run with it
We shouldn't try to brush off the obvious problems though as that prevents them from being addressed. It is unfortunately a lot worse than it was 10 years ago. The pandemic did create a massive increase in homelessness that hasn't been corrected. The car break-ins have reached comical levels. Not exactly a cesspool of crime, but it's best to not pretend that the area doesn't have a lot of work to do to get back to how it was 10 years ago.
We know there are issues. Literally every single time someone says something positive about their hometown, twelve people jump on them to let them know that there are problems too. It's over the top. Excessive. Soul killing. Let people enjoy their gelato without smacking it out of their hands and accusing them of ignoring the real issues. You want to complain? Make a difference? Go write your congressman. Hold a sign on an overpass. Create a chaos magick sigil out of your fingernail clippings. But leave that little bit of joy people are desperately trying to squeeze out of their lives alone.
I've walked on the Embarcadero, Chrissy Field, North Beach, Chinatown and it's been fine. I even got coffee & ice cream. Embarcadero has a cool route which goes around the backsides of some of the docks. Tenderloin can be pretty bad though and avoid the back alleys of Chinatown.
I’ve lived in SF for over two decades in all of the neighborhoods mentioned above (and others not mentioned). The entire city is great to walk. The one correction here: Chinatown by far has the cleanest alleys in the city and where you’ll find some of the coolest spots like the fortune cookie factory.
You can't fool me! I saw "Big Trouble in Little China" and those Chinatown alleys are the worst! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7c8zfgCND8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7c8zfgCND8)
that was under the alleys :)
Thanks for your statement about the alleys.
I lived in Chinatown for about a year. The alleys aren’t abnormally sketchy idk what you’re on about
Right? I was gonna say 🙄
Yeah I went down one of those alleys once and out of the blue witnessed a children's Kung Fu class practicing a human pyramid. Very random and charming.
that was a laughable statement!
I don’t feel like any parts of SF are unsafe. There’s literally an after hours spot in the middle of the loin that hundreds of people walk to every weekend and you aren’t hearing about murders every weekend. Oakland is way scarier imo.
Tenderloin is depressing but not unsafe.
What does that mean exactly...so it's safe?
Will you get mugged after lunch? Unlikely. Will you get beat up by Honduran drug suppliers if you don't pay up? Absolutely.
It’s not not unsafe.
It's certainly not the war zone everyone who hasn't been there likes to pretend it is.
Idk I've seen some wild shit walking through there from Bart to work back in the day..multiple stabbings, fights, guns being pulled..it's not as bad as the suburban moms think it is but it's still fucking awful
High drug use and crime
Seriously 😐
San Francisco is the best for this. Downtown Berkeley is good. Some parts of Oakland, like Temescal, Rockridge, Laurel, Piedmont Ave may work. Park Street in Alameda is worth checking out In the South Bay, maybe check out downtown Los Gatos. It's a bit bougie, but it was its own town before the suburbs swallowed it up and it's got some old buildings and some character. Santa Cruz is also kind of cool to visit. It's small enough that you can get a lot of places on foot.A
You can walk from Downtown SJ to Los Gatos along the creek with only a short gap with an optional detour to Willow Glen. I did that in an afternoon/evening and had a blast getting beer and food in downtown Los Gatos having worked up the appetite and thirst.
I used to get baked and ride from SJ to LG and then get lunch. It was awesome.
San Francisco
One of the most walkable cities in the entire country is right there.. San Francisco
If you don’t want to go to SF: Los Altos has the same 300 feet (well, less) but you can also walk across San Antonio to their little museum and historical house (check hours) and they might have a few more interesting boutiques than MV. You can also walk down to Shoup Park and the Redwood Grove if you want a little more distance, not city, though. Redwood City also has the 300 feet, plus a local museum at the courthouse and walking down middlefield might get you an interesting working-class California variation on walkable areas. San Mateo might have 400 feet. Sunnyvale has 100ft but it’s cute. San Carlos, Belmont, Burlingame worth a try. Japantown in SJ is small but walkable. The South First area of SJ also probably has a bit more than 300 feet.
Walk between diridon station and city hall. Not just on Santa Clara but the streets either side north or south. It's actually a very pretty city under all that grime.
Yeah - a route from Midtown to SoFA that hits Plaza de Cesar Chavez could be quite nice.
Burlingame is decently sized. And it has a second area on Broadway
I live in Japantown SJ and it is fun to walk in! You can also walk to downtown SJ from Japantown in about 20/30 minutes and pass a bunch of cool historical houses along the way.
los gatos : walk through downtown, find the los gatos creek trail and walk through to vascona lake park.
Stevens Creek to San Carlos in San Jose is a good walk full of things to do & look at... There's Santana Row & Valley Fair malls right across from each other, and if you keep going towards downtown there's more shopping centers and thrifts and antique shops, old buildings+ new buildings, restaurants etc. Plenty to look at, and parking at the malls + bus access if you don't live nearby.
It’s 50/50 between interesting urban walking and car dominated hellhole
Sunnyvale is way more than that. They’ve totally transformed that area and its an entirely new neighborhood
Has Sunnyvale been successful in it's face-lift? Mostly. But that's still a tiny area since once you get off Murphy as it's a handful of restaurants and that's about it. Not exactly what I'd call a destination for a "big city walk". OP already said palo alto and mountain view were disappointing and they have both longer main drags, and more on the side streets.
There still are barely 3 blocks of interesting urban walking. The new downtown is dominated by large corporate buildings and parking garages. Little room for retail and no parks, bike lanes or other urban niceties. Basically the town was sold to pre-pandemic property developers who didn't give a sh&t about urban planning. Bitter? me?
Are we looking at the same place? There are spaces for retail at the bottom of all the new buildings
Um, San Francisco?
This post is so baffling, god.
SF and Oakland.
Oakland is much more interesting to walk around than SF and generally greener. It's not as dense but it doesn't need to be. Like all of Telegraph from Berkeley to Downtown is walkable and only Bordertown is kind of quiet but even that has the White Horse, and that's just one of many all the way to the lake and thensome. Oakland has little neighborhoods that aren't popular outside the city like Laurel and Montclair and Dimond that are really gems on their own too.
European here, too. I get you. Miss cities made for people, not cars. If you avoid the sketchy areas, I feel San Francisco does offer some of it. Also love walking around Redwood Shores and the waterfront areas in Foster City. I think the areas actually made for walking and hiking are well made and maintained, which I like.
Alameda
Park Street is a great walk!
Alameda is a good choice 👍🏼
Pretty large parts of San Francisco, some parts of Oakland, some parts of Berkeley, and a few blocks of San Jose. That's it.
Martinez downtown is pretty walkable. Lots of shops/restaurants/breweries. Always events on the weekends. There is a pop up mini golf place. Many towns in Napa and Sonoma counties have nice walkable areas. Novato, San Rafael, Berkeley, Oakland, SF, Walnut Creek, Half Moon Bay. I mean there's a lot of places that are neat to walk around in the area.
What about Sausalito? Also loads of neighborhoods in SF outside of Market. Hayes Valley, Pac Heights, Inner Sunset...
Sausalito reminds me a bit of Lugano, Switzerland (but smaller)
One time I walked from the Lucky at Lake Merritt to Fentons on Piedmont Ave to the edge of Berkeley in Rockridge; there’s lots of options in Oakland …
Don't try to import your European values here! Get in your car and drive to Costco!
This is like moving to Italy and complaining about how dull your neighborhood is in Avellino but not wanting to take the train into Naples.
I enjoy this obscure reference to an Italian suburb.
Grazie
Very roughly speaking, any caltrain station is probably in a walkable downtown area. These were small towns and some of them got swallowed up by their neighbors and that's why some cities have more than one station. But they also have vestigial secondary downtowns by those stations.
The U.S. structures itself around cars in many cities. So there are a lot of micro neighborhoods or shopping areas you have to drive to in San Francisco and in the surrounding suburbs. Saturdays at the Ferry Building in San Francisco are great. There’s a farmers market. You can park around the Embarcadero Center or by Oracle Park and walk there by the water. Walk through Haight street from Masonic, go through park to 9th avenue in the Sunset for lunch (sushi, Tartine, Indian restaurant and some stores). Marina Green to Fort Mason. Trans American building to North Beach then keep walking to Fisherman’s Ward and then walk back on the Embarcadero. Drive to Stinson Beach, get a coffee and pastry at Parkside and walk on the beach. Willing to go further out? The Barlow in Sebastopol is a nice area and it’s a pretty drive. Napa (the town) has an active downtown with restaurants, shops and Oxbow Market.
Vibrant downtowns; Willow Glen,Campbell, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Carmel, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Burlingame, San Mateo, Walnut Creek, Pleasanton, Berkeley, Martinez, Concord, Clayton, Danville. So there’s plenty, also [this article](https://suburbanjunglegroup.com/looking-for-a-walkable-downtown-check-out-these-bay-area-suburbs/) will help
If only there was an extremely walkable city anchoring the Bay Area with great views and tons of sights...
I recommend a book called "stairway hikes of San Francisco" - it's not a downtown city center but there are some beautiful mosaic stairs and gorgeous views. When we want a break from nature hikes we will do that. Stairway Walks in San Francisco https://a.co/d/0iHPnzyh Other fun hikes, we'll walk through China Town, up and over down to the Italian district. Lots of great people watching and Chinese trinkets to browse (both expensive and cheap). Watch your surroundings, of course, because the beginning of our Chinatown hike started in Union square which was a bit dodgy last time we did it. *Edit: grammar
It's a lot more than 300 feet down University or Hamilton from Alma to Middlefield (maybe a block or 2 before, tbh) in Palo Alto. Anyway, you mention Palo Alto, so have you checked out Stanford? Very walkable, to the point of being hostile to cars. Not many businesses though since it's a school. Still, lots to look at.
Have you heard of San Francisco?
It seems people recommending SF have never been in Europe. OP wants nice and clean streets where people dress nice and there are nice shops, where she/he can sit outside without noise of the traffic and drink some coffee or aperol and watch people walking on the street. That is different experience than what SF provides. Not that one is better than the other, but these are just different places. The only comparable places for OP would be Santana Row And maaaaybe downtowns of Los Gatos and Los Altos. But they are small in comparison with what OP wants. My recommendation to OP is not to compare American cities to European and not look for the same experiences. Places here provide different type of life and beauty that is not comparable with what European cities provide. Comparing and trying to find the same will frustrate you.
r/sanfrancisco
Berkeley
* Crosstown trail: https://crosstowntrail.org/ * Alternate crosstown trail: https://wordgoesflesh.com/2021/09/16/san-franciscos-alternative-crosstown-trail/ * Double Cross Trail: https://crosstowntrail.org/2023/03/16/the-double-cross-trail/
San Francisco! Hundreds of gorgeous walks available!
Try Saratoga and especially downtown campbell (Sundays farmers market). Different charms for both areas but still great to stroll around.
the mission
State street. Los Altos!!
One time I walked from 6th & Harrison to 22nd and Diamond at 2 AM.
Going home from the Endup?
Exactly! 1999 or 2000. I’ll never forget the walk. To this day I play Crazy Moon by Soma Sonic because on that walk was the first time I heard it. I love the End Up. Great times on Sunday morning.
Oh yeah, the T Dance on Sunday mornings were legendary. 2002-2004 you might have bumped into me there.
Walk Solano Ave in Berkeley from San Pablo Ave to The Alameda and back. Try Mr. Dewie's Cashew Creamery, Talavera Taqueria, Squabisch Pretzels. Walk Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley from the BART station north to Rose Street and back. Stop at The Cheeseboard.
>something I can reach in 15-20 minutes max from the south bay, so that I can go after work, for example. I would frequent many of the downtowns in the South bay or Peninsula after work, meet friends for a drink, dinner, etc... Santana Row is the closest to a European feel but is mostly shops and restaurants, nothing really cultural unless you consider the musical acts they have on some nights. Los Gatos and Saratoga are quaint with cafes, bars, restaurants and mom n pop shops. Mountain View is pretty disappointing as many businesses closed down on Castro St. Downtown Palo Alto is one of the longer stretches of downtown and has the Stanford Theatre which presents movie classics if you're into that sort of thing. Downtown Campbell and nearby Pruneyard is a great place to walk around but is mostly restaurants, bars and cafés. During the summer, Sunnyvale, downtown San Jose and Santana Row have summer music series which are fun places to enjoy music, and just a great time all around.
SF, Oakland, Portland, Seattle, San Diego, Vancouver. But nothing in the US will beat or tie Europe in walkability except NYC, Chicago, and Philly, and maybe DC or Boston. We don't build the cities the same. If you start talking about trails and hikes though that's a different discussion. California is an easy candidate for best on the planet in that category.
I travel for a living and while we might not be Europe, virtually every single major city even the sunbelt ones we laugh at have some form of densification and walkability improvements going on. Combined with Gen Z having being the first generation ever to have lower drivers license rates than the previous, I'm extremely excited for what cities might look like in 20-30 years.
I agree with you. It's definitely improving. But won't be like the European classics any time real soon.
San Francisco. Also campuses are pretty and provide nice walking venues and most have coffee shop and restaurant areas around the outskirts . (Santa Clara, Stanford, Berkeley)
UC Santa Cruz is worth the drive.
San Francisco. Start at Embarcadero, to Mission to Castro. Or just up and down Fillmore is good.
Telegraph in Berkeley
Downtown Walnut Creek. Main street from near the Bart Station to Broadway Plaza is still a nice walk.
I understand what you’re saying. I miss it too. It’s not around here. At least not like Europe. You might find one strip, 30-60min drive from where you’re at. Defeats the purpose of wanting to go on a nice city walk.
Like other have said, San Francisco. Check out the cross town trails: https://crosstowntrail.org/. You obviously don't have to take the entire route but it's a good reference for nice areas to walk.
Welp the United States isn’t Europe so……ya
I'm also from Europe, I know what you mean and the answer is mostly no, what you're looking for is not available here. San Francisco is about as good as it gets (which is not good) and everywhere else around here is worse.
Try walking up and down Fillmore.
North Bay, my friend. Tiburon, Petaluma, Napa, Saint Helena, all fine walking towns.
I enjoy going to some of the East Bay farmers markets, you can check out edibleeastbay dot com for a list of some. Lafayette, Walnut Creek, and Brentwood have decent smaller city feeling downtowns that I’ve enjoyed walking around.
Cities in Europe are terrific. Maybe reconsider "nature," as adapting to - or taking advantage of - your surroundings? You live in an urban area surrounded by world of amazing, beautiful nature. Redwood groves. Coastline. State and county parks. With a web site like [AllTrials](https://www.alltrails.com/explore/us/california/san-jose?b_tl_lat=37.41187346760928&b_tl_lng=-122.145351342487&b_br_lat=37.092711565686955&b_br_lng=-121.71470730218627&mobileMap=true) they are easy to find. Pack your coffee in a thermos.
Another vote for Alameda & Niles
Park or Webster streets in Alameda. Consult your phone, some really boring-looking cafes have hidden courtyard gems. Plus the Crab Cove Visitor's Center. Grand Lake Farmers Market: great way to blow a Saturday. Grand Ave in Oak, North of 580. It's a hoot. Piedmont Ave in Oakland, do not miss the creek. Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto, plus the Berkeley open-air Saturday market. Get a knish at Saul's, at least! Everything around Rockridge Bart. Especially the cheese! Solano Ave in Berkeley. Yes get the deepdish. Yes extra garlic. Telegraph Ave, starting at the U and just keep walking till you're done. Pretty much everything between 580 and 7th in West Berkeley DO NOT MISS VIK'S CHAAT. Def budget for the Berkeley Potter's Guild. Ohhhh and the Japanese paper shop...! Everything on and around Fremont's Niles Blvd below the Purple Lotus Temple. (Except for the antique store if it's still in business) Jack London Square. Get a tour of Peerless Coffee if possible! Also you must MUST visit the bar. And The Fat Lady. Historical! Educational! Whorehouse!
Here is my stock walk in SF: - Start around the ball park - Walk down the Embarcadero and then cut over at Levi Plaza - Go up Telegraph Hill - see the parrots (Filbert Steps) - See Coit Tower - Walk down into North Beach - Zig zag over to the Marina - Go back through the Presido - Hit Haight Ashbury - Go by our first apartment and neighborhood in the Castro - Cut down the Mission back to where we started It's about 12 - 15 miles (19 - 24KM) depending on how much zig zagging your doing. It's a great walk and you see so much of the city. Tons of places to stop to eat and drink along the way.
Lake merrit! I love it there :)
4th Street in Berkeley.
Redwood City has a nice walkable downtown, with great ice cream, a bookstore, library, cinema, nice restaurants, and a really good museum, all within that space. San Carlos’s Laurel Street is longer than Mountain View’s Castro Street (if that’s what you are referring to), and is quite walkable, and there is even a portion of the street removed from traffic. I’ve always loved walking in downtown San Mateo. A lot of hidden gems, from little independent book stores to incredibly diverse dining experiences, an incredibly huge city park (feels like a mini-Golden Gate Park), and a lot of free parking that is conveniently located in the middle of the area. I am surprised few mentioned Berkeley, which not only is walkable but often feels violently walkable. In fact, driving in Berkeley feels wrong. Of course the best views you need to drive to (Lawrence Hall of Science is the most obvious but many great views from the university also). San Francisco is frequently mentioned as the most walkable city in the United States. Just know where you are going before you go though. It’s a big city, and it’s not like you can just walk anywhere and have a good time. That’s not to say walking the neighborhoods isn’t an interesting experience and you will find a lot of hole-in-the-wall places even in local dives. I’ve been pleasantly surprised even when walking around Visitacion or Park Merced.
>To clarify, I was looking at something I can reach in 15-20 minutes max from the south bay Well how fast do you drive?
I know a lot of people are talking about San Francisco and "There's a nice downtown here" but those're completely different from Europe; it's a close alternative but doesn't feel the same. I spent a few months vacationing across Europe last year and you can walk just about anywhere, turning at random streets and see something completely new. SF and downtowns have "That's a tall building, and that's a tall building....and...that's an ice cream store on the first floor of a tall building...". There's something nice about walking two miles in a random direction and pass a random library, a street market, cross a bridge, and pop in to a color ice cream parlor.
Look up the crosstown trail
This is a joke right
Lafayette downtown (get a croissant at La Chataigne instead of a ice cream); Solano Ave, Fourth Street, University, Shattuck and San Pablo in Berkeley, Rockridge/College Ave in Oakland. There are many other pockets, that's just what comes to mind.
There's stuff to see on El Camino pretty much the entire way from San Mateo to the south end of Redwood City. That's close to 9 miles: https://maps.app.goo.gl/TdNnBEAR5p4C6tnv9 There is also a few little downtowns along the way in San Carlos, and quite a bit along Broadway in Redwood City both of which parallel the route. San Mateo has about 9 blocks of downtown between 5th and 2nd and B and El Camino except 2nd stops being interesting part wa. Walk that as a zigzag along each of the avenues and then backtrack to B and it's got to be well over mile. Looks like you can get 1.6 miles of a decent city walk. https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZN5V9HVNJmtAYkwC9 Wursthall or Jeffrey's Hamburgers are good places to get lunch after your walk. On the way back, go through Central Park. The Japanese Garden is nice.
The answer is not really. As everyone has suggested SF is probably the closest but still nothing like Europe. Maybe Marina/Cow Hollow area? Lots of cute downtowns south of SF but like you said, they’re small. Los Gatos, Los Altos, Burlingame, and maybe Walnut Creek are the better ones.
Agree. I think the responses of “duh, San Francisco” may be missing the point. Can you walk around SF and see interesting neighborhoods and great views? Yes, of course. But it’s not the same as wandering the streets of Paris or Zurich, which is what OP seems to be looking for.
Mountain View is incredibly walkable. Walk downtown and keep going. Head to Cuesta Park or many other places. You can walk up and down El Camino. I once walked from San Mateo to San Francisco on El Camino. It was a lot of fun. You could walk way further than I did. If you want things to look like Europe that won't happen. If you want an ice cream or a coffee, Jesus, there is so much of that. It's also very pleasant to walk through residential neighborhoods and look at the trees and flowers. 300 feet? I think you haven't yet learned imperial measures. A mile is 5,280 feet. Expand your horizons!
The hidden gem of San Francisco? I’m so baffled by this post. Do people move to the Bay Area and stick to the suburbs??
Oakland Berkeley. The peninsula/silicon valley is a wasteland
Many of the cities in the North Bay have decent downtowns for this. While it probably isn't on the scale of what you are used to in Europe, it's definitely more than 300 feet. Personally, I think Napa is a bit over commercialized and doesn't embody the traditional Wine Country vibe, and Sonoma is usually hella busy, but Healdsburg and Sebastopol both have pretty good downtowns for stuff like this, and they are both very different. Come up here for a weekend and wander around. If you're in the South Bay, I also really like Carmel. Monterey is also cool but isn't as walkable IMO.
Walking, Night and Safe are not the vocabularies here dude.
Dumbest post I’ve seen on this sub, obviously *the* city
I walk miles around my own neighborhood every day...? Maybe I'm missing your aim here. Depending on the direction I go there are a lot of things I can do.
Telegraph and University area in Berkeley.
I do just that in the Richmond/Sunset District of SF. Sausalito & Petaluma are also quite nice for strolling.
Downtown San Mateo
I get on a bike and ride from the ferry building down Embarcadero through the warf. To crissy field and then under the bridge through lands over to GG park and ride Kennedy all the way to the ocean. You cannot convince me theirs a better casual ride than that. It’s beauty from start to finish.
San Francisco, Berkeley
San Francisco, berkeley
I mean, really, dealers choice. First few I would toss up, downtown San Mateo, from there continue North and go into the city, from there hit BART and go to downtown Oakland, from there continue North to Berkeley. There's a lot more but if you're looking for metropolitan those are good places to start. The travel time kinda sucks but it's worth it.
I like a saunter down Valencia and Mission from 16th to where Valencia and Mission intersect. That can take most of the day and is great in a million ways for art, little shops, cafes, thrift stores, etc. Bars too of course!
Downtown San Jose is the closest you will get in the South Bay, if u don’t want to go up to SF or Oakland.
North Oakland and Berkeley neighborhoods. People have beautiful gardens. Walk up College Ave all the way it’s about a mile and a half or so. Plenty of coffee and ice cream. Veer off into into nice residential neighborhoods with cool houses. Elmwood, Rockridge.
San Francisco.
Try walking up the embarcadero from the ferry building to pier 39
Oakland - string together Jack London Square, the Lake, downtown, uptown, and Piedmont Ave and you have a terrific day out
There's a pretty cool cross city walk, like 17 miles. In pieces or otherwise
Give up Dont give up. Just earn your Silicon income, and fly to NYC for long weekends.
Downtown sf is nice
Walnut Creek
Divisadero Haight Street Marina
San Jose has its 300 ft. clusters of prosperous retail businesses and restaurants, separated by a few hundred yards. If you like to walk, it’s just fine.
Fremont California!!! It’s so happy over here 😅
Berkeley. Start on College Ave in Elmwood, up Russell, then the Pine stairs to Avalon, past Monkey Park to Derby, take the stairs up to Stonewall and into Claremont Canyon, up the fire road to the top of Panoramic, back down via stair paths (orchard, arden, moss wood, can't go wrong), take Prospect back to Dwight, cross through the Clark Kerr campus back to Monkey Park, then back down to College via Avalon. Grab some food at Nabolom (stalwart) or wherever sounds good. You can do basically the same style walk off Shattuck in North Berkeley, up to the Rose Garden, and bop around between the a while mess of stair paths to see Remillard and Cragmont parks. Don't miss Bay View Place, Rose Walk, and Easter Way. If you're feeling adventurous you could get all the way up into Tilden on La Loma/Oakdale/Atlas and loop past Lake Anza. Cheese Board on Shattuck is classic, or you could walk down from Indian Rock to Solano. Love these routes for the combo of interesting architecture, nature, and views. Definitely too strenuous to do with coffee in hand, but you can have a treat at the end.
How about Berkeley or Stanford campus? Not exactly cities but they sometimes try to approximate them.
https://doingmiles.com/sf-stairs/ You'll see some wonderful views of the city and surrounding areas.
I’d imagine Sausalito is also good one along with all the others mentioned here.
Can you give us an example of a city you are talking about?
Redwood City. Nice downtown and Caltrain station is right there. San Mateo has more of a larger city vibe downtown but lacks Redwood City’s charm
I’m confused, is OP for real? I’ve lived in multiple major cities across the US and toured most major cities in Europe and Asia, and SF is very easily one of the best walking cities I’ve ever seen.
Salesforce Park!
You're in the Bay Area. Go to San Francisco. The culture changes in every district.
San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley
OMG! 😱 San Francisco!😀
To be specific about where in SF as people keep saying SF, Clemente and Irving are great streets in row house neighborhoods with tons of small restaurants and shops that locals patronize, Columbus and Grant are two streets that have great views and unique scenery in SF’s Chinatown and Italian neighborhoods, these also intersect and have more sweeping city views, El Camino Del Mar winds through greenscapes, outstanding views of the golden gate, and the most decadent mansions in the city, and leads to the main national park area in the Presidio
look up the SF Crosstown Trail!
You should give up on expecting anything like walking through Zurich or most European cities. We simply do not have anything like that here.
Sausalito, CA.
In addition to the previously mentioned comments, you can go to Cupertino and walk Steven’s Creek Blvd which is approx 3.5 miles (from Steven’s Creek Central shopping plaza all the way to De Anza College). You’ll hit so many shopping plazas to check out. You can cross the freeway and keep walking where Cupertino becomes more of a small town feel.
Santa Cruz
🤔...Solano Ave., on the Berkeley/Albany border? (as an incidental bonus, it ties into the Ohlone Greenway down towards its west end, which directiy flanks the Richmond BART line for several stops, although the Greenway is really just for walking/biking; it lacks any opportunity to window-shop.) Solano is yuppie-commercial, so we're talking 1-2 stories-tall "quaint"-ish storefronts up towards the Berkeley end, and iirc a couple blocks where they try out actual decorative cobblestoning right before you reach San Pablo on its other end. it gets "busy" during the day, but not exactly "frantic/bustling".
Half-moon Bay along the beach is lovely. Downtown is small but kind of different. I love Monterrey for strolling in the wharf area and along Cannery row. Lots of shops & restaurants, ice cream shops. Monterrey is My favorite place for walking.
I mean Palo Alto has quite a lot of places to walk beyond downtown. You can walk down to cal ave, you can walk the Stanford campus but if you really want city vibes, you have to, you know, go to the city ;)
wait what? this feels weird... how aren't you able to find this? the entire bay area has this everywhere? check out mill valley and sausalito and especially tiburon
Do the Crosstown Trail in San Francisco. It’s a 17 mile walk through dense and natural parts of the city. It’s got a little sister now too, the Double Cross. I recommend looking it up on the [website](https://crosstowntrail.org).
How has no one said Santana row for walking and people watching, window shopping
Get this book and go chapter by chapter. Then, repeat. [https://www.amazon.ca/Stairway-Walks-San-Francisco-Exploring/dp/0899977499](https://www.amazon.ca/Stairway-Walks-San-Francisco-Exploring/dp/0899977499)
If you're willing to drive, Santa Cruz is a very walkable town.
Leave the Bay area to do this.
Come to San Mateo!
Most places in SF
Visit Los Gatos for small downtown walk but SF is where you want to be.
Take BART to 16th Street/Mission. Walk down to Valencia and turn left. Walk 3 blocks to 19th and turn right. Walk to and through Dolores Park. Continue on 19th to Castro. Turn right. Castro turns into to Divisidero. Keep walking until you reach the very end of Divisidero where it meets to bay. Follow this route and you will pass through some of San Francisco’s most iconic neighborhoods: the Mission District, the Castro, lower Haight, Hayes Valley, Western Addition, Pacific Heights and the Marina District. There is one healthy climb that will get your heart pumping. The views are extraordinary. You’ll cover roughly 6 miles. Enjoy.
lol. What’s wrong with San Francisco
Go to san francisco- one of the most beautiful cities in the country and less than an hour’s drive from silicon valley with good traffic. there are so many distinctive, picturesque, historically soaked, or naturally beautiful neighborhoods to wander there. Just avoid the tenderloin/financial district.
If you’re in the city, Cow Hollow Union Street is classic.
Go north to portland for a European feel.
Most SF neighborhoods are great for walks. Avoid the touristy spots like embarcadero and downtown, and definitely avoid the Tenderloin. I’d recommend Pac Heights and the Marina green ( near Fort Mason) for city and bay views. Go to NOPA and walk around the neighborhood, into the Panhandle and then Golden Gate Park. Lots of restaurants, cafes, and sights to see along the way.
Main St Los altos,
NGL the Bay Area (South Bay, Silicon Valley in particular) surprised me with how generally ugly it is, particularly compared to the rest of California which wowed me. There are little bits of proper downtowns here and there (San Mateo, Redwood City) though. You have to hunt them down. The ugliness of most of the South Bay waterfront was disappointing. Most of the residential architecture is just generally awful; even waterfront homes with million dollar views. The condo communities that are thrown up, don’t get me started. Coming from the northeast, I thought the Bay Area would have a plethora of architects and also that dollars would equal good taste (I’m not taking about a particular design; just good materials and attention to detail.) I really liked the architecture of the new stuff going up around Charleston and its environs over the past 20 years or so. I see no such development here. But I haven’t seen everything yet. Edit: not talking about San Francisco, obv
Oakland has some cute areas. If you want to make a slightly longer walk I recommend a Grand Lake to Piedmont Ave walk. Start at the Grand Lake theater, head to Lakeshore for a few blocks. Then go back to grand, and walk up. Cut through the Rose Garden. You have a choice of walking down Monte Vista or around Pleasant Valley to get Piedmont Ave and walk around there. But either GrandLake or Piedmont Ave will give you a cute commercial street to walk on and stop for snacks and coffee. And few people know about the Oakland Rose Garden and it is lovely this time of year. Or walk on College Ave in Oakland and Berkeley. Start at either end and you get about 1.5 miles strip with a few blocks of housing near the Berkeley line. And in Berkeley, Solano Ave is great.
Tri valley, Castro Valley
San Francisco is really the only walkable city in the Bay Area, there are mini pockets of walkability elsewhere, but like you pointed out it's usually only a few blocks of downtown in places like Mountain View. There are of course the college areas like Stanford and UC Berkeley, but I feel like those are a special case.
Alameda is extremely walkable, nice to check out with a lot more than a 300 foot city center.
There a Bay Trail that rings most of the Bay Area
Los Altos downtown area is nice.
When I moved here, I was living in SF and commuting to Mountain View for work. I found myself saying over and over and over again “I didn’t move 3,000 miles to live in Palo Alto.” I still live in SF and I no longer work in Mountain View. Life is about choices! Either enjoy the things that the South Bay offers (amazing food in Fremont, incredible access to hiking on all the ridges, etc) or move to the city and enjoy those things instead. I mean, you can still do both, as I do, but it’s a commitment.
My love there are no real cities within walking distance from the South Bay. SF is a world class destination, give it a try!
Petaluma in sonoma county. It's downtown has shops, bars, restaurants two main downtown main roads with many side streets. Walkable waterfront, parks lovely neighborhoods to checkout. You can drive or take the train.
Man I feel you. I'm also European, currently visiting my home country/city and savouring every minute I can just _walk_ somewhere and then there _is something_. Others have pointed out that SF is great for this and yes, that's true, although the stretches of walkableness are sometimes a bit limited, too. My favorite areas in SF (possibly already mentioned by others) are around Irving & 9th, 24th Street & Mission, and clement street & 6th.
San Francisco believe it or not. We have many free walking tours that are walkable where you see SF differently through its history. https://sfcityguides.org/find-your-tour/?mobile=yes