San Franscisco – Weekend getaways

Bay Bridge at sunset.

Article by: Lonely Planet authors, May 2008

Once you've seen the otters flipping, the kites flapping and the highway peeling, you'll understand why people move to 'the Bay Area' and not just San Francisco. Take a short ferry ride, bus trip, or drive beyond the city's fringe and the adventures are there for the picking. Here are three of the juiciest.

Bodega Bay

When Alfred Hitchcock put Bodega Bay (and its tiny inland sister, Bodega) on the map in his 1963 film The Birds, it was a sleepy fishing village. Today, it looks more like an East Coast seaside tourist town, with saltwater taffy stands and giant dockside fish restaurants.

To see the ocean head to Bodega Head, 265ft above sea level, where windswept grassy hills drop into the churning surf. They don't call it 'Blowdega Head' for nothing: bring a kite. Candy & Kites (tel: 707 875 3777; 1415 Hwy 1) sells single- and dual-line varieties. There are several easy hikes in the area, including a 3.75-mile trek to Bodega Dunes Campground and a 2.2-mile walk to Salmon Creek Ranch. For high romance, go horseback riding on the beach with Chanslor Riding Stables (tel: 707 875 3333; 2660 Hwy 1). Rides and tours range from $30 to $100. On the oceanfront, Bodega Harbour Golf Links (tel: 707 875 3538; green fees $45-90) is an 18-hole Scottish-style course. There's good seasonal surfing around Bodega Bay, depending on your level of expertise. Bodega Bay Surf Shack (tel: 707 875 3944) rents boards ($15 per day), bicycles ($5 per hour), kayaks and wet suits, and offers surfing lessons and advice.

The road south

Rent a convertible, and hang on to your hat - the rush you get from driving the 120 miles of coastline south of San Francisco is worth the drive just for its own sake. As you come out of the fog into the pristine sunshine, this dramatic stretch of Hwy 1 winds along cliffs and dunes, and those lucky enough to be on the passenger side will get awesome panoramas of crashing surf, fog-bound rocks, green-cloaked hills and lonely lighthouses. Drivers will be hard-pressed to keep their eyes on the road, but it's definitely a necessity - these are precarious curves with steep drop-offs. No Hitchcock moments, please!

It's worth stopping often at vista points. You might see pods of whales spouting just offshore, para-surfers leaping the waves, flocks of seabirds and lazy acres of nude sunbathers. Half Moon Bay makes an easy daytrip from the city, and Santa Cruz could be visited in a day or overnight.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

California's central coast is one of the world's richest and most varied marine environments. It boasts a majestic coastline, famous kelp forests and a diverse range of marine life, including mammals such as sea otters, seals, sea lions, elephant seals, dolphins and whales. The protected waters of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary extend approximately 50 miles out to sea from San Simeon in the south to San Francisco in the north, where they merge with the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Monterey Bay Aquarium (tel: 831 648 4888; 886 Cannery Row; adult/child/student & senior $25/16/23; 10am-6pm; 1 Monterey-Salinas Transit), features mesmerising, state-of-the-art exhibitions devoted to the rich marine life of the Monterey Bay. Life-size models of whales and other marine mammals hang from the beamed ceiling. Star exhibits include the gigantic three-story kelp forest, where acrylic panels separate visitors from more than 300,000 gallons of water, and marine creatures swim among the towering fronds of kelp. Children love the touch tanks, where they can pick up sea stars and other tide pool creatures, and the pool where bat rays can be gently stroked. The Drifters Gallery displays astoundingly beautiful jellyfish; to see fish - including hammerhead sharks - that will outweigh you many times over, check out the Outer Bay tank. The sight of sea otters being hand-fed by a diver is a prime attraction and usually takes place at 10:30am, 1:30pm and 3:30pm.