Berkeley, California is a city known for its innovative food, love of upsetting the status quo, and of course outstanding academics. I still can’t believe that it took me so long to visit Berkeley, but when I finally did, what a perfect day trip it ended up being. Here is my idea of the perfect day trip to Berkeley. I hope the next time you are in the San Francisco or Sacramento area, you will take a day to experience this vibrant university city.
First stop: Fourth Street. This strip of beautiful shops and fun restaurants was the perfect way to begin our day there. The doors of many shops were left open, inviting us to stroll in and out. This one had so many unique things for sale, including gorgeous paper from Italy.
One of many unique shops on Fourth Street
We had our two small children with us, so this fun toy store, The Ark, was a welcome sight. If you have kids or just enjoy hand-crafted or unusual toys, I would highly recommend it.
Paradise for children?
A traveling parent always needs a stash of things to keep kids busy: these erasable cards we bought at the toy store were a hit.
Keeping busy during lunch at Zut!
Right in the heart of 4th Street is Zut! Bar and Bistro. The friendly atmosphere, reasonable prices, and excellent food made it a wonderful place to have lunch. The Middle Eastern sampler was fantastic.
Fourth Street has plenty of options for food in all price ranges
Peet’s Coffee is just down the street from Zut! and The Ark. The patio was crowded with volunteers for Greenpeace, professionals, and students, and we relaxed over some of the best coffee around.
Next stop: the University of California at Berkeley. We drove up the hill and around the campus, but I look forward to returning to Berkeley to do a walking tour. On this visit, we had the botanical garden in our sights.
UC Berkeley campus
Last stop: the botanical garden. The UC Berkeley Botanical Garden was the main reason for our visit, and it didn’t disappoint. The garden is spread over 34 acres and houses more than 13,000 plants, including rare and endangered species.
The desert section of the Botanical Garden
The Botanical Garden is situated in the Berkeley hills, with beautiful views to take in as you wander the paths.
There is so much to love at the Botanical Garden.
The combination of fun on Fourth Street, views of the campus, and amazing nature at the botanical garden made for the perfect day trip. There is much more to see and do in Berkeley, and I hope to get back there very soon.
Have you been to Berkeley? What suggestions do you have?
great post – thanks for the suggestions for our next trip there. my husband (and my father in law) used to live there – he always takes us up to grizzly peak for fantastic views! -
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Thanks for the suggestion. I will have to check out Grizzly Peak next time.
Thanks for sharing Jenna. Berkley is one of the cuty haven’t visited yet…now got a reason why to go…and do not have to plan my day trip!
If you go, please come back and tell me what you enjoyed. I need more ideas for next time!
This sounds like a great day trip! And it’s a bonus that I only live 45 minutes from Berkeley, so I could actually go
Annette | Bucket List Journey recently posted..What to Wear in London (& What I Wore)
If you live so close to Berkeley, I’m sure you’ve made that day trip a few times already! There’s much more for me to do there still, so I’m looking forward to going back.
Next year, I will explore a lot of Berkeley, including Cal and a tour of campus, on my College Football Travel Tour next year (may squeeze it in this year – we will see). I haven’t spent that much time in Berkeley (except for work) so I look forward to exploring it!
Jeremy Branham recently posted..8 things to do in Kauai when you’re not lying on the beach
Great tips! I’ve been to Berkeley 100 times (Kevin went to college there, goes to every football home game, sometimes I join or just hang out in town during the games) and haven’t been to the botanical gardens! We keep saying we are going to go there on a non-football day, but it hasn’t happened yet.
I also don’t get down to 4th Street enough. I like the gourmet ghetto area of Shattuck and spend a lot of time at the tea and food shops there, but I need to get down to explore 4th street again.
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So glad you found this helpful because I haven’t been to Berkeley much but I love the botanical garden so much that I would go every year. Thanks for the tip about Shattuck!