Best Walks in the Bay Area

ali & joie walk along harbor   If you love walking, you'll find nirvana in the San Francisco Bay Area - from great flat walks to steep hills, hidden stairways, guided walking tours and quiet shorelines - or even racewalking competitions.

We even take businesses out for walks. Our goal is to create a walking revolution by encouraging people to walk, where possible, instead of driving or sitting.

 

LET'S COMPILE A LIST OF THE BEST WALKS

Please post your favorite walks in comments to make them accessible to all. Here are a few favorites you can start with:

 

San Francisco

cropped stair section

Moraga Steps.

Gorgeous stairway of mosaic art that leads to a spectacular view of the city, the ocean and bay.

diego rivera coit tower tour photo

Coit Tower has free (and paid guided) walking tours of Diego Rivera murals, created during the WPA era. This link has maps of how to walk to Coit Tower yourself along my favorite path - the Filbert Steps.

The San Francisco Library sponsors free guided walkscityguides_banner (1)

East Bay

Oakland

oakland city center walk tour

The Oakland Walking Tours lead guided tours through the city every Saturday and Wednesday between May and October.

 

This is a great way to discover uniquely historic and interesting parts of Oakland. Save this brochure 

 

 

 

lakemerritt  Oaklanders treat the lovely Lake Merritt as their own backyard. The 3.1 mile walk passes the nation's first bird refuge,  a sometimes-cormorant and sometimes-heron rookery on the 5 man-made "Bird Islands", a beautiful botanic and Japanese Bonsai garden, a necklace of lights, Children's Fairyland, gondola rides, boating rentals (skulling, kayak, etc.) and a thriving park often filled with top level entertainment.

 

alameda lagoons The Alameda Lagoons walk is the perfect bucolic, after-work relaxing stroll with a combo ocean/lagoon view. The path leads along the ocean for half the walk with views of the port of Oakland and San Francisco, and then into the island's interior heron & duck filled lagoons down the other side of this walk. I estimate it's around 4.3 miles total but haven't measured it myself.

 

If you have an accurate step measure, pls. post the correct total length of all connected lagoons so we know!

WHERE ARE YOUR FAVORITE WALKS? Please share in comments below!

The Dome at the Lake

This article witten by CJ Hirschfield during her long tenure as the “Queen Fairy” (Executive Director) of Children’s Fairyland in Oakland Last week I came across the script that was used when Fairyland’s train used to venture through Lakeside Park, before it was permanently brought … READ FULL POST

Wildflower Walk in Roberts Regional Park

Allison co-led  a wildflower walk in Oakland’s Roberts Regional Park on April 30,2016 for a private group. Thanks to Jenny Rieger of Columbine Landscaping for sharing her vast knowledge on medicinal & Native tribes’ uses of plants – and helping us identify several of the 3 … READ FULL POST

Walking Clinics For Health, Visionary Ideas, and Stress Reduction at Work

walking clinics offer fun, safe techniques for strengthening, increasing endurance, and visionary idea building you can bring to your workplace.

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