How to Enjoy Berkeley - Berkeley - General Tips & Advice Reviews

For most people coming to San Francisco, Berkeley is not high on their list of things to see, many San Franciscans have never even been here, and that's fair enough but in my opinion you might be missing out on quite a lot of what the Bay Area has to offer. First off, you wouldn't know it from these reviews, but Berkeley is known as the Gourmet Ghetto. Almost every inch of space here that isn't taken up by gardens or campus buildings is used by restaurants. Berkeley is the birth place of California Cuisine! Alice Waters, the 'inventor' of California Cuisine, runs Chez Panise in North Berkeley off Shattuck Ave. And while her restaurant is extremely expensive you can find hundreds of other more affordable and equally yummy options here. We have everything from Himalayan to Ghanian to a Brazilian cafe and restaurant run out of a truck in a parking lot on University Ave. I've never been there but I hear they have the best tri-tip sandwich in the world.
Aside from amazing restaurants all within a stones throw of each other what Berkeley really has to offer is a genuine laid-back, California feel. Most streets are brimming with beautiful gardens, you can hear birds chirping loudly, very few places are crowded, and you feel required to say hello to everyone you pass on the street. You can walk around Fouth Street down by the bay and sit in the sun and listen to street music, you can walk around a lake in the Marina and see egrets catch fish and people flying kites, you can hike through Tilden Park in the Berkeley Hills and see the entire Bay Area, go swimming at Lake Anza, and see wild deer and some pretty crazy houses. if you come on a weekend stop by the Ashby BART Station for the Flea Market where you can try all sorts of food, find amazing items, and listen to a large drum circle playing Afro-Latin rhythms. Also, if you come near Christmas you might catch the Telegraph Street Fair, when several blocks of the famous street is cordoned off and filled with lots of arts and crafts. And then of course there's walking through Berkeley Campus, which could take quite a while if you're up for it.
I would reccommend coming in for a day trip, as most of what Berkeley really has to offer happens in the day, unless you like star-gazing, in which case you should head up to the Lawrence Berkeley Hall of Science and indulge in their telescopes.