Places to visit with children in the San Francisco Bay Area

Museums and Zoos

Bay Area Discovery Museum
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco
Coyote Point Museum, San Mateo
The de Young Museum
San Francisco's oldest public museum; located in Golden Gate Park near 10th Avenue and Fulton Street.
The Exploratorium
(415) 397-5673
3601 Lyon Street
San Francisco 94123
Best science museum in US...
Filoli
Golden Gate Park
Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, San Jose
Hiller Airplane Museum
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts
at Stanford University
KidsArt Sunday at San Jose Museum of Art This museum is free to all most of the time now. Not a big museum, but an interesting one. There's this one exhibit -- of a line of Ivory soaps, each labeled with an ID tag, that captured our interest for at least half an hour. Smells good too.
San Francisco Zoo
The Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose
Another incredible museum: Visitors of all ages and technical backgrounds are encouraged to roll up their sleeves and get a closer look, touch and feel for the technologies and innovations affecting us.
On a good day, San Jose is about 1 hour's drive south of SF.

Arts and Crafts

All Fired Up, Burlingame
Go to Zeum. They target kids but it's great for creative adults too. Letters to Editor in support of Zeum (look at bottom of the page.) Very depressing news about Zeum's future -- and what a MEAN title for a news piece!

Other

Building REsources
826 Valencia
Our kids call it "the pirate store".
Indescribable. We're not actually sure what it sells. But they will barter treasures for "something" (a dance, song) from kids. Check it out.

Outdoors

Crissy Field
Ano Nuevo State Park
Picnic at Central Park, San Mateo
Hike to El Corte de Madera Redwoods
Berry Picking at Phipps Ranch, Pescadero
Rancho San Antonio
Edgewood County Park Natural Preserve
Hikes that children might like
Berkeley Kite Festival an annual summer event that attracts kites and people of all shapes, sizes and colors.
If you are anywhere in the area when this is taking place, GO!

See murals in the Mission

Child-friendly restaurants

Sophie's Crepes
Kinokumiya Building (Japantown Building)
1581 Webster St. (near Geary)
San Francisco
Italian gelato or sandwich fillings wrapped in French crepes, in the heart of Japantown. The perfect San Francisco amalgamation.
Bombay Ice Creamery
552 Valencia St
San Francisco
Amazing ice cream, in the standard flavors and more -- cardamon, saffron, cardamon rose, and more. Other Indian and Pakistani desserts are also available.
Cameron's Restaurant
West side of Highway 1, south of town in Half Moon Bay
Famous for its two-level smoking bus, but the restaurant itself is non-smoking and offers a variety of foods, many fried, in an informal atmosphere.
The Emeryville Public Market is a food court without the mall. Well, it's in a little mall, an office building really. But instead of Sbarro's and MacDonald's, what you get is a wide variety of food vendors from all over the world.