General Interest: Bay Area Links

Another good page from HotCoCo is their East Bay Movie Listings. Click on the links at the top of the page to find listings for San Francisco, Solano and Contra Costa counties.

The local free rag covering San Francisco nightlife, entertainment, local news and political issues is the San Francisco Bay Guardian. You can pick it up on paper, or read it online and save a tree. Another magazine with similar focus is the SF Weekly.

Read some more San Francisco headlines at the Examiner or the Chronicle. A different slant on the same publication is presented on the Web at The SF Gate.

Just the news can be found at the KRON Channel 4 News Site. News, weather, sports, traffic and entertainment in the Bay area.

Keep an eye on the Bay at BayTV.com, your 24-hour source of Bay area news, sports and information.

Want to find out about San Francisco events? Try the Graphic San Francisco guide to the city.

MetroActive covers news, arts and entertainment around the San Francisco Bay area.

Diablo is a magazine about finer living in Contra Costa County.

Buying or selling something in the Bay area? The Classified Flea Market can help.

SF Bay Interactive is a great guide to living and entertainment in the Bay area. Featuring a Bay Area Kids section just for the younger travellers.

Just Go to the San Jose Mercury News site for expert reviews of movies, music, dining, stage shows and other attractions in the South Bay and the greater San Francisco Bay area,

SFBayArea.com is an online guide to the area.

East Bay Online has links to many places of interest in the San Francisco East Bay.

Bay Insider gives you the scoop on Bay Area news, living, sports, recreation and people.

CitySearch helps you locate restaurants, bars and nightclubs by city, type of cuisine or atmosphere you're looking for.

Nothing to do tonight? Take a look at some online entertainment listings for the East Bay at SFtoday's site.

Here's a list of Bay Area entertainment courtesy of Conceptual Dynamics and Travelsphere.

Planet SoMa lets you check out the local neighborhoods, with photos and reviews of local scenery.

The Bay Area Yellow Pages can help you find the business you're looking for.

Sidewalk is an online guide to restaurants and businesses with national listings. This is now a MicroSoft site that uses intrusive cookies to collect email addresses and other personal data about its users.

Nifty Stuff To Do And See

Interactive roleplaying? Virtual environments? Fusion cuisine? Check out Entros San Francisco for a unique concept in entertainment.

Explore some lesser-known Bay Area Backroads.

Here's a concept: pictures, a pub, and pizza. Relax on the couch over some tasty house-made pizza and watch a movie - except you're not at home, you're at the Parkway Theater. Bay Gourmet says, "Check it out."

More on the movies: check out the reviews at Century Theaters. For a list of Northern California locations, check their local site.

The Internet Movie Database is a huge site well worth searching for reviews before you decide where to spend your hard earned money on a ticket.

As long as you're wondering, there is theater price list from the SF Bay Guardian that compares ticket tariffs around the Bay area.

Some sharply targeted reviews of mostly non-mainstream movies playing the Bay area can be found at Talkin' Pictures, a site at BayTV.com.

Prefer more cultured events? The Culture Finder can help you find out where the best is playing in theater, opera, concerts and cultural events.

For additional convenience, you can always reserve your tickets online at Ticketweb.com.

The Steinbeck Center in Salinas is a bit of history worth visiting. Or revisiting.

The San Francisco Exploratorium is a hands-on, interactive technology museum that kids and adults will both enjoy.

The Oakland Zoo makes a fine afternoon visit in good weather. You could also visit the San Francisco Zoo.

Find out whether or not the weather will be suitable for your outdoor expeditions at The Gate Weather Forecasts.

You might also enjoy visiting some of the East Bay regional parks.

No visit to San Francisco would be complete if you didn't see the Golden Gate Bridge.

Feeling warm from the California weather? Take a dip in a Public Pool. The SF Bay Guardian has thoughtfully provided a list of accessible places for a swim in the Bay area.

It's better to take a ferry tour than to swim to Alcatraz Island, unless you were a prisoner there trying to escape in the old days. Learn this history of this barren rock when you visit Fisherman's Wharf.

While you're there, you might visit some of the main attractions of the Wharf , like the Wax Museum. This is a live webcam that will show you what's happening outside this popular attraction.

Eating on Fisherman's Wharf can be a dicey proposition - it's a truism with locals that the excellence of the view and the food are inversely proportional. Avoid the pricey tourist dives, and munch on hot, fresh steamed seafood from one of the street vendors, or check out Digital Lantern's map of Fisherman's Wharf provided by Holiday Inn, which has a wharfside location just blocks from its shopping and entertainment.

A museum with a little more cultural value is the San Francisco Modern Art Museum. Located between Mission and Howard on Third Street, parking is going to be difficult - plan to take public transit, or use one of the ubiquitous public pay lots.

If it's a truly fine day, you can take a trip down the coast to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and seaside amusement park.

Closer to home, the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park is also a nice place to wander on a pleasant, balmy afternoon. While you're in the park, walk a little further over and check out Steinhart Aquarium, a science museum and zoo that houses a fascinating collection of artifacts, astronomy, fish and reptiles for your viewing pleasure.

The ecologically minded can take some of these listed San Francisco Eco-Tours.

Wondering where to pick up your email? Here's a list of cafes with Internet access.

Video arcades are nothing new, but here's a list of some local entertainment centers that offer the latest technological ways to have a blast.

For more old fashioned pleasures, here's a list of Bookstores with cafes in the Bay area.

No cafe here, but Moe's Books and The Other Change of Hobbit are bookstores worth a browse in Berkeley.

If you're looking for the proudly queer entertainment scene in San Francisco, the QSF Guide will turn you on to the gayest restaurants, clubs and entertainment in town.

Macho sports fans will appreciate the fact that San Francisco is home to major teams in baseball, basketball and football. If sports is your scene, take a look at Futurecast's guide to SF Sporting Events.

Finding good nightlife in the SF Bay can be challenging. Here's the SF Weekly guide to the club scene, from good to bad to indifferent..

City Highlights

An online guide to Tea Houses will help you stay in that Chinese mood.

Take a tour through the Castro district of San Francisco.

Or visit the San Francisco Marina, where you'll find attractions and entertainment at the Presidio.

A great guide to San Francisco's North Beach and surrounding locales can be found at The Mining Company. This site is one of the most useful guides to the Net - like a search engine, but with sites listed for usefulness by real people who evaluate their content. If you have not seen their main page yet, don't forget to click on it from here.

Here's a direct link to the North Beach area of San Francisco..

Further South and East, you might find yourself travelling down the I-880 and in need of refuelling. Here's a guide to Eating out in Fremont, Hayward and Newark.

If you went south via the 101, you'll be driving down the Peninsula. Here's your handy survival guide.

Visiting the Silicon Valley? Try the Mountain View Guide to find out a little more about what there is to do in the area.

Another useful tourist guide to the Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay area can be found at the USA Today travel site.

A Silicon Valley resource more oriented to local news and technology is San Jose Mercury News' site SiliconValley.com.

SanJose.com can keep you informed of the latest South Bay happenings, with an online resource guide to music, dining, movies, shopping and the outdoors.

If you are travelling further south, don't forget to check out the attractions of Monterey Bay.

Visitor information about scenic Marin County can be found at the Redwood Empire site.

Driving north of the Bay area? Stop in at the nation's capital for some special sightseeing and dining. Don't miss the Sacramento restaurant guide at eatingsacramento.com.

For a more general tourist's guide to our capital city of Sacramento, visit the Sacramento Bee online site for news, sports, weather, entertainment and dining.

On your way up north, you'll pass by Davis, California. Here's a complete survival guide to that city.

Good Eats

Kitchenette.com serves up the latest dish on Bay area restaurants.

Zagat's Guide to San Francisco restaurants is an old classic that's moved online. One warning - they list several restaurants as "new" that have in fact long since closed, and the loading time can be draggy.

The other well known source of restaurant reviews, Fodor's Guide, can be found here. This online guide is also a little out of date, but worth checking out.

Stuck at home or in a hotel room? Don't feel like driving? Order food online at Dine One One. For emergencies of the palate.

A bit further south, a San Jose Mercury News site called Waiter.com will fill the bill for local delivery from your favorite restaurants.

Find some Cheap Eats in the Bay area. Lord of the Fries?

Pizza places online are a great concept. Check out the "cyberspecials" you can order.

Need a caffiene fix in a hurry? Check out Caffienated California for the coffee shop nearest you.

Fine dining is just a click away at The Chronicle, a San Francisco newspaper with an excellent online database of food news, restaurant reviews and entertainment.

The excellent Sushi World review site offers listings for sushi restaurants around the world.

California brewpubs serve up some of the best in beer, food and entertainment.

For special dietary needs, check out the rec.food.veg guide to vegetarian restaurants in California.

The Wine Spectator Dining Out site offers reviews of fine restaurants indexed by city.

Keeping it sweet and simple: The SF Bay Guardian's list of bakeries and pastry shops. Tours for the sweet toothed.

Gourmet Shopping

The Fresh Grocer, Tony Tantillo, will tell you the best buys in the Bay area on this KPIX web site.

Maruwa Market in San Francisco also offers online shopping. They carry an impressive range of Asian groceries, from the commonplace to the highly exotic.

Yaoya-San is a new Japanese market in El Cerrito that offers a tempting selection of your favorite Asian foods, including fresh sushi and "bento bakko" takeout boxes.

Ranch 99 Asian Market has several locations around the Bay area, including one in Milpitas and one at the Pacific East Asian Mall in Richmond.

Looking for yet more Asian ingredients? Here's a guide to Asian markets in the Bay area.

The art of Spun Sugar is praticed every day in Berkeley, at this eminently edible store featuring specialty equipment and ingredients for pastry and candy makers. Check out their latest schedule of classes and workshops.

The Scharffenberger chocolate factory in San Francisco offers real and virtual tours. This sophisticated dark chocolate has complex flavors that have been described as rich, floral, delicate and addictive. Don't miss this unique San Francisco treat.

Shopping for caviar? Read this article about Orinda's caviar importer.

Rest your conscience easy at the holistically healthy Whole Foods Market in Berkeley. Not only is it politically correct, but it tastes good, too.

For those really big parties, C&M Wholesale Meats in Berkeley can supply your restaurant or catering needs.

Good seafood, gourmet shopping and a lot of fun can be had at Jack London Square in Oakland.

Don't miss the Beverages & More outlet at the Square. This well stocked gourmet chain features tastings and other store events at their many Bay area locations.

Across the bridge, you'll find some fine shopping, dining and entertainment at the delightful Ghirardelli Square. Named for Domingo Ghirardelli, a famous historical chocolate maker, this lively shopping center has the latest in gourmet food and fun.

Wine Country

Yountville is in the heart of Napa's wine country, and well worth a virtual or actual visit.

Hungry in Napa? Here's a guide to Napa Valley Restaurants, Dining and Culinary Arts.

Napa Vacations can be planned much more easily online with Freerun's guide to lodging, dining and wineries.

Napa Living is your information source for life in the Napa Valley.

A guide to Napa Valley Arts and Entertainment can be found on the Napa Valley Online site.

Read the Domaine Chandon restaurant review and find some Napa travel links here.

Visit California Wine Country with Vinescape's handy online guide.

Smoke: Tobacconists, Cigar Bars and Cigar Friendly

Rick Bolen's San Francisco Cigars and Tobacconists Page is a useful resource for cigar aficionados in the Bay area.

Some San Francisco bars allow smoking on their patio decks. Here's a handy list.

Join Dr. Jake and the Leaf Troopers at the San Francisco Bay Area Cigar Club meetings, held once a month in San Francisco.

Contra Costa County leaf lovers will enjoy the Bay Area Cigar Smokers page. Do you know what a herf is? How about a crawl? Come on in, light up a good one, and learn. All cigar enthusiasts are welcome.

In the South Bay, here's the Master list of cigar and pipe stores.

If you prefer a pipe to a cigar, don't forget to visit the Friedman and Pease web site while you're in the area. These East Bay tobacconists are regulars on the Usenet group alt.smokers.pipes, and host meetings of the Greater Bay Area Pipe Club. They also blend some exceptionally fine aged smoking mixtures.

A fine smoke shop in the East bay is Stogies, located in the Pacific East Mall in Richmond.  

Travel And Tourist Links: Transportation

If you can't find it through Yahoo, or you don't like their format, try MapQuest.com instead.

MapQuest also has a Travel Guide that can help you map out a tour route and find conveniences along the way.

If you need to watch San Francisco traffic, check out Etak for updates on how it's flowing.

The KPIX Traffic Page is also updated frequently, and includes accident reports, helpful links to weather forecasts for the Bay area, and traffic cameras stationed on the major freeways so you can see your commute route online.

Another good traffic page with a live camera on downtown San Francisco is the SF Gate Traffic site. Here's the live view from the Transamerica Pyramid.

The California State Automobile Association, better known as AAA, has plenty of helpful resources for drivers in this state both online and at their offices around the Bay area.

The San Francisco Bay Area Transportation Guide is well worth a bookmark. Print out this helpful information about getting around in the Bay area.

The most detailed collection of links for Bay area transit is at Transitinfo.org. This site can tell you how to get around in the Bay area with or without a car.

Stopping over at SFO? Check out the Civilized Explorer's SFO Layover page for details on what to do and where to go if you have only a few hours in the city.

Local SFO Maps can be found at the airport's home page.

Need something translated from English to Japanese or maybe from Japanese to English? These sites may come in handy.

CityLink is an information site that can help you learn about a city you want to visit, make rental arrangements and airline reservations, all online.

Where Magazine can help take you to your travel destination, offering local information for global travellers,

Lodging: Where To Stay Around The Bay

Another general site is Hotels Online.

San Francisco Hotel reservations can be made here. This page also has a helpful guide to the weather, transportation and entertainment of the area.

Try SFtravel.com for reservations, reviews and local information.

Staying near Fisherman's Wharf? Holiday Inn San Francisco has a helpful homepage.

Placestostay.com will help you make online reservations with member hotels.

Staying in San Jose? Here's a list of hotels.

Luxury in San Francisco is just a click away with the Kimpton Group hotels.

The CDI Hotel/Motel/Inn Guide includes helpful information.

Citysearch has a guide to San Francisco hotels and tourism.

Budget Travel can help you save on your accommodations.

Speaking of cheapies, here's the good old reliable Motel 6 site.

Another inexpensive way to travel is Hostels.

Take a look at Brady Acres, a unique type of hostel residence.

Travelling with your dog in California? Check out Dogfriendly.com for a helpful guide to accommodations.

Pleasurable Online Browsing

For fans of the fine leaf, Cigar Aficionado online magazine is a collection of articles, photographs and advertisements of tobacciana.

Suspicions are rife about the ratings in Cigar Aficionado, but the well known M.O.T.T. (Monthly Officious Taste Test) of Cigar Nexus is conducted by a totally random panel of Internet cigar smokers and isn't corruptible. I have participated in this process and will vouch for its authenticity as a genuinely blind taste test. Bay Gourmet says, "Check it out."

Another Internet cigar magazine worth checking out is Cigar Life. Read their collection of monthly columns, cigar advice, food and drink reviews and informative articles.

Even if you're not planning to visit Los Angeles any time soon, the Havana Cam is a lot of fun. Check out the luxurious smoking lounge at Havana Studios in Burbank via their webcam, and chat live with the folks you see on screen. This may be the most fun you can have in a cigar store without actually being there.

If you enjoy raising a glass of good wine, and are interested in furthering your education on the subject, don't miss the searchable database of articles, tasting notes and tips at Wine Spectator Online.

Whether or not you can visit Domaine Carneros near Sonoma wine country in person, their recipe page is beautifully illustrated and well worth a virtual tour.

The Travel Lady is the site for you, if you think that reading about travel is almost as much fun as being there. Great articles about various destinations as well as a focus on gourmet cuisine.

Dreaming about truly great steak? Drool over this mouthwatering article from the Cigar Aficionado archives. Ready for the Prime Time? A good steak is hard to find.

Another article about the best of the best: Caviar Cachet is a tale about roe and woe in the Caspian sea.

Take a virtual tasting tour with featured articles from Wine Spectator.

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