Bay Area from Plane's wing ⋆ California Perspective.com

San Francisco Bay Area from plane’s wing

The Best view of the Bay Area opens up from above. On a clear day you’ll have a chance to see the details of neatly arranged grids running east to west and north to south, skewed original streets, like Market St., defying the parallels and perpendicular geometry of the grand design.

I felt like a child leaning over a maket of the city while gleaning through the illuminator window. Multi-lane architecture gems, Golden Gate and Bay Bridge seems like thin strips of child’s meccano set.

SF-Oakland Bridge including Yerba Buena island and Treasure islands, with DOwntown in the foreground

You might even have a chance to gleam over the Lake County and see features like lake Berryessa; Berryessa-Knoxville road separating Napa and Yolo counties; and the all time favorite Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County (CCC).

You will have a chance to get an exclusive look at the Bay area form a bird’s eye. I would highly recommend flying instead of driving from LA. If you choose to drive – it’s a minimum of 5 hours, realistically speaking 7 hours. Also, besides Bravo farms half way on hwy 5, there’s pretty much nothing to see while driving.

There are two large airports – SFO (San Francisco International airport) and OAK (Oakland international airport ) to choose from. There are many several smaller airports, mostly for private jets and smaller air craft.

Sausolito, Marin Headlands, Angel Island and Golden Gate Bridge from air plane window

Our son really enjoys the views from the airplane window every time we fly into the city. Misha goes wild at the sight of tiny cars and buildings. I’m sure it’s all like a game to him. Btw if you are going to spend some time in San Francisco with your kids, check out San Francisco Zoo – it’s one of the best spots for kids in all of bay area. There’s even a huge playground for kids right on the grounds. In fact you can actually see SF Zoo from the plane!

Enjoy your travels in California!

Tip of the day: If flying is not your preferred method of transportation, you might just as well see the bay area from one of the skyscrapers downtown, like the view San Francisco. Also you can see a large portion of the bay from Mt Diablo lighthouse observation deck.