Where to Stay in Berkeley, California

What is Berkeley known for?

Berkeley is a California city known above all for the University of California and the intellectual life around it. The campus bell tower, Sather Tower, rises over a city of scholars. Learning shapes the town.

Its many museums draw from the university, among them the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive and the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, while the Lawrence Hall of Science looks out over the whole city from the slopes above. The city carries the name of the philosopher George Berkeley.

What are the main landmarks in Berkeley?

Berkeley's landmarks cluster around the University of California and the hills above it. Sather Tower rises tallest, the campus bell tower visible for miles. The rest of Berkeley's landmarks are museums.

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and the Lawrence Hall of Science each draw visitors, while the older First Church of Christ, Scientist and the hillside Tilden Park Merry-Go-Round add landmarks beyond the campus core.

What is the history of Berkeley?

Berkeley took shape in 1866, its name chosen to honour the philosopher George Berkeley. The choice fit its future. Within a few years the new University of California settled here, and the town grew up around the campus as scholars, students, and their families arrived to fill the streets below the hills.

The nineteenth-century city built the institutions that still define it. Sather Tower rose over the campus as its landmark, and museums such as the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology gathered the collections that a research university draws to itself. Through the twentieth century Berkeley became a name known far beyond California, a centre of learning and of the movements that grew from its campus.

The Lawrence Hall of Science carried its scientific reputation into the hills. From a settlement named for a philosopher, the town became a California city whose history is inseparable from the university that shares its streets and its enduring intellectual life.

Where is Berkeley?

Berkeley sits on sloping ground in California, rising from a flat lowland toward the hills at its back. The land climbs steadily eastward. The University of California and Sather Tower stand on the mid-slope, while the streets fall away below and the ground rises sharply above toward the parkland at the crest.

Higher still, the Lawrence Hall of Science looks out from the upper slopes, with the green ridge of Tilden Park spreading across the heights behind. This tilted setting gives the city its stepped streets and its long views across California.

What is the climate of Berkeley?

Berkeley has the mild, dry-summer climate typical of coastal California. Its seasons are gentle. Summers stay warm and rainless, often cooled by fog that drifts in over the lowland, while winters turn cool and wet with the rains that green the hills above the city.

Frost is rare on the slopes. The nearby water and the rising ground keep temperatures even through the year, giving the city a temperate character that draws students and scholars alike to its campus.

How do you get to Berkeley?

Berkeley is reached by road and rail from across the California lowland. Highways skirt the flat ground below the city, linking it with the metros around the bay. Regional trains stop here, carrying students and commuters to the campus and the surrounding neighbourhoods.

The main regional airports lie a short drive away. Once in town, the campus core around Sather Tower and the University of California is easily walked, though the steep hills reward transit or a car.