Cesar Chavez Park

The only Berkeley hotel with an indoor pool, right on the Marina with kite-flying lawns, the Bay Trail, and Adventure Playground nearby. Warm cookies at check-in.

Seafood restaurant on the water at the Berkeley Marina since 1984, with a raw bar for shellfish and sushi and big Bay views.

A Marina stop with a small beach where you can hunt for crabs at low tide.

A staff-run playground where kids get real hammers, saws and paint to build forts out of scrap lumber, earning tools by turning in stray nails first.

Paint-your-own pottery with drop-in studio time, so you do not have to commit to a class or a date.

Festive Fourth Street taqueria where the decor absorbs kid noise and outdoor tables let sound escape, plus trainspotting on the adjacent tracks.