Hotel at a Glance: Red Lion Hotel Oakland Airport

Located about 5 miles from downtown Oakland, the Red Lion Hotel Oakland Airport offers a peaceful getaway near the shores of San Leandro Bay. From here, you can explore nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline’s picturesque marshlands or head to the city’s center. Some available rooms also feature balconies, where you can watch the sun set over the city’s swaying palm trees.

• Where you’ll stay: Guest rooms have complimentary WiFi, 32-inch flat-screen TVs, pillow-top beds, and eco-friendly bath amenities.
• Bistro 150, the onsite restaurant, serves made-to-order waffles, hearty sandwiches, and black Angus sirloin steaks aged 28 days.
• Fit in a workout at the 24-hour fitness center; if its warm outside, you can take a few laps in the outdoor pool.
• Meet an African elephant or one of 660 other animals at the Oakland Zoo (3 miles away).
• Explore downtown: Visitors to Oakland can check out Jack London Square, the historic Paramount Theater, and the Chinatown district.

Oakland, California: Hip Coastal City Surrounded by Redwoods

Compared to other destinations in the Bay Area, Oakland is underrated and overlooked. Prices are cheaper than in neighboring San Francisco, and the dining and nightlife scenes are getting hipper all the time. There are also a number of attractions that are appealingly offbeat, from a fortune cookie factory offering tours for just $1 to a whimsical collection of storybook tableaux at the Children’s Fairyland theme park. For more traditional cultural offerings, see what’s playing at the art-deco Paramount Theatre, a National Historic Landmark that hosts movie screenings and ballet performances.

Similarly, your options for outdoor recreation run the gamut from the kooky to the conventional. Take a gondola ride on Lake Merritt, go on a quest for cool street art, or visit Jack London Square, named after the Bay Area native who wrote The Call of the Wild. Here you can go kayaking on or bicycling alongside Oakland Inner Harbor. Just west of the city, nearly 40 miles of hiking trails in Redwood Regional Park will bring you up close to trees standing up to 150 feet tall. Keep your eyes peeled for rare golden eagles, too.

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