3-Nights Claremont Club & Spa, A Fairmont Hotel from $491

The easygoing suburb of Berkeley, California, sits across the bay from San Francisco. The city is home to the University of California at Berkeley, the incubator for the antiwar movement of the 1960s and a longtime bastion of counterculture. Berkeley is also the birthplace of the California gourmet food movement inadvertently catalyzed by Alice Waters and her famed restaurant, Chez Panisse.

San Francisco may tempt you across the bay, but Berkeley has its own draws and plenty to keep you occupied. Visit People's Park, where antiwar protesters once gathered and now home to the university's recreation area. Stroll the beautiful bayside campus and check out the iconic Sather Tower while you're there. As a college town, Berkeley offers flourishing arts and dining scenes, so indulge in one of the Gourmet Ghetto's many restaurants before catching a performance at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre.