Commonly known as the Bay Area, the San Francisco Bay Area encompasses the major cities and metropolitan areas of San Francisco Oakland, and San Jose and includes nine counties, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma.

What areas are considered the Bay Area?

“The official definition is the nine county definition,” she says. That's Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma. Among these nine counties are 101 cities, an estimated 7.756 million people and about 7,000 square miles.

What does the Bay Area refer to?

The Bay Area is the urban area surrounding the San Francisco Bay in Northern California. Bay Area may also refer to: Blockhouse Bay, a suburb in Auckland, New Zealand. Greater Tokyo area, an area around Tokyo Bay.

Why is San Francisco called the Bay Area?

At the time, Drakes Bay went by the name Bahia de San Francisco and thus both bodies of water became associated with the name. Eventually, the larger, more important body of water fully appropriated the name San Francisco Bay.

Is Vacaville the Bay?

While Vacaville is actually closer to Sacramento than San Francisco by 20 miles, this family-friendly city is often considered part of the Bay Area.

Bay Area Forecast: Heavier Rain Tonight and Early Tomorrow

30 related questions found

Is Berkeley part of the Bay Area?

UC Berkeley sits in the East Bay region with easy access to both San Francisco and Silicon Valley, and a few hours from Yosemite, Napa Valley, Point Reyes and Lake Tahoe. ...

What is South Bay area?

The South Bay Cities region includes the cities of Carson, El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Lawndale, Lomita, Los Angeles (Harbor City, Harbor Gateway, San Pedro and Wilmington), Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, ...

Is Fresno the Bay Area?

The Bay Area consists of the major cities of San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and their many suburbs. Although not a part of the Bay Area, in recent years the Bay Area has drawn more commuters from as far as Central Valley cities such as Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Turlock and Modesto.

Is Santa Cruz considered Bay Area?

That seems like an awfully long drive to be still in the Bay Area. But technically, it is. ... Still, there are those who will always insist that Santa Cruz is part the Bay Area no matter what any map has to say about it.

Is it Tampa or Tampa Bay?

Tampa (US: /ˈtæmpə/) is a major city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County.

Why is Tampa Bay not Tampa?

The Tampa Bay area is home to many sports teams and has a substantial history of sporting activity. Most of the region's professional sports franchises use the name "Tampa Bay", which is the name of a body of water, not of any city.

How many cities are in Tampa Bay?

Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater Area has 83 cities / towns.

Is the Bay Area considered Northern California?

Bay Area (California) - Wikitravel. The Bay Area (more fully, the San Francisco Bay Area), ringing the San Francisco Bay in northern California, is a geographically diverse and extensive metropolitan region that is home to over 7 million inhabitants in cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose.

Is San Jose South Bay?

The "South Bay" includes all of the rest of the cities in Santa Clara county, centered around San Jose, the largest city in Northern California.

Where is the East Bay area?

The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Where is San Francisco Bay?

San Francisco Bay, large, nearly landlocked bay indenting western California, U.S. It is a drowned river valley paralleling the coastline and is connected with the Pacific Ocean by a strait called the Golden Gate, which is spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge.

What is considered North Bay?

The North Bay is a subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area, in California, United States. ... It is the location of the Napa and Sonoma wine regions, and is the least populous and least urbanized part of the Bay Area. It consists of Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

Is Monterey considered Bay Area?

The Bay Area is part of an emerging Northern California megaregion that combines several adjacent metropolitan regions. ... It consists of the nine-county Bay Area, the six-county Sacramento region, the three-county Monterey Bay Area and three northern San Joaquin Valley counties.

Are there alligators in Tampa Bay?

While alligators can be found throughout the Southeastern U.S., the crocodile footprint in the U.S. is generally limited to South Florida, though they have occasionally been spotted as far north as the Tampa Bay area. That makes Florida the only ecosystem in the world where alligators and crocodiles peacefully coexist.

Is Tampa Bay freshwater or saltwater?

Tampa Bay is Florida's largest open-water estuary, extending over 400 square miles (1,000 km²) and forming coastlines of Hillsborough, Manatee and Pinellas counties. The freshwater sources of the bay are distributed among over a hundred small tributaries, rather than a single river.

What lives in Tampa Bay?

Target Species

More than two dozen species of nesting herons, egrets, ibis, gulls, terns and shorebirds have been documented. The Tampa Bay estuary has the largest royal and sandwich tern nesting colonies, the most nesting American oystercatchers, and the largest brown pelican rookeries in Florida.