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Travel to Oakland

For those traveling from out of the Bay Area, we offer some general guidelines:

By Air

By Car

By Train

 

By Air

 

Oakland

The nearest airport is Oakland International Airport (OAK), which is fifteen minutes (twenty-five minutes or more during rush hour) from the Waterfront Hotel by car (Directions). A taxi will cost about $20 one way from OAK to the hotel. If you are staying at the Waterfront Hotel, a car will not be a necessity, and you can even get to San Francisco by ferry. Other than taxi or rental car, there are no other good transit options to the hotel. Oakland is a relatively small airport, but there are often good fares on Southwest and Jet Blue from some places.

SAN FRANCISCO

The biggest airport in the Bay Area is San Francisco International Airport (SFO). It is 30 minutes to Oakland by car at best (Directions), up to an hour or even more during rush hour. During heavy traffic, especially the evening rush hour, it can sometimes be quicker to go the longer route over the San Mateo Bridge, rather than driving through the city (Directions). There are no really good transit options from SFO other than rental car; BART goes from the airport to Oakland, but BART stations in Oakland are either in inconvenient locations, or locations it is unadvisable to get off at.

San Jose

San Jose International Airport (SJC) is a third option. It is about forty-five minutes to Oakland by car (Directions) and up to an hour and fifteen minutes or more at rush hour. It a much smaller airport than SFO, but occasionally a good deal can be found there. A rental car is your best option for getting to Oakland from San Jose.

 

By Car

Oakland and the Bay Area are reachable on Interstates I-5 and I-80, as well as US 101.


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By Train

There is an Amtrak station at Jack London Square, just a few minutes walk from the Waterfront Hotel. The station is served by the Coast Starlight which runs from Seattle to Los Angeles, and a shuttle connects a few miles to the Emeryville Amtrak station which is served by the California Zephyr, which runs from Chicago to Emeryville.