Start from 36 curated places around Sausalito, CA, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Sushi Ran
The sushi bar that locals name first and the only Sausalito spot in the Michelin guide, a low-key bungalow on Caledonia rather than the tourist waterfront. The fish is the draw, but the sake list is unusually deep for a room this size, and the omakase is the way to let the counter steer.
Poggio Trattoria
The serious Italian kitchen on Bridgeway, a wood-paneled room doing house-made pasta and wood-fired everything with produce from its own garden up the hill. It has carried a Bib Gourmand and reads more neighborhood trattoria than waterfront tourist stop despite the address.
Trails & outdoors
Rodeo Beach, Coastal Trail and Miwok Trail
The big Marin Headlands loop from Rodeo Beach up the bluffs past old batteries and Hill 88, then back down the valley, with ocean on one side most of the way. It is the headlands hike to do if you do only one: roughly five miles, real elevation, and views the whole climb.
Tennessee Valley Trail
An easy, mostly flat walk down a gentle valley to a pocket beach hemmed by cliffs, the headlands hike that works for nearly everyone. Wildflowers in spring, a quiet lagoon near the end, and a payoff beach make it the default family and warm-up route.
Things to do
Sea Trek Kayak and SUP
The waterfront kayak and paddleboard outfit that puts you on sheltered Richardson Bay, paddling past the houseboats and toward the Golden Gate with harbor seals for company. Rentals for the confident, guided trips for everyone else, and it is the single best way to see Sausalito from the water on your own terms.
Bay Area Discovery Museum
A sprawling hands-on children's museum spread across historic Fort Baker buildings right under the north end of the bridge, with indoor labs and a two-acre outdoor Lookout Cove. It is the standout rainy-day-or-sunny-day move for families, geared at the under-tens but set against a grown-up view.
Landmarks & sights
Battery Spencer
A crumbling WWII gun battery on the Marin side of the bridge that gives you the head-on Golden Gate view people fly in for, with the city stacked up behind it. Locals come at sunrise or after the day-trip crowd clears, when the fog is either rolling through the cables or burning off.
Marin Headlands
The wide swath of coastal hills, old gun batteries, and beaches just over the ridge from town, all part of the national recreation area. It is where you go for the big-picture version of Sausalito: ridgeline roads, raptors overhead, and the ocean on one side with the bay on the other.