San Mateo

See

Central Park is off of El Camino Real between 5th Ave and 9th Ave. Inside the park is a beautiful Japanese Tea Garden. There is also a miniature railway for children that runs daily in summer and at weekends all year. During the winter, there is an outside ice rink that is open to the public daily (including holidays).

North of the park, downtown San Mateo runs along 3rd Avenue and 4th Avenue (spilling somewhat onto 2nd Avenue) between El Camino Real and the Caltrain train tracks; it's one of the more successful urban downtowns left on the Peninsula. The streets with the most restaurants and other establishments are B Street, 3rd Avenue, 4th Avenue and 2nd Avenue.

San Mateo used to be home to Bay Meadows, the only horse racing track on the San Francisco Peninsula. It's being redeveloped. The grounds are also home to the San Mateo County Events Center, where the annual county fair is held and various other events (including the 2010 Bay Area stop of Maker Faire. Take the Delaware Street exit off of Highway 92 and head south; the Event Center parking lot is directly off Delaware. What part of Bay Meadows remains visible are best viewed on foot from this area.

For fans of the local mid-century modern architecture, San Mateo is home to two Eichler neighborhoods - 19th Avenue park is a very early tract group of Eichlers, and The Highlands is a later neighborhood of custom Eichlers.

Coyote Point is a park in the north-east corner of San Mateo off of Highway 101 at Peninsula Avenue. A small boat harbor is there as well as a natural history museum. There is also a public shooting range, open weekday evenings.

Poplar Creek Golf Course, a municipal course, is there as well. A hiking trail allows easy access to San Francisco Bay.

Crystal Springs Reservoir is in the watershed area off of Highway 280 on the western edge of San Mateo. Crystal Springs dam is just south of Crystal Springs off of Skyline Boulevard.

Do

Along with shopping and dining, there is a medium-size movie theater (12 screens, none of them huge) just off B-street between 3rd and 2nd Avenues.

Buy

• The area of downtown San Mateo around the intersection of 3rd Avenue and B street has a large number of local shops. There are also smaller shopping streets around 25th Avenue and 41st avenue, in both cases just west of El Camino Real.

Eat

Asian

• San Mateo has a large Japanese community, and has a number of Japanese restaurants. A few that stand out are:

Mexican

• There are two branches of the Bay Area-wide Celia's family of restaurants, one up in the hills (3190 Campus Dr. +1 650-349-0165) and one north of downtown on the border with Burlingame. Both serve excellent home-style California-Mexican food in a comfortable, sit-down atmosphere. Great for families.

American

Pizza

• While there are a lot of pizza places in downtown, none of them are very good. Most of the local Bay Area chains (Amicis, Mr. Pizza Man, Pizza My Heart) are represented. For decent Chicago-style thick crust you will have to go further (Little Star in San Francisco; Patxhi's in San Francisco or Palo Alto; Zachary's in Oakland/Berkeley/San Ramon).
• If you're willing to go outside of downtown, Rainbow Pizza up in the hills (112 De Anza Boulevard #112, +1 650 571-1848) serves a delicious California-Greek take on pizza as well as delicious Greek food.

Other

Drink

Many of the restaurants in downtown have full bars - good for a pre- or post-movie drink, but many close relatively early and there is no urban nightlife scene to speak of. There are a few local bars (The Swinging Door on 25th, another on Pacific a few blocks south of Hillsdale) and a small nightclub at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in neighboring Foster City.

Sleep