Advice on traveling to Edge Esmerelda in Healdsburg, CA.

May 23, 2024 8:58 AM

A friend of mine is going to be attending a multi-day event in Healdsburg, CA. in June. They are trying to figure out the best way to travel from San Francisco airport to Healdsburg, CA for the event, and then to travel from Healdsburg to Berkeley, CA after the event. What's the best (most time efficient and cost effective) way to do this?
posted by eaquestions to Travel & Transportation around California (9 answers total)

I can't imagine trying to do this without a car. I guess in theory you can take Amtrak to Healdsburg but it takes 3+ times as long and then once you're there (Hburg is a small spread out town, 12k people, 80 wineries), it will be really hard to get around.

If the person is not going back to SFO, it might make sense to take BART to Berkeley or Oakland, rent a car there and then return the car where they rented it. Another approach would be to take an airport shuttle to Santa Rosa, rent a car there, return it there, then take Amtrak back to Berkeley. But most people in this circumstance would rent a car.
posted by vunder at 9:10 AM on May 23, 2024 [4 favorites]

If only the SMART extension to Healdsburg was in play. Sigh. Looks like you could BART to Jack London Square in Oakland, and Amtrak to Martinez and then Amtrak bus to Healdsburg, but assuming the connections work out the Amtrak segments would be circa 3 hours.

The Groome Sonoma County airport shuttle could get you to Santa Rosa, and Sonoma County Transit Route 60 might get you the rest of the way.

Healdsburg to Berkeley, I'd get to Santa Rosa (the hard part), then hop on the Golden Gate Transit 101 into the city, and BART over to Berkeley, though Santa Rosa+SMART to San Rafael+GGT route 40 across the bridge to BART is also an option.

But all of these depend a lot on specific timing. Transit here in the North Bay kinda sucks (because our development patterns suck, but that's a longer rant).
posted by straw at 9:30 AM on May 23, 2024

Renting a car.
posted by Mr. Papagiorgio at 10:06 AM on May 23, 2024 [2 favorites]

Seconding the Groome airport shuttle bus (formerly known as the Sonoma County Airport Express) to get to Santa Rosa, which gets you 85% of the way there. It's a pleasant, quiet ride, with Wifi onboard, and I've used it quite a few times. It runs to both SFO and OAK, and the latter will put you within striking distance of Beserkley (hat tip to Greg Kihn).
posted by intermod at 10:59 AM on May 23, 2024 [1 favorite]

Yeah, renting a car is the best way for time and money. Healdsburg is pretty far from SFO and while there sounds like there is a way to piece together multiple transit options it will be multiple steps. Look carefully at timing. Also, the Healdsburg area will not be rich with ride share options. They exist around here, but not the way they do in bigger towns/cities, sometimes they take pretty long to arrange.

My town is about 20 miles away from Healdsburg but takes about an hour to get there. Not due to traffic but small roads. Getting from Healdsburg to Berkeley can be a pretty drive and you can go through some nice countryside. While Sonoma and Napa and Solano counties are part of the Bay Area, they are quite removed without a car.
posted by Swisstine at 11:06 AM on May 23, 2024

Hi! I'm the friend in question. The think about renting as car is: As near as I can tell - renting a car from SFO and drop off in Berkeley, keeping it for 2 days or so, is around $500. Which seems like a lot of money...
posted by ManInSuit at 12:56 PM on May 23, 2024

It would cost less than that to travel by Lyft/Uber/taxi (like Lyft currently says $147 to get from SFO to Healdsburg, so probably $300-$350 total, including tip?). You could mix in public transit as you like if you want to spend time to save money.
posted by aubilenon at 1:21 PM on May 23, 2024 [1 favorite]

Ride BART from SFO to Berkeley (1 hour, $11.25). Rent car, go to thing, return car to Berkeley. This should avoid the SFO concession fee and the one-way-rental fee and significantly reduce the rental cost. There is a Budget rent-a-car location two blocks from the Downtown Berkeley BART.
posted by niicholas at 1:36 PM on May 23, 2024 [5 favorites]

Check rental car locations outside of the airport. It might be cheaper to take bart / Caltrain to some stop away from SFO to rent a car. Airport locations often have a lot of taxes tacked on.
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:14 PM on May 23, 2024