Things to Do in El Cerrito

UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley’s first plants sprouted in a modestly sized garden on campus in the 1870s, and in the 1890s, the plot became an official garden dedicated to hosting a living collection of native plants. Since then, the nonprofit garden has expanded to 34 acres in Strawberry Canyon and planted more than 13,000 different types of plants from around the world, including endangered cacti, redwoods, and a significant collection of native Californian plants. Given the garden’s vastness, its informative tours and programs offer a handy alternative to exploring alone, which always carries the risk of stumbling into the carnivorous, fire-breathing species of poison ivy.

Offering three membership plans, NauticShare dispenses its fleet of well-maintained luxury yachts, sailboats, and powerboats at ports around the world. Depending on location, members also have access to sailing and boating lessons, which include how to become a skipper or discover the password for getting into secret Atlantis parties.

After meeting and falling in love on a Venetian gondola ride, April Quinn and Angelino Sandri decided to bring that romantic experience to others with Gondola Servizio. Drawing from a mutual love for Venetian boating culture and history, they’ve assembled a staff of skilled gondoliers to lead intimate nautical cruises. On these excursions, personal gondoliers in traditional dress serenade passengers with lilting Italian melodies and half-remembered TV-sitcom themes. When not leading standard tours, gondoliers work with professional photographers to orchestrate on-water photo shoots.

Each gondola carries up to six passengers, and sandolos offer a smaller, though still traditional, boat alternative. Gondolas with felzes boast an on-deck cabin where guests sit sheltered from the elements on a love seat behind etched glass windows. A flexible schedule allows significant others to arrange lunchtime jaunts around Lake Merritt or romantic evening cruises beneath the moon’s jealous gaze. While on land, visitors can enter the Bottega Veneziana gift shop inside the Lake Chalet Seafood Bar & Grill, which abounds with locally handcrafted jewelry as well as imported shawls, Venetian chandeliers, and the fossilized remains of the first known cannoli.

There's nothing quite like a bicycle ride over rolling hillsides for shaking up the doldrums of daily idling. The shuttle bus will pick up bikeseekers between 8 and 9 a.m. and head across the Golden Gate Bridge toward wine country. Upon arrival, the guided bike ride begins, and you'll hop from winery to winery like a king on a checkerboard. All the tour guides are trained sommeliers with craniums filled with wine knowledge—and possibly wine. Sample varietals aperitifs along the course of the journey and stop for a delightful picnic lunch among the vineyards. The shuttle bus will follow along to carry anything purchased at the wineries or to assist thoroughly tuckered trekkers. Daytrippers are returned to the city by 7 p.m., in time to share the sunset with a lucky loved one—a girlfriend, a husband, a bottle of wine wearing a wig, etc. Purchase up to four of today's deal and invite friends, family, or a group of beloved strangers to join the journey. If you want to bring a friend along who doesn't possess a Groupon, that person will get 20% off the tour.

Rise Chiropractic & Fitness's staff balance their serious fitness regimens with a laid-back studio setting that resembles a coffee shop. Inside, health and fitness professionals lead sociable group classes that introduce beginning and advanced Pilates techniques, TRX fusion workouts, and boot camps. Personal trainers whip clients into shape during private sessions, and massage therapists relax backs by massaging them, using chiropractic techniques, or by hiring an audiobook narrator to read the newspaper to them.