Emeryville, CA Outdoor Activities

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.

Bay Area Expeditions' experienced outdoorsmen, with backgrounds ranging from U.S. military service to botany education, lead students on instructional excursions to bolster wilderness-survival skills. Classes help students identify edible or medicinal plants, earn ASHI certification for first aid, or learn primitive skills. Overnight expeditions lead guests beneath the starry skies of Big Sur or snowshoeing tours through the Sierra Nevadas’ snow-dusted basins.

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.

Since it was founded in 2006, San Francisco Fencers Club has weathered a furious storm of praise. For the past three years it has been named a top contender for The Bay Area A List's Best Sport and Social Club, and it took the number one spot in 2010. It has also nurtured many star pupils, some of whom have earned top spots at the World Cup, snagged national medals, and been accepted to top schools, including Princeton, Stanford, Cornell, Duke, and Vassar.

Behind each champion stands the club's team of seasoned coaches. These teachers keep class sizes small, so they can help students achieve technical excellence while emphasizing the importance of having fun and making friends. Classes take place atop contemporary, sprung, wood fencing floors, and points are tallied by an electronic scoring system, as opposed to a giant abacus hanging from the ceiling.

Welcome to Groupon San Francisco! For our inaugural deal, $15 gets you a bay cruise with Adventure Cat. That’s a relaxing 90-minute sail through the bay on a catamaran for 50% off the regular $30 price.

Armed with gear from City Kayak, guests paddle past scenic San Francisco sites such as Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and South Beach Harbor during guided or unguided treks. Visitors can navigate their way beneath the Lefty O'Doul drawbridge and catch home-run hits soaring out of the baseball stadium and into McCovey Cove, or advanced paddlers can traverse strong winds and tidal currents en route to Treasure Island. City Kayak also schedules classes, which teach students basic sea-kayaking skills, self-rescue techniques, and how to eskimo roll, an escape maneuver that one could use to avoid the songs of tone-deaf penguins. City Kayak rents out gear such as wetsuits and booties for tours and also sells a collection of kayaks, paddles, and accessories to equip paddlers for future travels.