We’re just a few days into the new year, so many may be sore from their pledges to exercise more in 2025. It’s a terrific resolution to be healthier—eat better, stop staying up so late, and drop some pounds. To facilitate that let me offer to you the Five Best Alameda Walks. Those who know me may be shaking their heads or rolling their eyes thinking, wait a second, this guy’s a bike rider, one of those folks who often spoil a good walk with their fast pedaling while wearing lycra! First, no lycra for me. Second, I bike slow like the poet I am, and third, I walk, too. Hope you enjoy my walk suggestions and I’ll see you out there, even if it’s me calling out “on your left!”

Bay Farm Island Shoreline
I know people who drive to Bay Farm Island in order to walk the roughly 6-mile lovely loop. And of course they do, along with the others who walk to Bay Farm to walk there—it’s gorgeous. Calm or feisty water, a shoreline with ever changing fascinating detritus (you should have seen the debris tossed ashore by the recent king tide), all from looking left. Turn the other way further down the path and you get to snoop into people’s patios, check out their furniture, outdoor art, such fun! You also get to be part of a fun community of other walkers, so be prepared to nod or say good morning to your fellow travelers. A few bits of advice—it gets windy along the trail so dress warmly (I’d suggest a puffy coat and beanie), lots of folks walk their dogs so you may get a friendly bark sent your way, and yes, watch out for the bikers, it’s a shared path.

Shore Line Drive
For those who prefer a more linear experience, Shore Line Drive is a lot of fun and offers much of the same as you’ll find at 94502, but with some nice distinctive attractions. Start at Broadway and Shore Line. Head west and right away you get the bird sanctuary maintained by the East Bay Regional Parks people. Whether you pause to ogle with binoculars or get lucky and see a flock take flight, watching our flying cousins can be thrilling. Unlike on Bay Farm, there are multiple bathrooms along Shore Line in case your walk starts after morning coffee. Speaking of which, across the street is the South Shore Shopping Center where you can refill on coffee, grab lunch, or stroll through the various shops. Be careful when crossing the street—they reconfigured the road a few years ago so it’s now bike lane, parking lane, driving lane! Depending upon your energy and ambition you can extend your walk all the way to Crab Cove, where you might hear drummers or see painters and picnickers. Or you may want to veer right instead and watch some tennis at lower Washington Park. Say hi to the dogs along the way.

Park Street
I know an older couple who, after dinner some nights, especially if they can’t find anything to watch on TV, drive to Park Street for a more urban trod. By day it’s a vibrant shopping street with so much to see and buy, often crowded with hungry school kids seeking lunch, parents and grandparents pushing strollers, and more recently food delivery people rushing to get those great fish tacos to where they belong. Much of that is still there at night. Minus the sun and sea, walkers can peer into restaurants to see what’s on the menu, pause for the window displays crafted by the artsy merchants, all with a little less hustle and bustle than might be encountered during the day. It’s a fun loop, from the Washboard laundromat on Park and San Jose, up either side of the street, all the way to East End Pizza, and back. Unlike the more Emersonian routes, this one involves stopping at traffic lights and hoping your car-driving neighbors halt for you in the crosswalk, so wear bright reflective colors (lights help), and keep your eyes off those phones. Heads up!

Jean Sweeney Open Space Park
For those seeking a place to walk that is more conducive to contemplation, I strongly recommend Jean Sweeney Park. Years ago it was where the trains rolled, then it was a long rough empty space, and now it’s a beautiful meandering path that is less peopled than the others places I’m suggesting. There’s a parking lot at the Sherman Street end, a wonderful playground if you’re walking and strolling with junior, and art as you wander towards Webster Street/Atlantic Avenue, where, of course, you can get even more coffee at Starbucks or Peet’s across the street. This paved pretty space also has the advantage of being divided with separate lanes for bikers and walkers. It could use more trees, but does give off a midwest vibe, like roaming through the flatlands of Kansas.

Alameda Point Antiques Fair
For those who prefer a more serpentine path, and like to see younger people selling younger things and older people selling older things—or sometimes the exact opposite—I implore you to check out the Alameda Point Antiques Fair. Even if you buy nothing more than lunch from the sideline vendors, and whether you walk left to right or right to left, on the first Sunday of each month, this is a fun place to get your steps. It does cost to enter the hallowed grounds where planes once landed (less expensive as the day goes on), but my-oh-my the things and people you get to see. Rather than joggers in flashy hues, here you get hipsters wearing retro hats, Doc Martens on their feet, sometimes pushing carts holding street signs or driftwood sculptures soon to adorn their hipster homes. It can be mighty crowded, no bikes, fewer kiddos, and while I’ve never measured the mileage, if you go the distance from the front gate to the way way back, you’ll be achy the next day, but hopefully happy looking at the Scooby Doo lunch box you found.
Bonus: Five Songs to Listen to While Walking
- “Walk On” by U2
- “Walk on the Wild Side” by Lou Reed
- “These Boots Were Made for Walking” by Nancy Sinatra
- “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” by Gerry and the Pacemakers
- “Everybody Walk the Dinosaur” by Was (Not Was)
Gene Kahane is the founder of the Foodbank Players, a lifelong teacher, and former Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Gene-Kahane.