Bay Area, California

Bay Area, California

The Bay Area is a metropolitan region in Northern California that encompasses large cities such as San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose along with smaller urban and rural areas surrounding those large cities. Overall, the Bay Area consists of nine counties, which are: Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Marin County, Napa County, San Francisco County, San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, Solano County and Sonoma County.

The Bay Area is also broken down in five large regions, which are:

- North Bay (Marin County, Sonoma County, Napa County and Solano County with the city of Fairfield).

- Peninsula (San Francisco, San Mateo County and northwestern part of Santa Clara County).

- East Bay (Alameda County and Contra Costa County).

- South Bay or Silicon Valley (San Jose and most of Santa Clara County).

- Santa Cruz. (northern part of Santa Cruz County).