I’ll start this by saying that Coyote Point Park is the best place to go if you live south of SFO but fly in/out and receive visitors there. It is less then 5 miles south of the airport and is a great place to let the kids stretch their legs, visit the museum, take a walk, or watch the planes coming in.

Once you get there you have to pay $6.50 for parking but there’s a lot to do in the park, so it doesn’t feel too steep. We bought a museum membership and it came with free parking. If you plan to visit the museum, the membership pays for itself after 3 visits with a family of 4.

We have been a twice now, the first time we checked out the museum and the Magic Mountain playground, this time we visited both of those and also walked along the Marina Trail.

The marina trail starts from the marina parking lot, but we started at the marina overlook and then walked down the path and through the marina. This is a great place to check out the boats and the planes coming in.

The Marina Trail itself is paved and also has a substantial gravel shoulder. My kids took full advantage of the gravel shoulder to sit down and play every few steps. Since we were killing time, I didn’t urge forward progress as much as I usually do.

The planes fly silently overhead every couple minutes and look like gliders from this angle. The kids loved watching them and asking if Daddy was on that one. I kept trying to explaining that Daddy’s flight wouldn’t be in for 2 hours but the concept of time is lost on them.

I’m sure we’ll make this a regular hangout spot when we are flying in/out and want to stretch our legs or if we need to pull over to dodge traffic for a couple hours. I’m looking forward to checking out their other trails next time and visiting the beach here.

Do you have a favorite spot near your local airport?