Contra Costa County
Lafayette
A reservoir loop, a downtown along Mt. Diablo Boulevard, and BART about thirty minutes from Embarcadero.
Contra Costa County
Orinda
The first stop past the Caldecott Tunnel, with parkland on every side and BART to San Francisco in about twenty minutes.
Orinda is the first exit past the Caldecott Tunnel, and that position shapes nearly everything about it. Downtown San Francisco is roughly twenty minutes away on BART, yet the town itself is wooded hills, winding roads, and parkland on nearly every side.
Why people move here
- The shortest BART ride of any town in this valley — about 20 minutes to Embarcadero from the station at 11 Camino Pablo.
- Parkland in a ring: Tilden Regional Park over the ridge, Briones to the north, and the San Pablo Reservoir with its own trail and boat launch just up Camino Pablo.
- The Orinda Theatre, a 1941 art deco house still running films downtown, anchors a small commercial center split by the freeway.
- Roads that wander instead of gridding. Lots here tend to be larger and more wooded than what you find down in the flats.
Neighborhoods
Sleepy Hollow sits north of the freeway toward Briones. Glorietta and Del Rey are each built around their own elementary schools — a useful shorthand locally, since Orinda Union runs four of them. Orinda Downs is the open, rolling stretch on the northeast side.
Orinda feeds Acalanes Union for high school, alongside Lafayette and Moraga.
On the map
Where Orinda sits
Map of the service area. The towns are linked below.
Nearby
Close to Orinda
Begin
Considering Orinda?
A quiet first conversation — about your timing, your home, and what you want next.