The Avenue

Oakland


Walk into this dive bar (skulls) and you may notice a certain decorative flair (skulls); it's a presence you'll feel as you order a drink (more skulls), play some pool (hey, skulls!) and then pay your tab, which will be refreshingly priced (skulls!). Long story short: there's a bunch of skulls and bones here, which makes for a fantastically creepy atmosphere.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Oakland attractions

1. Museum of Art & Digital Entertainment

0.91 MILES

If you love video games, the MADE is the heaven you go to when you die and are all out of extra lives. It's a museum of sorts, but more a sort of time…

2. Mountain View Cemetery

1.13 MILES

At the northern end of Piedmont Ave, this is perhaps the most serene and lovely artificial landscape in the East Bay. Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead …

3. Children's Fairyland

1.86 MILES

This 10-acre kiddie attraction dates from 1950, and we're not sure if it's been overhauled since. We mean that as a compliment! Children's Fairyland, with…

4. Oakland City Hall

2.13 MILES

This beautifully refurbished 1914 beaux-arts building is a downtown landmark. This was the first high-rise government building in the country, and when it…

6. First Church of Christ, Scientist

2.14 MILES

Bernard Maybeck’s impressive 1910 church uses concrete and wood in its blend of arts-and-crafts, Asian and Gothic influences. Maybeck was a professor of…

7. People’s Park

2.14 MILES

This park, just east of Telegraph Ave, is a marker in local history as a political battleground between residents and the city and state government in the…

8. Lake Merritt

2.18 MILES

An urban respite, Lake Merritt is a popular place to stroll or go running (a 3.5-mile paved path circles the lake), with bonsai and botanical gardens, a…