Berkeley Upon the Gears

Berkeley, Calif.

Sat. February 7- Sun. February 8, 2026

Cozy inns will return. But we’re on a history kick.

Because we don’t think travel always needs to be escapist. It can (and sometimes probably should) take us to places and moments that help bring here and now into tighter focus.

With the world as it is, we’ve been thinking a lot about the power of people vs. powers that be. Last week we explored Greensboro, NC, on the 66th anniversary of the historic Woolworth sit-ins. Now we’re headed to another place where young people put their conscience to action, and gave voice and a name to a movement.

As always, your stay, meal and local experience are all bookable in one click.

This Overnight is no longer available. Get our new destinations every Sunday.

Why here?

A Google search on Berkeley protests doesn’t much narrow it down.

You'‘ll need to be specific about your sweeping act of defiance. Do you mean the demonstration that occupied San Francisco’s Sheraton-Palace Hotel? Or the Free Speech Movement’s student takeover of an administration building (that was only disbanded by police siege)? Or the country’s earliest large-scale protest of the Vietnam War?

Not to mention the dozens of other causes that have been born in and fought on the quads and corners of UC Berkeley since its founding in 1868.

Read on or

Jump to Itinerary

College campuses are places where emerging ideas and young energy concoct into action. But Berkeley is possibly the country’s most consistently catalytic example: the university and its immediate neighborhood have been the site of more landmark demonstrations, walk-outs, stand-offs, sit-ins, revolts, occupations and outright uprisings than maybe anywhere else in America.

We’ll be looking at one of these events (although many are interconnected), just to keep things manageable.

In 1964, UC Berkeley administrators blamed student political agitation for motivating a (largely student-led) occupation of San Francisco’s Sheraton-Palace Hotel, in protest of the hotel’s discriminatory hiring practices.

In a move they hoped would turn down the temperature, the university categorically banned student political organizing on a storied corner of Berkeley: the intersection of Telegraph and Bancroft, a longtime hub for agitation and pamphleteering that served as a gathering spot for campus groups.

In response, students set up tables in front of Sproul Hall, a colossal administrative building that held the school’s chancellor’s office — and in no time, Jack Weinberg, the 24-year-old chairman of the Berkeley chapter of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) was arrested as he distributed literature.

But before the the squad car could haul him away, the vehicle was surrounded by 3,000 students, some of whom climbed atop it to convert the car into a makeshift podium for speeches. Notably, they took their shoes off first to avoid scratching the paint. Quite something.

The students prevailed and Weinberg was released, but the ban on political speech at the continued.

One of those police-car-mounters had been Mario Savio, a leader of what would become the Free Speech Movement. Savio later made one of the most enduring orations of the era, impromptu, from the steps of Sproul Hall that December:

You should really watch the whole thing. There’s also a vivid first-hand account of some of these events from Lee Felsenstein.

After Savio’s speech, Joan Baez (who had joined the demonstrations in solidarity) played ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, and then, calmly, more than 800 students marched into Sproul Hall and occupied it. It took police more than 12 hours to arrest them all.

By January, with many university faculty now having joined the movement themselves, the administration had flatly folded. They gave amnesty to the activists, and ultimately returned the right to on-campus political advocacy.

The kids that climbed a police car — and up onto the wheels and into the gears — won. And Berkeley is still alive with fight today.

This weekend in Berkeley, discover…

The stay.

Hotel Shattuck Plaza
It’s a century-old landmark, built by a gold prospector n the Mission Revival Style, and it’s right in the heart of Berkeley history (protests and otherwise).

A recent renovation added a peace symbol in the marble of the entryway, and there’s something about the pairing — the hotel’s stately old grandeur with this slight hippie incursion — that feels extremely Berkeley and right.

You’ve got reservations for two on Saturday night.

The day.

Telegraph Avenue, Sproul Plaza — and a well-timed film

San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury and Golden Gate park has their Summer of Love bonafides, but it’s Telegraph Avenue that was the probably the intellectual center point of the 1960s counterculture.

UC Berkeley’s banning of student political speech at the corner of Telegraph and Bancroft, just off the UC Berkeley campus, was a key precipitator of the Free Speech Movement. So see that for sure, and Sproul Hall Plaza, of course, and also the People’s History of the Free Speech Movement mural. Very incomplete list, it’s pretty impossible to be comprehensive here.

Also: good timing this weekend. The Berkeley Historical Society and Museum will be screening “Inside the Free Speech Movement,” a great documentary about the events on-campus in 1964. It’s entirely free.

The film starts at 2pm on Sunday, and the the historical society is open a half-hour before and after.

The find.

Moe’s Books

Going strong since 1959, Moe’s was here during the 60s protest era, and is perfectly representative of those principles.

As they put it, the store’s namesake founder Moe Moskowitz “sparred with the City Council over matters ranging from business permits to civic beautification, all of which were a prelude to his involvement in the Free Speech Movement and protests against the Vietnam War.”

“Remaining true to his pacifist principles, Moe opposed not just the war, but any anti-war tactics,” says the shop, adding that “all the while he kept his bookstore open during curfews to shelter protesters and resist what he saw as authoritarian rule.”

We’re including a $25 credit to put toward any purchase here.

The food.

Gather

Gather believes that “restaurants can be a force for good—bringing people together, supporting local farmers and artisans, and making a positive impact on our community and the planet.”

The menu is locally-sourced and creative, with a curation of West Coast wines and cocktails. They connect, in a culinary way, to the neighborhoods broader ethos.

“Surrounded by a community of advocates and innovators,” says Gather, “we strive to reflect that same commitment through the food and experience we offer every day.”

Pre-paid, just arrive. You have reserations at 7pm on Saturday evening.

The tucked away.

The Invisible Monument

While you’re roaming Sproul Plaza, look for this very small ( six-inches across) ‘invisible monument’ to free speech. It’s a formless vertical cylinder of air, represented only by this brief inscription on the flat of a paving stone:

“This soil and the air space extending above it shall not be a part of any nation and shall not be subject to any entity’s jurisdiction.”.

The evening mood.

Chez Panisse

Drop in upstairs at Chez Panisse.

Let us clarify a little on this one: you have reservations on Saturday night in the cafe. We don’t have a food and drink credit built into this one, but the reservation is essential, so we wanted lock that down.
Chez Panisse and ChefAlice Walters more or less invented the farm-to-table movement, fixating on ingredients over technical chops. And Walters is a UC Berkeley alum who herself was on campus during (and active in) the Free Speech Movement of the mid-1960s.

The cafe menu changes daily but here’s a sample.

You have reserations at 9:30pm on Saturday evening. Stop in for a drink and more.

One-night stay for two at Hotel Shattuck Plaza, just outside the campus of UC Berkeley. Deluxe King Room.
A $180 food and drink credit, pre-paid at Gather. Reservations are at 7pm on Saturday.

A $25 credit at Moe’s Books in the form of a gift card. Waiting for you at the counter, just stop in.

Book it all in a click.