When it comes to fancy restaurants, accommodations, and boutiques, Bodega Bay has a long way to go. There is only one three-star lodge and restaurant, and the town’s most venerable store sells taffy and kites. This is odd, considering that Bodega Bay is only a few hours’ drive from the Bay Area, a good two to three hours closer than Mendocino, and has all the beautiful scenery and golden beaches you could possibly hope for. Spend a few hours meandering through town and it becomes apparent that Bodega Bay is, for the most part, still a working-class fishing village. Most people start their day before dawn--mending nets, rigging fishing poles, and talking shop. But if all you want to do is breathe in some salty air and you couldn’t care less about designer boutiques and dancing till dawn, come to Bodega Bay--ain’t much here, which is precisely the point.

The Sonoma Coast Visitors Center (850 Hwy 1, Bodega Bay; 707/875-3866; www.bodegabay.com or www.visitsonomacoast.com) is a good place to load up on free maps, guides, and brochures, including the Bodega Bay Area Map & Guide. This guide gives the exact locations of all the town’s attractions, including nearby Bodega Head (from downtown Bodega Bay, turn west on Eastshore Rd, go right at the stop sign onto Bay Flat Rd, and follow it to the end), the small peninsula that shelters Bodega Bay. You’ll discover two superb walking trails that follow the ocean at the head. The first, a 4-mile round-trip trail, starts from the west parking lot, leads past the Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory (707/875-2211; www.bml.ucdavis.edu), which conducts guided tours of its lab projects from 2 to 4pm on Fridays, and ends at the sand dunes of Salmon Creek Beach. An easier 1-1⁄2-mile round-trip walk begins in the east parking lot and encircles the edge of Bodega Head. From December through April, Bodega Head also doubles as one of the premier whale-watching points along the California coast.

A great way to spend a lazy afternoon in Bodega Bay is at the docks, watching the rusty fishing boats unload their catches. Tides Wharf Restaurant (835 Hwy 1, Bodega Bay; 707/875-3652) has the most active dock scene, including a viewing room near the processing plant that allows you to witness a fish’s ultimate fate--a swift and merciless gutting by deft hands, followed by a quick burial in ice (kids are mesmerized by this). Just outside, sea lions linger by the dock, hoping for a handout.

Linking Bodega Bay and the nearby town of Jenner are the Sonoma coast state and county beaches, 16 miles of pristine sand and gravel beaches, tide pools, rocky bluffs, hiking trails, and one heck of a gorgeous drive along Highway 1. Although all the beaches are pretty much the same, the safest for kids is Doran Park Beach, located just south of Bodega Bay. When the water’s rough everywhere else, Doran is still calm enough for swimming, clamming, and crabbing (an added bonus: the adjacent Doran mud flats are a favorite haunt of egrets, pelicans, and other seabirds). The best tide pools are at the north end of Salmon Creek Beach (off Bean Ave, 2 miles north of town) or Shell Beach, a small low-tide treasure trove 10 miles north of Bodega Bay. If all you want to do is get horizontal in the sand, deciding which of the 14 beaches along Highway 1 looks the best will drive you nuts; just pick one and park.