2 Best Shopping in The Bay Area, California

Since 1955, this bookstore has been the heart of Menlo Park. The store has many mainstream books, yet also maintains the independent, intellectual side that made it popular with the Beat Generation and activists (even the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia would play his guitar here). Author talks are a big draw at what continues to be one of the Bay Area’s definitive local bookstores.

This store is every child's (and many adults') dream come true, with rows of fresh homemade fudge, barrels of rainbow-colored jelly beans, and neat ribboned boxes of truffles. A train in the window drives figure eights through convincing faux-chocolate mountains and around M&M houses.