Hayward is a city in Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay Area region of California located next to the San Francisco Bay.
Hayward is located near premier tourist locations San Francisco, first rate educational institutions Berkeley and Stanford, and an economic powerhouse Silicon Valley, however relatively speaking Hayward does not have as much to offer as its neighbors. Even so, its central location may make it a very economical home base for tourists and commuters, and its panoramic views of the Bay alone are worth the side trip for visitors.
On paper, the landscape of Hayward sounds nearly perfect. Hayward boasts of a central bay shoreline, a quaint city center with a small town feel in the city flatlands, hills which overlook the bay, and a hub of highways that connect everywhere in the bay area to the inland areas of California. Unfortunately the shoreline is mostly filled with warehouses and marshland, and the city center is slightly run down, although it is slowly being renovated.
