15 Best Things To Do in Fresno

If you travel to California and have the opportunity to make a stop in Fresno, you can visit a small and authentic Californian city. Visiting Fresno is also a good option if you intend to visit Yosemite since it is the closest city to the natural park. Fresno is only 60 miles from Yosemite. In this section of the guide, we will tell you about the best places to visit in Fresno.

Top tourist attractions in Fresno are the Metropolitan Museum, the Art Museum, the Great Fresno Opera House, the Forester Underground Gardens, the Fulton Alameda, the Chinatown and the Old Fig Garden. The streets, on which you can take a pleasant walk, is Huntington Boulevard, which at Christmas time, is covered with lights and allegorical decorations, and the so-called Van Ness extension in which are the largest, most beautiful and expensive mansions in the city.

Let's explore Fresno points of interest and 15 best things to do in Fresno:

1. Visit the Tower District

The Tower District is Fresno's cultural, business and leisure center. This is one of the most popular and popular places in the city and is full of life and activity. This is the ideal area of Fresno to go shopping or go out for drinks at night. In fact, the Tower District is like a Downtown of large cities, but on a small scale, which may be more pleasant for some travelers.

2. The Chaffee Zoo

Image Source: wikimedia.org

If you travel with children to Fresno, a good option goes to visit the Chaffe Zoo. It is a very characteristic zoo of the city due to its history. The premises opened in 1929 with few farm animals and little by little it became the zoo that it is today.

Location: Roeding Park

Visiting hours: 09.00- 16.00

3. The underground gardens

If you visit Fresno you cannot miss one of the most visited tourist attractions: the underground gardens. It's about underground catacombs full of streets and really impressive labyrinth roads. The architecture of the place is full of vaults and arches, in addition to a decoration with precious centenary trees. These gardens were built by a single man who managed to make his dream come true, build gardens underground. The entrance price is around $ 15.

Location: 5021 W. Shaw Avenue

Schedule: From April to October open from Wednesday to Friday from 11.00 to 3.00 pm and weekends from 10.00 to 15.00 / March and November on weekends from 11.00 to 15.00

Underground caves, grottos in the stone, shadows, dark passages. If you entered the Fresno Underground Gardens without knowing anything about them, you might believe that you are in the catacombs of an Italian city, but nothing is further from the truth. These subterranean caves, which also enjoy a good dose of darkness and silence, are found in Fresno, in warm California, and its architect was Baldassare Forestiere, a Sicilian immigrant who wanted to recreate the catacombs of their native lands. Without skeletons, of course

4. Yosemite National Park

Image Source: wikipedia.org

To stay in Fresno, we suggest you to look for downtown since it is the most central and safest area of the city. Anyway, if your goal is to make a stop in Fresno to go to the Yosemite National Park, the most practical thing is to stay in a hotel that is on the road that leads directly to the park: Yosemite Forks.

If your intention is to sleep in a hotel in the center of Fresno, you have to make the reservation in advance, since it is a very busy point.

5. Wine tasting at Paso Robles - Eating places at Fresno

Throughout the region, there are charming hotels and inns to receive visitors. The region also hosts several gastronomic and wine festivals throughout the year, which attract some stellar chefs; so it would be a good option to plan your trip around one of these events. 

6. Copper Beech Fresno

Here, residents enjoy ample space for all your needs and a host of amenities, including a shuttle service to and from the campus.

7. Rural Beach

It is a fluvial beach in the middle of a beautiful forest, free and ideal to bathe with children and make a family picnic. There is a good beach area to place umbrellas and towels, and for children to make their castles or pocitos. This beach, located about 50 kilometers from the capital, is quite popular, although it is not usually overcrowded, it has space to park. There is little water, it does not "cover" anywhere, but it is enough to cool off and do a "war of splashing" with children.

The area has a pedestrian walk, kiosks and picnic areas, drinking fountains, showers to clean the sand if we have taken a bath, litter bins, and enough shade to enjoy our picnic.

8. The Forestiere Underground Museum

It also has wonderful gardens. Here one can enjoy a different kind of activities with the family. Also, special activities for children are available at this place

9. Roeding Park, whatever you want

It does not matter what you have planned in the head to spend an afternoon in Fresno: in Roeding Park you can do it. This place is designed for the inhabitants of the city of Fresno as well as for visitors and tourists. It is a wonderful park where you can walk and find from a lake many different types of trees and plants among the trails that make up the place. If the visitor prefers not to walk calmly and relaxed but wants to practice it is some other sport, in the park, you will find from tennis courts to a golf course. Also one may prefer to picnic in a space away from the noise and smoke of the city, here you can. There are spaces designed for it.

10. The creation of Forestiere

This place is full of rumors and beliefs throughout the region. This is the creation of Baldassare Forestiere, a Sicilian immigrant, who with his own hands and without previous knowledge carried out this construction that, not only still lasts, but has become a historic center and usual tourist spot for all visitors of the city of Fresno. The underground gardens are actually a set of patios, corridors, rooms, gardens, and rooms built by this Sicilian to escape the heat of the Fresno summer months. His style is similar to the constructions of the Roman catacombs that he admired as a child. With the difference that the darkness of the catacombs changed it for luminosity and life, planting fruit trees, vines and letting light enter the nooks and crannies of the place. He made all this work without plans, only with the idea that he had in his head, without a teacher, without anyone to teach him. What has turned the place into an authentic work of art?

11. San Juan de Fresno Cathedral

Image Source: wikipedia.org

This Cathedral was built in 1903 although already in 1878 the settlers of these lands recognized the need to build a temple of these characteristics and began to raise funds. The building had a brick structure and a 90-foot bell tower. After 20 years the structure had been small for the diocese that was then so they decided to expand. The first idea and the one that the population wanted was to demolish the existing one in order to build a bigger one in the same place.

12. Fresno Grizzlies Stadium

In the United States, national sport is baseball. If you are interested in touring one of the most emblematic stadiums for Americans on this sport, do not hesitate to go to the Chukchansi Park or the Grizzlies Stadium. It is located in the center of the city and designed by populous one of the most prestigious builders who has made works of several emblematic teams of this sport. The stadium is also used to practice soccer, to perform music concerts and motorcycle events. 

13. Second-hand market and exchange

The Big Fresno Fairgrounds is a place where many activities are held, including this Opportunities Market that offers the inhabitants of Fresno and surrounding areas an opportunity to improve their income. Here you can find a place to go for a walk and take advantage of a bargain home or just spend a day in a different environment. T

14. The park of Shakespeare

This park, Woodward Park, is the largest of all in the Fresno region. It is located on the banks of the San Joaquin River. This park is known for hosting the Shakespeare festival where works by the famous English author are carried out. 

15. Island Water Park, fun for summer

If your trip to Fresno coincides with the summer season you will need somewhere to soak and relieve the extremely hot outside temperatures. If you have also traveled as a family this will undoubtedly be a mandatory stop. Island Water Park is a water park designed for the whole family to spend a day of the most fun in water attractions. Between slides, pools, waves, mats and donuts will pass the hours without anyone noticing.

Being one of the most happening cities in California, Fresno is a must-visit for anyone touring the country.