12 unique Bay Area outings for holiday visitors – and you

Here's how to entertain those out-of-towners and holiday guess -- and you! -- this winter, from the interactive Warriors' Hooptopia to holiday cocktail pop-ups, icy bumper cars and more.

Visitors flock to the Bay Area during the winter holidays, and it’s often your job to show them a good time – in addition to keeping them cozy in your home and preparing a Thanksgiving or Christmas spread. Whether or not your out-of-towners are houseguests, too, they’ll be looking for things to do while they’re here.

That’s where you come in – and appear oh-so-in-the-know. Here are 12 places to send those houseguests adventuring, from an ice rink with bumper cars (yes, really!) to cool museums, a rooftop park and five holiday cocktail pop-ups. Actually, you might want to come along.

1 Get your “Glow” on at the Exploratorium

The Exploratorium’s award-winning “After Dark” program for adults is a great way to socialize – and learn something in the process. Every Thursday night, guests are invited to grab a drink and immerse themselves in mind-bending, interactive exhibits that explore perception, art and science. On Dec. 5, the program kicks off the Exploratorium’s annual “Glow” show, an eye-popping, jaw-dropping festival of illuminated sculptures specially devoted to making spirits bright. After opening night, “Glow” runs every day through Jan. 26, and children are welcome to enjoy the exhibit during daytime hours. It’s a very fun – and safe – way to get lit.

Details: $19.95, Pier 15, The Embarcadero, San Francisco; www.exploratorium.edu/glow.

2 Learn the sport of curling

We don’t know exactly how curling became so cool, but millions of entranced Winter Olympics viewers can’t be wrong. The epically deliberate pace. … The funny lingo (a “bonspiel”?). … The weird equipment (sweeping “brooms” and clunking “rocks”). They all make what looks like shuffleboard-on-ice a blast to watch. But why not actually get out and play? After all, the chance of rupturing a hamstring seems to be minimal.

Curling clinics are being held this winter at outdoor rinks, including Cityline in Sunnyvale and San Francisco Civic Center. And the Silicon Valley Curling Club offers occasional lessons at Solar4America Ice in Fremont. Here’s hoping you have fun and put just the right amount of wobble on your kizzle kazzle – whatever that means.

Details: $20-35 per lesson or clinic. www.siliconvalleycurling.com; www.citylinesunnyvale.com; www.winterparkicerinksf.com.

3 Sip a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Miracle, the hyper-decorated holiday cocktail pop-up, is back in Northern California this season, with locations in San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento and for the first time, Petaluma. Inside these Instagram-worthy pop-ups, you’ll find tinsel-topped presents, Santa hat-backed chairs and custom holiday-themed glassware. Look for now-classic cocktails like the Snowball Old Fashioned, made with gingerbread bourbon, wormwood bitters and lemon zest; a rum-aquavit-amaro Christmas Carol Barrel; and the And a Partridge in a Pear Tree, built on reposado tequila, pear brandy and spiced demerara syrup.

Also back this year: festive drinks served in ornaments and snow globes at San Francisco’s independent Deck the Halls and a winter lounge pop-up at the Four Seasons Palo Alto called Apres.

Details: Miracle starts Nov. 25 at Paper Plane, 72 S. First St., San Jose; Pacific Cocktail Haven, 580 Sutter St., San Francisco; The Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar, 2718 J St. and Sippin Santa at Jungle Bird, 2516 J St., Sacramento; and Nov. 26 at Brewster’s Beer Garden, 229 Water Street North, Petaluma; www.miraclepopup.com. Deck the Halls starts Nov. 25 at 1217 Sutter St., SF. www.deckthehallsbar.com.

4 Go bump on the ice

At 11,000 square feet, San Mateo on Ice is the biggest ice rink in the Bay Area with real ice. And starting Nov. 8, they’ll split it in two so you can traverse its sleek surface atop a colorful electric bumper car. That’s right, you’ll be bumping friends and family of all ages and sending them twirling around the rink without worrying about ice skater traffic. This holiday ice rink is the only one offering bumper cars on the entire West Coast. Who needs skates?

Details: $10. Ages 5 and older. Open through Jan. 12 at San Mateo Central Park, 50 E. 5th St., San Mateo; www.sanmateoonice.com

5 Channel your inner hoopster

You’ll want to wear your best Golden State Warriors gear for Hooptopia, a one-of-a-kind, interactive basketball experience at Thrive City, part of the Dubs’ new Chase Center digs in San Francisco. At Hooptopia, fans of all ages are taken through the life of an NBA player, from predraft workouts and press conferences to slam dunk tests — alongside Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, perhaps — and championship-worthy confetti showers. Candytopia, the whimsical, interactive candy museum, is behind this new Instagrammable hoopfest, so you know it’s gonna be sweet.

Details: Tickets — $36 for adults, $27 for kids — are available at www.thehooptopia.com. Hooptopia runs through June at Thrive City, 7 Warriors Way, Suite 100, San Francisco.

6 Or your inner Burner (without all that desert dust)

You don’t have to road trip to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to appreciate what has become one of the world’s most celebrated cultural events. The immersive “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” brings it to you – at the Oakland Museum. The exhibit showcases Bay Area artists’ sculptures, costumes, photography, paintings and interactive installations that fill the museum’s Great Hall and spill into outdoor plazas. And you won’t have to watch any of it being ritually burned to the ground. Do look for a 40-foot-tall outdoor temple, a Burning Man Block Party and Playa events at this West Coast debut.

Details: Admission is $12-$21. Runs through Feb. 16 at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland; museumca.org.

7 Stroll above the streets

Sitting atop the Salesforce Transit Center in the heart of San Francisco’s SoMa is what’s been described as a lush “living roof.” It’s a vibrant, 5.4-acre patch of manicured greenery amid a sea of gleaming high rises. A curved walking trail lined with benches surrounds expansive lawns, dancing fountains, a children’s playground, an amphitheater and, of course, a Starbucks. You and your guests can relax with a picnic while listening to live music. Or you can expend some energy with a Zumba class. A free, glassed-cube gondola carries passengers from street level to the fourth-story park. (There are elevators, too, if you’re so inclined).

Details: 425 Mission Street, San Francisco. Winter hours: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.; www.salesforcetransitcenter.com.

8 Take a Brew Cruz

If your guests have a taste for craft beer and want to blend it with some beach-town bliss, then head for Santa Cruz and this enjoyably laid-back road trip. Annie Wolff-Pautsch (a.k.a Captain Annie) deploys a refurbished school bus nicknamed “Betty Jane” (for groups of 8-15) and a 1964 Volkswagen van, aka “Slowboy” (maximum seven passengers), enabling riders to have some good, frothy fun. Her vintage wheels pull into several showcased breweries for tours and discounted tastings, with food options available. Along the way, just savor the suds and gorgeous seaside scenery.

Details: $45 per person (public tours) and $75 (private); www.scbrewcruz.com.

9 Traipse an urban wine trail

Want to taste Napa and Sonoma-grown wines without leaving the East Bay? Go to Oakland. Its Urban Wine Trail is home to eight warehouse wineries and tasting rooms, including Two Miles Wines and Prima Materia, crafting impressive wines from grapes grown in some of California’s most prestigious regions. Newest among them is Côte West Winery, which opened in late 2018 and has its own 4,600-square-foot production facility. Winemaker Brett Hogan, a Davis grad who trained under Burgundy’s Dominique Lafon, makes Old World-style wines, including single-vineyard pinot noir and chardonnay, from Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley and Coombsville grapes.

Details: Hours vary. Download the Oakland Urban Wine Trail map at www.visitoakland.com.

10 Go Lego crazy

What is it about colorful little interlocking plastic bricks that make us so darn happy? (At least when we’re not stepping on them in the dark with bare feet). Once again, the Bay Area Lego User Group (BayLUG) and the Bay Area Lego Train Club (BayLTC) are putting their fertile imaginations and engineering prowess to good use by co-hosting a wow-worthy holiday display – a Lego Pop-Up Exhibit at the Museum of American Heritage – that features intricate train layouts, Bay Area landmarks, castles, miniature cities, sculptures and more. It’s almost enough to prompt us to start singing “Everything Is Awesome” from “The Lego Movie.” … Almost.

Details: $3 admission fee. Open Friday-Sunday at 351 Homer Avenue, Palo Alto; www.moah.org.

11 Sip by the sea

Twenty wine tasting rooms in a one-square-mile village? You bet. Carmel-by-the-Sea is not only gorgeous, it offers a breezy, self-paced wine stroll – the Carmel Wine Walk by-the-Sea – where you can taste award-winning still and sparkling wines from producers like Wrath Wines and Caraccioli Cellars. The region’s Wine Tasting Passport sweetens the deal: The $100 passport entitles you to tasting flights at 10 of the 13 participating tasting rooms. Better yet, it can be used all in one day, of course, or spread out over several months.

Details: Buy the Wine Tasting Passport at Blair Estate Tasting Room, located on the first floor of Carmel Plaza on Ocean Avenue, between Junipero and Mission; www.carmelcalifornia.com.

12 Explore a thought-provoking exhibit

Decades before Colin Kaepernick took a knee, San Jose State University sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists on the medal stand at the 1968 Summer Olympics to protest racial injustice. Like Kaepernick, their actions spurred plenty of condemnation (They were banished from the U.S. team and targeted with death threats). This seminal gesture is explored in a thought-provoking collaboration between Smith and conceptual artist Glenn Kaino that focuses on the meaning and merits of social protest. The exhibit, “With Drawn Arms” at the San Jose Museum of Art, features sculptures, photos, drawings and archival objects from Smith’s time as an athlete.

Details: $8-10. Nov. 1-April 5, 110 S. Market St, San Jose; www.sjmusart.org.