Spring Into the East Bay: Our Favorite Things to Do This Easter Weekend

We spend most of our time talking about leases, rent control, and maintenance timelines — and we wouldn’t have it any other way. But this week, we’re setting the clipboard down.

Easter weekend is here, the weather is doing its best Bay Area spring impression, and the East Bay is packed with reasons to get outside and enjoy it. Whether you’ve got kids in tow, a crew of friends, or you’re just looking for a good excuse to eat something festive, here’s our roundup of favorite things to do across Emeryville, Oakland, and Berkeley this Easter weekend.

🐣 For the Kids: Egg Hunts Worth Showing Up Early For

The East Bay does Easter egg hunts at a genuinely impressive scale.

Children’s Fairyland Bunny Weekend in Oakland runs April 4 and 5, with egg hunts, arts and crafts, cookie decorating, live performances, and the kind of storybook magic that’s been charming East Bay kids since 1950. This year they’re putting a new spin on the classic hunt — their “Eggs-change” format — plus butterfly observation stations and baby goat meet-and-greets. If you have little ones under eight, this is the move. Tickets are included with general admission but the event sells out, so grab them in advance at fairyland.org.

Over in Emeryville, the Healthy Families Festival & Egg Hunt at the Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) runs Saturday, April 4 from 11am to 2pm. It’s free, it’s local, and it’s exactly the kind of neighborhood event that makes living in the East Bay feel like being part of something.

Berkeley brings it with two standouts on Easter Sunday, April 5. The Spring Egg Hunt Extravaganza at César Chávez Park is the City of Berkeley’s annual waterfront egg hunt — petting zoo, Spring Bunny visit, arts and crafts, a kid’s carnival, and Bunny Hop dance lessons. Runs 9:30am–1pm, $12 per child, pre-register to skip the line. And the Eggster Learning Festival at UC Berkeley’s Campanile Esplanade is one of the largest free egg hunts in the entire Bay Area — booths, performances, and activities designed to spark curiosity in kids of all ages, 10am–3pm.

For older kids who’ve aged out of the standard hunt, Berkeley also runs a Flashlight Egg Hunt for 5th–8th graders — glow gear provided, prizes worth showing up for.

🍳 For the Brunch Crowd: Spring Menus Worth the Wait

Easter brunch in the East Bay is its own category of good.

In Berkeley, La Note on Shattuck Avenue does French bistro brunch that feels genuinely transported — flaky croissants, pain au chocolat, lavender-honey french toast, and a patio that opens up just in time for spring. Worth noting: weekend brunch is walk-in only for parties under eight, so plan to arrive early. Easter Sunday lines start forming before 9am and move at their own pace — that’s part of the ritual.

Skates on the Bay out on the Berkeley waterfront is another classic, with sweeping bay views and a seafood-forward menu that turns brunch into an event. Reservations available online — don’t skip that step on Easter Sunday.

If you want something with more soul, Oakland has Burdell in Temescal, the James Beard-recognized spot from Chef Geoff Davis rooted in Black culinary tradition. Named for his grandmother, it’s the kind of place that makes brunch feel meaningful. The Grand Lake Kitchen locations in Oakland are also reliable crowd-pleasers — generous portions, warm atmosphere, dog-friendly patios. Make a reservation wherever you land; Easter Sunday is the busiest brunch day of the year.

🌸 For Everyone: Bay Street & the Simple Pleasures

If you just want to be out in the sunshine with no particular agenda, Bay Street in Emeryville is hosting a Spring Jubilee on Easter Sunday, April 5 from noon to 7pm — free admission, outdoor festivities, and a short walk from most of Emeryville’s residential communities. Check their events page for the full lineup as details are posted.

The Berkeley Marina at César Chávez Park is always worth a Sunday visit in spring. The kite flyers are out in force, the waterfront loop is an easy and beautiful walk, and you can genuinely feel like you’ve earned your Easter chocolate afterward. It’s one of those places East Bay locals take for granted until they have a visitor and realize how good they have it.

Lake Merritt in Oakland is another perennial — paddle boats, cherry blossoms if the timing cooperates, and the kind of relaxed weekend energy that the lake generates in April without fail.

A Note from Our Team

We’ve been managing properties across the East Bay for over 20 years, and one of the real privileges of that is watching these neighborhoods evolve — new restaurants, new events, new families planting roots. The East Bay is genuinely one of the best places in the country to call home, and weekends like this one are a good reminder of that.

From all of us at All East Bay Properties — happy spring, and happy Easter. 🐣

We’ll be back to landlord tips and habitability law on Tuesday. Promise.