Shall I dare look into the future?

I am about to head on my first big trip of the year, to the west coast of the USA, with a quick stopover in Hawaii (where I btw always, always wanted to go!!).

While prepping for this trip, I have been super curious about the entrepreneurial and coworking scene over there, which I'll definitely dive into. Because you hear about the Silicon Valley and where many of these massive tech startups are born, all the time.

However, if your world is a while away from this place, it's kind of hard to imagine what it's really like…

So today, I got the lovely Georgette from Get Croissant, a platform providing access to dozens of beautiful coworking spaces across the US, to give us a little insight into the San Francisco startup and coworking scene. Let's go!

When I was in San Francisco, I couldn’t get over all of the delicious food, especially the burritos, and the awesome start-up scene. The place is buzzing with cool tech companies and remote teams aplenty, and coworking spaces in the city are wonderful places to bump into these new business ideas and hang out during cool events.

More importantly, they’re great places for you to sit, stay, and focus. Happily, these spaces offer a free or discount day for your first visit, and apps like Croissant can help you get easy-access to these coworking spaces and more around the world.

So if you're in the Bay Area, here are some of my favourite spots for coworking and networking.

Home to a vibrant community of retail and technology start-ups, Bespoke combines demos, coworking, and events in one house.

Founded in Downtown San Francisco in 2015, the space boasts 50+ international retail demos, 100+ events with hosts from Polyvore to Facebook, and plenty of weekly workshops. Seriously, they have great events. They hosted a Casino Royale themed benefit for the American Red Cross.

The space has a variety of seatings with nooks to low bleachers, standing desk options and access to a bouldering rock climbing wall and a nap room.

Location: 845 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

This shared workspace is bright, airy, and dog-friendly — which is important for dog owners and dog lovers alike, really. Parisoma is an experimental environment perfect for coworking, events, and education.

Hop into a lunch and learn over design principles or join a pitch session with international founders. This coworking space is always buzzing with something to do! Or if you’re needing some peace, you can get refreshed in their Zen Room, complete with bean bags and aromatherapy.

Location: 169 11th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103

Eat, drink, and meet other fellow entrepreneurs or start-up teams at Covo. There’s also really good, locally roasted coffee at their cafe, which is just another reason to have coffee meetings. They also have a nap room (necessary), bike rack and locks (perfect for California commuting), and futuristic toilets (flush of the future!).

But I love Coco because of their community.

The space is full of life enhancements, like the Equator roasters coffee and taproom, but they also make a point to celebrate you as a member or visitor. You can opt for a free Covo day to dip your toe too.

Location: 981 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103

If you can’t envision working from an office every single day, a home office that affords you some privacy could work a bit better.

Apartments by Blueground offer completely furnished apartment homes that are fully furnished and come equiped with all living essentials and include luxury amenities, which make them a great choice for digital nomads, professionals, or students.

So, it would be simple to create your own work sanctuary right at home. Especially for longer visits to San Francisco of a month or longer, nomads can make use of the convenience of moving into a Blueground apartment right away as they are furnished, centrally-located, come with WiFi and utilities ready to go.

Eco-Systm is a creative-based coworking spot that brings entertainment, creativity, and business together. They host everything from tech meetups, agriculture forums, a bi-weekly happy hour, cooking classes, workout groups, speed dating… the list goes on really.

And the space if beautiful, modern, and has an awesome outdoor seating area— all of which are perfect for Instagrammable #workanywhere moments.

They even have $5 first Friday to cowork and enjoy the space for the whole day!

Location: 540 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94105

Impact Hub is a fun, shared space with a mission to support agents of change. They’re driving impact, get it? The space is for innovators to connect with a variety of programs from panels, labs, mentors, sessions, and fireside chats.

You can also just ask what someone’s working on. The space is open and welcoming, especially this location. It’s great for meeting local innovators who are also working to create that positive impact.

Location: 215 Allston Way, #400, Berkeley, CA 94704

The Vault is an exclusive membership coworking space and innovator hub that’s seriously an amazing, supportive resource for any entrepreneur (just starting or otherwise). Along with a strong community and events, the space comes with super fast wifi, an exercise room, an outdoor patio, and a document library.

The document library is a bonus amenity I don’t see too often from a space, and it’s brilliant.

The Vault gives you access to a library of best practices from your fellow Vault members, whether it’s an example of a contract, employment agreements, or stock purchases. Because when it doubt, you go to the library. It’s such a cool idea, I wonder if there are other spaces doing it.

Location: 415 Jackson Street, Suite B, San Francisco, CA 94111

When I first heard about Workshop Cafe, all I knew was that it was a flexible workspace with fresh food and really good coffee. It’s all about fueling you as a member or visitor in the space, nutritionally and productively— they even thought about creating a Spotify playlist to really get you into the zone.

It’s the cafe-coworking hybrid— where you can place orders for drinks and delicious food on your phone and stay in your seat (and the zone) to work on your project. You pay by the hour to use the space too, because they get you need that flexibility as a creator.

Location: 25 Spear Street, San Francisco, CA 94105

Located in the Paramount building, Spaces is a community of startups, creatives, and innovators in a beautiful atmosphere with modern furniture and greenery.

It’s in a really great location too— close to retailers, renovated warehouses and art galleries, great restaurants, and the food trucks at SoMa StrEat Food Park.

Location: 95 Third Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103

Plus: Events And Groups To Keep An Eye Out For

If you’re also looking for events to meet other digital nomads or freelancers in the area, it’s no surprise that San Francisco has plenty.

Here are amazing groups with really great turnouts to check out below:

• Freelance Cafe
• Six Degrees Society
• The San Francisco Creative Freelancers Guild Meetup
• Network After Work
• Camp Grounded
• 106 Miles Meetup
• Soapbox

Do you have a favorite coworking space in San Francisco? Or are you traveling there soon and want to hop around?

You can cowork anywhere with the Croissant app. Sign up with code ‘breathingtravel' through this link to get $20 off your first month.