<p>It takes 13 to 15 minutes to get to downtown Sacramento from Davis, and a little over an hour to get to Berkeley. (obviously not when there is heavy SF traffic though)</p>
<p>Davis offers something that is special, look how many of the students look happy, try to live in Davis after they graduate, or who turnout to support numerous campus activities especially their teams. The activity and recreation center is wonderful. There are movies on and off campus and yes there are a few bars, but no real night clubs if you are coming from LA. There are water parks near Sacramento and in Vallejo, and a number of music venues within the hour drive and park range.</p>
<p>If you are coming to Davis to get drunk, stay home and take afternoon courses at your community college. The only people I ever met who said they were bored at Davis, were bores. If you come to Davis, bring a bike and put a rear mud guard on to avoid that freshman stripe. It is the best place in the world to own a bike in.</p>
<p>hey, here's something you can do... ... study!</p>
<p>of course, if you want to get stoned/wasted, by all means, do so.</p>
<p>If you live in Fresno, why don't you make the effort and visit! Davis. Take the campus tour, spend a day really looking around the campus and town. Driving by the freeway doesn't give you a clue. It is a small city - probably less than 75,000 and it may not be your cup of tea, but if nearly 30,000 students can't think of anything to do, well....</p>
<p>There are good restaurants, not very many clubs, quite a few performing venues, including awesome Mondavi, a great student work out center (the ARC), lots of intermural sports, other sports, biking, two movie theaters, and a new independent film theater, in-line skating center, gardening opportunities, experimental college, craft center, bowling, art galleries, cute stores, book stores, great opportunities for running, greek life, independent party scene, lots of festivals, activities, especially in the spring - Picnic Day, Whole Earth Festival, etc. </p>
<p>The weather is great much of the time, Sacramento is 15 minutes away, Lake Tahoe two hours, Berkeley one hour, San Francisco and Napa just a little longer. </p>
<p>It's not known as a huge party school - go to Chico or Santa Barbara is that's important to you.</p>
<p>Visit!</p>
<p>Davis can't be boring because it is 20 mins from Sacramento which is a big city.....and it is in a cool college town where you have the chance to enjoy every aspect of it....</p>
<p>You only feel bored if u are in your room all day posting up messages on collegeconfidential. Maybe bring a car and travel to the Bay Area. You can visit so many wonderful cities like San Francisco, San Jose, Stockton, Oakland, and visit the Golden Gate bridge...</p>
<p>Haha I live in Fresno too... what high school do you go to? I've only visited Davis once, but it's gotta be better than Fresno (even with Riverpark).</p>
<p>you can bike. then you can bike some more. start a biking competition. Start a tour de Davis!!! That would look so sexy on a med/law/grad school application. ..HMmm promoting a healthy lifestyle for college students who would otherwise be consuming deathly amounts of alcohol...</p>
<p>Not enough to do in Davis? Sure it has a friendly,laid-back atmosphere, but I challenge anyone to find any other university, UC or otherwise that offers what UCD offers in the way of recreation or entertainment. </p>
<p>The Mondavi Center, is a new state of the art venue, with hundreds of world-class events per year. Check out the big names - from Yo-yo Ma to Bill Clinton (check out the mondavi center -<a href="http://www.mondaviarts.org/">http://www.mondaviarts.org/</a>) </p>
<p>The ARC (activities and recreation center) is a 140,000 sq. ft. new fitness and recreation building that a year ago and is THE best facility of its kind on a college campus. see <a href="http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=6979%5B/url%5D">http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=6979</a> </p>
<p>A year ago the Schaal Aquatics center has opened up - an Olympic size venue for world-class swimming & diving meets. Again, developed to be the best facility around. <a href="http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/recpool/schaal.html%5B/url%5D">http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/recpool/schaal.html</a> </p>
<p>A brand-new stadium is being built, opening in 2006, as UCD shifts to Division I. Initially it will have about 14K seats, but can be expanded to 30K (<a href="http://wwwdateline.ucdavis.edu/121302/dl_stadium.html%5B/url%5D">http://wwwdateline.ucdavis.edu/121302/dl_stadium.html</a> </p>
<p>Both an exceptional Baseball stadium, and dedicated soccer stadium were built a few years ago. </p>
<p>Want to participate in sport for the fun of it? Every year more than 14,000 students play on over 2000 teams, in 26 different men's, women's, and coed activities. <a href="http://imsports.ucdavis.edu/intramurals/im-home.htm%5B/url%5D">http://imsports.ucdavis.edu/intramurals/im-home.htm</a> </p>
<p>There are literally hundreds of student groups and organizations in support of just about anything one can think of
<a href="http://spac.ucdavis.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://spac.ucdavis.edu/</a> </p>
<p>Granted, Davis itself is a quaint town, however, Sacramento ( a fifteen minute drive away) has all the nightlife of a metropolitan area. </p>
<p>Sac nightlife not enough? San Francisco is only an hour drive away (just don't hit the traffic). </p>
<p>Davis is one of, if not the only, California campuses with an Equestrian center. </p>
<p><a href="http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/equestrian/%5B/url%5D">http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/equestrian/</a> </p>
<p>Like the outdoors? This is the closest UC to great skiing at Tahoe. Hiking, fishing, etc can be done on campus even (it is the largest UC in area), or just head to the outskirts of town. </p>
<p>Outdoor Adventures is an incredibly well established, mostly student run organization, sponsoring outdoor activities of all kinds, from white-water rafting, to kayaking in Baja over break, to cross-country skiing, you name it. <a href="http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/oa/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/oa/index.html</a> </p>
<p>Like Crafts? The Craft center offers more than 100 classes per quarter - jewelry making, ceramics, you name it. State of the art facilities in just about any craft <a href="http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/craftcenter/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/craftcenter/index.html</a> </p>
<p>Bowling, billiards and game center <a href="http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/mugames/%5B/url%5D">http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/mugames/</a> </p>
<p>Want to just swim and hang out? 2 pools are available - and the weather is great! <a href="http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/recpool/recpool.html%5B/url%5D">http://campusrecreation.ucdavis.edu/recpool/recpool.html</a> </p>
<p>Like the unusual stuff? How about the salsa, merengue ? from yoga to tai chi, drumming to bike repair., body massage? Experimental college probably has something for you. <a href="http://asucd.ucdavis.edu/experimentalcollege/index.cfm?page=search&studentsid=969&sort=name%5B/url%5D">http://asucd.ucdavis.edu/experimentalcollege/index.cfm?page=search&studentsid=969&sort=name</a> </p>
<p>Interested in contemporary music - check out <a href="http://www.davismusicscene.org/index.jsp%5B/url%5D">http://www.davismusicscene.org/index.jsp</a>
or the student-run radio station <a href="http://www.kdvs.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.kdvs.org/</a> </p>
<p>I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff. A better question is what ISN'T available at Davis?</p>
<p>fabulous post anxious_mom! I will share with my D. :)</p>
<p>Wow, anxious_mom, that was an awesome post!</p>
<p>are there any malls/shopping centers in davis?</p>
<p>There are no big "cookie cutter-could be-anywhere" malls in Davis. Downtown, a few blocks from the east edge of campus, has interesting locally-owned shops, theaters, galleries and restaurants. We do have a Borders, Gap, small Gottschalks, Cost Plus World Market, large Ace Hardware, Longs, Big 5...things like that. No Target, Walmart, Macy's, etc. Downtown Sacramento has a reasonably large mall - 15 minutes and on a bus line.
Check out: <a href="http://www.daviswiki.org/Shopping_Centers%5B/url%5D">www.daviswiki.org/Shopping_Centers</a></p>
<p>there malls dont sound too appealing...eh i'm there to learn. i'll just go out of town if i wanna have some fun.</p>
<p>i think i might been a bit provoking with my question What i was really trying to do was get specific, tangible information about places to go. BTW, i hadnt known about the Daviswiki website and i had not visit Davis but now i have visited both of these sites, i'm content.</p>
<p>There are no big "cookie cutter-could be-anywhere" malls in Davis. Downtown, a few blocks from the east edge of campus, has interesting locally-owned shops, theaters, galleries and restaurants. We do have a Borders, Gap, small Gottschalks, Cost Plus World Market, large Ace Hardware, Longs, Big 5...things like that. No Target, Walmart, Macy's, etc. Downtown Sacramento has a reasonably large mall - 15 minutes and on a bus line.
Check out: <a href="http://www.daviswiki.org/Shopping_Centers%5B/url%5D">www.daviswiki.org/Shopping_Centers</a></p>
<p>^See, look how concise this person is! Thats all i was asking for!</p>
<p>I was frustrated cuz when you ask Davis people what there is to do in Davis, in my experience of asking, even if you explicitly ask for specific things, they are always extremely vague and unspecific. It's like Davis people have this implicit esoteric language for describing things. Ask people what there is to do in Fresno, they'll nail everything down and count off everything in one hand (maybe only one finger at that). Thats just the notion that i get from my own experience and i may be completely wrong. Nearly half this discussion was people who were upset at me for being a bit frustrated (although i was not trying to be intimidating or anything - i was victim of noninformation desperate for some info). Nearly the other half of this thread is the expected and justifiable blah. It needn't drag this long. And then there are like a handful like this post and the ones by anxious mom, college mom,etc which actually answer my question. Thank you, bless you all!</p>
<p>Bumping this thread so others can see it...</p>
<p>That was a little unnecessary.</p>
<p>there is plenty to do in davis, it's just most freshman are too lazy or scared to TAKE INITIATIVE and do ****. the college experience isn't just something that happens, you have to make your own college experience. go to parties, get an internship your freshman year (jobs.ucdavis.edu, yes you can get an internship or job your frosh year), make friends, have fun.</p>
<p>here is what i usually do. i go home every month once (i live in the bay area). during fall quarter i play IM soccer, go to parties, go snowboarding around november-december about every weekend. during winter quarter its snowboarding, snowboarding, snowboarding, parties, parties, snowboarding, paintball (once or twice), study. spring quarter it's go white water rafting, san francisco (by train), parties, internship, etc.</p>
<p>ive never been bored in davis. i just listed some of the stuff-- i always find theres more to do. hell if you're bored go explore the campus, find some of the hidden tunnels in the buildings, etc...</p>
<p>fooshy</p>
<p>go to parties, go to Sac, make new friends, study, learn stuff, drink, get a job, go to Tahoe, go to lake berryessa, smoke the good bush, sex, building yourself a bike, take a longboard to the parking garages and carve it up</p>
<p>it took me about a minute to think of these things at 3 in the morning on a tuesday while watching Ong Bak...</p>
<p>join a fraternity, you'll always huge a group of guys or girls down for some randomness</p>
<p>fooshy, i see you on this forum all the time, where in the bay are you from, and what year are you?</p>
<p>YES i'm so glad to hear ppl use longboards up at davis. i won't be a loner :D</p>