10 insider tips for visiting San Jose.
Written: Jul 17 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: There's lots of great stuff close by.
Cons: The weirdest, worstest traffic you'll find
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| hermmy's Full Review: San Jose |
So you're visiting the Garden City? There are exactly three ways you can end up with San Jose as a destination. First, you're visiting a client, vendor, home office, regional office, or on some other high tech related business trip and you're wondering what to do with your down time. Second, you've got family here. Third some neophyte travel agent convinced you it's the perfect location for visiting Northern California, right between San Francisco and Monterey. The later was particularly popular with an unusual number of German visitors recently.
Having lived in the South Bay for over 30 years I hope I can offer you some survival tips. First off it's not that bad. Pick the city up and drop it anywhere else and people would no doubt have a higher opinion of the place. It's just that it suffers from being so close too so many other fantastic destinations.
So off we go!
1 Check the weather HERE before you come. San Francisco is located at the end of a peninsula and is surrounded on three sides by cold water. San Jose is located in the heart of a narrow valley protected on 2 sides by 3000 foot mountain ranges. They have often drastically different weather. It's normally 20 degrees hotter in San Jose than San Francisco. Sometimes it rains there and not here. Sometimes it's the other way around. Basically most major newspapers and TV sources have data on San Francisco weather, just know that despite the geographic closeness, you should still find out what it's like in San Jose before you come.
2 Us natives are obsessed with traffic. When two strangers meet the questions go: What's your name? Where do you work? How's your commute? At which point the real conversation begins. The reason is traffic is a magical, mystical, nutty, overbearing part of our lives. It's not quite like anything else, anywhere else. It's not like NY with a big rush in and a big rush out. It's not LA busy all the time in every direction. It's well, quirky. It's stop and go one direction for five miles then goes 70mph at which point the other direction is stop and go. You need to ask a local before you head out anywhere. Make friends with the hotel clerk, bellboy, waitress, co-worker or anyone who can clue you in on the quirkiness. Ask someone when the best time to go is and the route to take. You'll save hours in the rental car.
3 There is a u and an i in tourist, but there ain't no tourist in high tech. We all work in the same low slung, visually challenged non-discript buildings. Don't think a fun way to spend the day would be to see the homes of Apple, Intel, HP, SGI, Sun and Oracle. They all look exactly the same, they're all exactly as boring, and all you'll end up doing is becoming an instant expert in the traffic described above.
4 Visit during hockey season. The Sharks are really the one binding cultural institution in the city. Although they've played there less than 10 years, the atmosphere has that Fenway Park, Wrigley Field type of effect. You know it's more the outing than the event your experiencing and it's worth it. Even if you're not a hockey fan you'll love the experience, which is one of those things Wrigley Field does so well.
5 There are a few good museums. The Tech Museum and Children's Discovery Museum are both first rate and easy to get to. If you've got kids they'll easily spend an entire afternoon at the Children's Museum. There's also a good Egyptian Museum. The Rosecrution Egyptian Museum on Park Ave. One of the best collections in the US of Egyptology, including the ever popular real "live" mummies.
6 It's wine country. Had the Stanford farm been in Santa Rosa and the Packard family garage been in Healdsburg, Napa would be Silicon Valley and San Jose would have been wine country. Although the last large operation (Almaden) left the valley floor 15 years ago, there are still a few really good wineries in the valley. J Lohr and Mirassou are in San Jose and a few more can be found in the hills above Saratoga and west of Gilroy in the Hecker Pass. The valley itself is better for whites and the hills reds but that's just trivia at this point. Most of the wineries are very small so call ahead before hand to see if they offer tours and tasting.
7 The mystery in the Winchester Mystery House is how they don't get thrown in jail for charging $15 to get in. It's NOT a state park it's run for profit by the owners, and they play up the "mystery" to try and ring your pocket books. If it was $5 it might be worth it but at $60 for a family forget it. Here's the mystery (straight from my 5th grade teacher who did his graduate thesis on the place), everything "weird" in the house is a result of either the 1906 earthquake (The stairs to no-where used to go somewhere, it just fell down), or Mrs. Winchester being an amateur when she started designing the house. Save the $60's for dinner out. This is tourist trap defined. Chevy Chase is planning on visiting right after he visits the world's largest ball of string, or the house of mud.
8 Eat out means the "burbs". Downtown is a tribute to the idiocy of our local politicians, who spent millions trying to get people to come there, but never succeeded. There are a few places to eat on San Pedro Square and dotted around downtown, but the real good spots are in the downtown areas of the near by mini-cities. Probably in order of hipness: Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Gatos, Los Altos and Sunnyvale. Plan on eating a little later to avoid big crowds. Most places fill up with the after work crowds from 5-7, then empty out around 7-8 when the commute is lighter. Have a late lunch and go out for a later dinner.
9 Play some Golf. Each city has at least one municipal course and although they can be a little expensive there's really good public golf in the valley. Santa Teresa in San Jose, Spring Valley in Milpitas, and Santa Clara Muni are particularly entertaining courses. It's not Palm Springs, but if you play, you can kill a few days on fun courses.
10 Bring your Hiking Boots. One of the cool things about living here is 10 minutes outside the city, you're really in the country. My favorite parks are David Grant, Uvas Canyon, and Skyborn. There's real wildlife to see: Mule and Black Tail Dear, Wild Pigs, Wild Turkeys, Bobcats, and Borrowing Owls are a few I've encountered over the years. You can also see waterfalls in Uvas Canyon, redwood groves and the occasional Quartz or Jadeite stone. Most of the parks are located around the valley rim and start with a brisk hike up, so be prepared.
So, you're trip here should be ok. San Francisco, Monterey, Napa and Yosemite are still the highlights in Northern California, but if you should find the way to San Jose, at least you now know what to do.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hermmy
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Location: San Jose, CA
Reviews written: 19
Trusted by: 2 members
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