San Jose, California — California’s third-largest city — is packed with worthwhile stops. As the anchor point to the Bay Area’s tech scene, this Silicon Valley city is most famous for the world-bending technology it has birthed. (Think floppy disks, hard drives and voice-recognition software, to name a few.)
But San Jose’s charms extend well beyond microprocessing. This high-tech hub also delivers surprising diversity with innovative museums, well-preserved history, cutting-edge art and a cosmopolitan culinary scene.
As always, check for travel restrictions and closures before planning your trip.
Friday: Explore the City’s Famous Tech Scene
Start your day with a pick-me-up from Nirvana Coffee. San Jose’s first Black-female-owned coffee shop has grown a cult following thanks to its bright decor and single-origin beans. Try the Noir Dark Roast House Blend paired with a veggie quiche or vegan muffin.
Tickle your cerebrum at the Tech Interactive, an ultra-hands-on museum with exhibits focusing on innovations in computers, robotics, healthcare and space exploration. The museum caters to the younger set, but curious people of all ages can design their own robot, get shaken up in a simulated earthquake or sit in an astronaut’s seat and “fly” through space.
Next, zoom back in time to learn about San Jose before the silicon chips. Take a guided tour of the city’s oldest building, the 1797 Peralta Adobe, which was once part of a large Spanish pueblo.
Walk or ride an electric trolley around History Park San Jose, an outdoor museum with nearly three dozen buildings that re-create early life in the Santa Clara Valley. There’s a Chinese temple, a trolley restoration barn, an 1881 electric light tower, a 1920s gas station and the re-created O’Brien’s Ice Cream Parlor. When it opened in 1874, O’Brien’s was the first ice cream shop west of Detroit.
Next you’ll travel much further back in time, but first stop for a Middle Eastern lunch at 50-year-old San Jose institution Falafel’s Drive-In, founded in the 1960s by Israeli immigrants and still run by their family members today.
Then it’s on to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, which houses the West’s largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts. You’ll see burial tombs, fertility figures, children’s toys, fishing tools, religious statues and, of course, mummies — both human and animal.
Cap off your day with a sunset dinner overlooking Silicon Valley’s rolling hills and city lights. Drive up the hill to Mount Hamilton’s GrandView Restaurant for a meal sourced from neighboring Grandview Farms and a mesmerizing panorama of the twinkling valley below.
Saturday: Tour California-Grown Art and a Very Unusual Mansion
On your way to Downtown San Jose, make a stop in the nearby Midtown neighborhood for breakfast. The Breakfast Club has an entire menu dedicated to Benedicts, from the “Italian Benedict,” stuffed with sausage, onions, bell peppers and marinara sauce, to the “Hash Florentine Benedict,” topped with corned beef hash and spinach.
Once you’re ready for some exploring, keep on moving to the downtown neighborhood. Amid all of San Jose’s shiny technology, you’ll find a deep appreciation for visual art — it’s another form of expression in a city that celebrates originality and ingenuity.
Start by strolling downtown San Jose’s Public Art Walk. Look for vividly painted murals and larger-than-life-size sculptures in public plazas, parks and alleyways.
Three favorites are the Ursa Mater bear family with fur coats made of 200,000 pennies, a steel pipe sculpture of Lupe the Columbian Mammoth on the Guadalupe River bike trail and the woman-with-dog mural that welcomes humans and canines to Hart’s Dog Park.
Even tech company high-rises are canvases for public art. At Adobe’s headquarters, look for Ben Rubin’s “Semaphore” art puzzle beaming from the top floor of the building. In a tribute to 18th-century communication, four illuminated circles turn and shift to spell out an encoded message.
It’s a great time for a lunch break, if hunger is calling. Make a stop at Camino Brewing Co. & Beer Garden for a local pint and a bite — the outdoor patio is the perfect place to perch, if the weather cooperates.
From here, get a read on the city’s artistic diversity with a visit to the nearby free-admission Institute of Contemporary Art in San Jose’s creative, colorful SoFA district. Three light-filled galleries are dedicated to the power of art to spark dialogue and offer inspiration. The neighboring Museum of Quilts & Textiles shows off quilts, garments, textiles and fiber art from around the world.
There’s even more modern and contemporary art at the light-filledSan José Museum of Art. Find more than 2,500 cutting-edge works, largely by California artists, housed in an 1892 post office building. A newer wing showcases rotating exhibits.
You can’t visit San Jose without touring the world-famous Winchester Mystery House, an astounding 160-room Victorian mansion built by Sarah Winchester, a reclusive widow and heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune.
She started with an eight-room farmhouse and kept adding on to it — 24 hours a day, seven days a week — for 38 years until her death. The house contains 950 doors, 40 bedrooms, 17 chimneys and an infinite number of unexplained mysteries, like stairways that go nowhere and doorways that open to a two-story drop.
When your brain hits museum overload, nab a stool at Haberdasher, a speakeasy-style bar serving craft cocktails made with top-shelf spirits. Ready for dinner? Pop in to Habana Cuba for beef empanadas and fried green plantains.
Sunday: Eat, Drink and Shop
Start the day at a leisurely pace. Grab a coffee at your hotel, then head to downtown’s San Pedro Square Market, a food hall with 15 eateries and live entertainment, for brunch. San Jose’s kaleidoscopic culinary scene is deeply rooted in its diverse population, as nearly 40% of the city’s million-plus residents were born outside of the United States.
Sample Nepali steamed dumplings at Urban Momo, beef barbacoa tacos at Loteria Taco Bar and Vietnamese spring rolls at On a Roll.
Instead of heading back to the hotel for a nap, get some exercise and fresh air (and a big dose of color and fragrance) at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. While the season runs from April to November, there’s always something blooming at the 5.5-acre garden, which is home to 4,000 plantings and 189 rose varieties, including grandifloras, climbing and hybrid-tea roses, among others.
Prefer to really get your heart pumping? Head to Alum Rock Park. Nestled in a canyon in the foothills of the Diablo Range, the 720-acre park offers 13 miles of hiking trails and scenic views of the city.
Save time for a little retail therapy — or at least some pleasant browsing — at Santana Row, one of Northern California’s most in-demand shopping destinations. More than 70 shops range from big names like Anthropologie to small boutiques like Makers Market, which sells only handmade products created by local artists. Santana Row also boasts one of the West Coast’s first Tesla showrooms.
After you’ve checked out the newest electric vehicles, enjoy a pint at one of San Jose’s many microbreweries.
At Strike Brewing Co.’s Warehouse Taproom, you might rub elbows with Big Tech’s elite as you enjoy a Triple Play Triple IPA or Big Wall Imperial Stout. And the citrusy, dry-hopped Half Life Hazy IPA at Narrative Fermentations is so good, you’ll want to take a four-pack home to enjoy later (they ship, too!).
For your last evening in San Jose, choosing a restaurant is almost as difficult as solving the Adobe building semaphore. You’d have to stay for years to sample all the amazing eateries. Since you have only one night, try one of these can’t-go-wrong dinners: Ethiopian fare at Zeni Restaurant, Portuguese food at Michelin-starred Adega or modern French and Vietnamese cuisine at Élyse.
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