What to do/see in San Jose?

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theknight571

theknight571

Platinum Member
Mar 23, 2001
2,896
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Heading to San Jose tomorrow till Tuesday.

Might have some free time Saturday afternoon and Sunday.

Any suggestions for things to do/see?

Any places to eat I should check out?

I will have a car, and a nav system (if they still have them when I arrive)
 
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mrizvi66

Senior member
Dec 16, 2005
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i lived in SJ for 15 years....if you wanna go see something drive to SF...its only 45 mins away...
 
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MrBond

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2000
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76
The Winchester Mystery House is pretty cool. I'm not sure what else is there because it's been almost 10 years since I was in San Jose. Maybe there's a failed dotcom building bus tour?
 
dr150

dr150

Diamond Member
Sep 18, 2003
6,570
24
81
Go to Santana Row shopping center.

For all intensive purposes, it's unofficially the "downtown" of San Jose. It's actually quite a nice city-like open air environment. Very good restaurants (Maggianos and Straits are good there--book in advance) and high end stores.

You can also see the famous Winchester Mystery house (supposedly haunted).

Also go to the very popular scenic Rancho San Antonio Park. Climb the hill for a great picture opportunity of the whole valley.

If you want to leave San Jose, you can go south to Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterery and do the popular 17 mile scenic drive in the Carmel area.

I won't mention SF since I'm sure you've thought about it but haven't asked...
 
theknight571

theknight571

Platinum Member
Mar 23, 2001
2,896
2
81
The Winchester Mystery House is pretty cool. I'm not sure what else is there because it's been almost 10 years since I was in San Jose. Maybe there's a failed dotcom building bus tour?
Click to expand...

LOL

I won't mention SF since I'm sure you've thought about it but haven't asked...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't rule out a visit to SF... I was just wondering if there was anything locally...

I know, I know... SF isn't that far.. lol
 
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buzzsaw13

Diamond Member
Apr 30, 2004
3,814
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La Victoria makes some decent burritos, but have the best hot sauce I've ever tasted :p

Armadillo Willie's has all you can eat ribs on monday's and they've got top notch garlic fries.
 
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WildHorse

Diamond Member
Jun 29, 2003
5,006
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1. Daytime stuff:

(a) The Intel Museum in Santa Clara, right by San Jose, is worth a visit. M-F, 9 - 6, Admission and parking are free. Say 1+ hour.

(b) Ditto Winchester Mystery House. Say maybe 2 hours. It's the kind of place you'd like to see only once, boring after that.

(c) Go over to the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Mt. View. where the 85 fwy meets the 101 freeway, just west of San Jose.

(d) Also right there is the NASA Ames Exploration Center.

Very interesting. You can handle stuff. Maybe 2 - 3+ hours for both of the above combined. Admission and parking are free.

(e) Go take a look at Stanford University, which is a little further northwest by Menlo Park where Mrs. Fields invented her cookies, & Palo Alto. You have to pay to park there, but it's one of the top universities of the world & worth seeing. Wave at Steve Jobs' house as you drive through Palo Alto. Stay out of East Palo Alto. I warned you.

(f) Drive northwest over the hill & go to the north end of Half Moon Bay past the airport. Drive out to the parking lot (free) where you see the giant radar dish. Park & walk out to look at world famous big-wave surf spot, Mavericks. The surf break is really far offshore, so you need binoculars to see the surfers out there defying death. Maybe you'll even see me take off on a monster!

(g) If you have weekend daytime, go up to Berkeley, to see the Cal campus, and visit the Lawrence Hall of Science on the hill above the campus. You can touch stuff there, it's one of the better public science museums I've seen.
So there's about 2 days worth of sights to see, that'll keep you busy & be real interesting and fun, mostly free.


2. Nighttime stuff:
(h) Go see a San Jose Earthquakes MLS soccer game. Exciting, fun, inexpensive. This would be THE highlight of your trip.

(i) Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mt. View just NW of San Jose has lots of great concerts, top acts. I've caught some great concerts there. Cruise the website for show schedule. I'm not sure if that's happening or not at this time of year.


And, SFO is NOT just a close drive.
If you can avoid rush hour it's still a 45 min to 1 hour drive, lots of traffic.
It's far better & prettier to avoid the 101, take the 280 freeway from San Jose to San Francisco.
If you think of going up to SFO during rush hour, don't bother to attempt it, it'll just be miserable, defer San Francisco to some future visit.

Better yet just forget San Francisco & go to Yosemite instead.

 
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habib89

Diamond Member
Jan 17, 2001
3,599
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tech museum is cool... and i second la victorias... i've eaten so much of their spicy orange sauce... so good... stanford... ikea... santana row...
 
Dr. Detroit

Dr. Detroit

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2004
8,539
938
126
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
What's in San Jose? Well a lot of Yuppie Scum.
Click to expand...

You are confusing Cupertino, Saratoga, Palo Alto, and Menlo park with the trashy sh.thole that San Jose is.


Nothing to do here. Go to Frisco.


 
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herkulease

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2001
3,923
0
0
hit of ups Fry's since you live in detriot.

that way in the future if they have some hot deal you will atleast know what's it like. Tomorrow is Friday too. they might have some motherboard cpu combo or just the usual crap.
 
Red Dawn

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Jun 4, 2001
57,529
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Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
What's in San Jose? Well a lot of Yuppie Scum.
Click to expand...

You are confusing Cupertino, Saratoga, Palo Alto, and Menlo park with the trashy sh.thole that San Jose is.


Nothing to do here. Go to Frisco.
Click to expand...
You must live off of White Road on the Eastside with all the Nortenos.

 
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essasin

Platinum Member
Mar 4, 2004
2,777
0
0
The night life is pretty good down first street and around that area. Plenty of good eats (its around San Jose State) so food is fairly cheap and lots of casual and semi upscale bars. You could possibly visit Jack London Square in Oakland and Oakland China Town which is literally blocks away from Jack London. A little down the ways on 880 is Bay St in Emeryville which is a nice spot that has a similar feel to Santana Row. If you like to drive there are plenty of awesome roads to drive through with great views as mentioned already. If you want to pick up a few gifts or something for yourself there is always the Gilroy Outlets in Gilroy which is kind of a nice change of pace from the huge malls (which there are plenty of around the bay).

If you feel like driving a bit it prob takes about 1 1/2 hours - 2 hours to visit Sacramento. Old Sac is pretty awesome to visit and the State Capitol looks great. Literally 2 hours from Sac you could head up the mountains and do some sking/boarding. Its supposed to rain/snow these next couple days also.
 
Dr. Detroit

Dr. Detroit

Diamond Member
Sep 25, 2004
8,539
938
126
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
Originally posted by: Fmr12B
Originally posted by: Red Dawn
What's in San Jose? Well a lot of Yuppie Scum.
Click to expand...

You are confusing Cupertino, Saratoga, Palo Alto, and Menlo park with the trashy sh.thole that San Jose is.


Nothing to do here. Go to Frisco.
Click to expand...
You must live off of White Road on the Eastside with all the Nortenos.
Click to expand...

Story & King..........

actujally reside in West San Jose, but still San Jose residents are much more grounded than those that live up the Pennisula.




 
Rinaun

Rinaun

Golden Member
Dec 30, 2005
1,196
1
81
If you come to Los Gatos, right by San Jose, they got some fancy foods/sights. But that's because its the rich kid playground. Not much to do around SJ imo.
 
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