I want to see the real silicon valley for several days, which city should I live?|117607

I want to feel Silicon Valley atmosphere, see some famous IT companies, which city should I live? Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, San Jose or others?

I already booked a hotel in San Francisco for 5 days, and would like to spend several more days in the real Silicon Valley.

San Jose is considered the _capital_ of Silicon Valley. Like a previous poster said, Silicon Valley is just a term used in association of the _product_ put out there. I_ve lived in San Jose (suburb: Campbell) for 20 years. It_s a GREAT town to live in. Freeways are much nicer than L.A. and easier to get around on. People don_t drive 105 mph like in L.A. Maybe 95, but not 105, he-he. In San Jose you are within an hour or two or almost anything you_d like to do. Redwood trees and camping up on the Santa Cruz ridge (San Mateo County Campground), Santa Cruz and the beach, San Francisco for fancy restaurants and opera, The Bay, within a couple of hours of snow skiing, when it_s the season. As far as BIG towns go, the Bay Area is IDEAL. Very beautiful and lots of shopping. I LOVE IT HERE!!!

I_m not sure how _satisfying_ your visit will be to stand outside the Adobe Software headquarters in San Jose, or walk around the parking lots of some of the Intel buildings in Santa Clara. Do you expect to get some of that Silicon Valley _atmosphere_ driving by the eBay or the Google signs?

Silicon Valley is made up of sprawls of bedroom communities, a few high rise sections, here and there, vast industrial parks, stretching from San Francisco, down the Peninsula all the way down to Gilroy. Plus similar landscapes on the East Bay. You_ll find severel mega malls and hundreds of strip malls. McMansions and severely depressed areas.

You want some of the current Silicon Valley atmosphere? Drop in on one of the many Employment Development Department offices to see people lining up to collect unemployment benefits and get job search help. Drive up and down some of those big housing developments and count the _For Sale_ signs. Take a side trip to one of the seveal _Auto Malls_ to see the empty car dealerships.

I guess it depends on what it is, exactly, you WANT to see. One suggestion: visit the Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose. It, at least, gives you an optomistic vision of what Silicon Valley has been and what it could be.

I_m not sure what exactly you expect to see in Silicon Valley. What makes it _Silicon Valley_ is that many computer/technology companies are there, such as IBM, Apple, Google, Cisco, etc. Maybe you can drive past the corporate offices, but there isn_t much to see besides boxy buildings. And they won_t let random visitors in, due to security and secrecy. If you must see the companies, just take a few hours driving around past select companies.

Still, if you have to stay there, the best place would be Palo Alto, which is really the heart (or rather, brains) of Silicon Valley. While you are there, check out Stanford, take a trip or two to the redwoods, and eat some good food.

I would suggest you start from downtown San Jose_s Adobe building. You can even go into the lobby and use their incredibly fancy bathroom. While you_re there, you might want to check out the tech museum. But it_s mostly for kids. From there, grab a day pass on the VTA and take the trolley to Mtn View. The trolley will take you through North San Jose where eBay, Cisco, KLA Tencor, BEA, and host of other companies exists. The trolley will take you to Mtn View where Google calls home. Of course, during the trip, you_ll see INTEL in Santa Clara, Yahoo in Sunnyvale, and zillions of other small start up companies who wants to be the next _Google_. Once you get to Mtn View, check out the computer history museum and the Microsoft campus. Microsoft has HUGE presence in Silicon Valley. And googleplex is walking distance from the Microsoft campus. Of course, once you get to Mtn View, you can than take CalTrain to Palo Alto and check out the facebook building. Check out the house where HP started as well. That_s where I would stop. You can keep going north to redwood city and go to the Oracle campus and say _Hi_ to Larry Ellison ;). Actually, their campus is actually quite nice. They have cafeteria in every building and each of them serve different ethnic food. And yes, it is open to public. Keep going north and you can run into Twitter in SF. I mean, the list of companies are endless and that is why I_d suggest you stop in Palo Alto. Otherwise, you_ll never end the trip.

In short, do the commute that an average engineer would do if they were taking the trolley. Of course, most of them drive to work but if you_re not in a rush to go to the 8:30 meeting, take the trolley and enjoy the view.

Palo Alto because it is by Stanford.

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