San Jose (lazily pronounced ‘sanno-
zay’ by most of the locals) is the anchor of California’s Silicon Valley, and has experienced unrivaled prosperity throughout the region as Industrial parks and high-tech computer firms have, in the past few decades, come to dominate the city’s landscape, skyrocket announcing the ticker tapes of tech firms known and coveted the world over, taking over where farms, ranches and open spaces once spread between the bay and the surrounding hills.
San Jose is a culturally diverse city packed full of historic buildings, excellent museums and an impressive number of fine restaurants and funky old bars. The city has taken a refreshingly modest approach to establishing its own cultural niche within the greater Bay Area. San Jose’s fun nightlife district is called SOFA (South of First Area), and gets the upper hand in terms of wit. It’s on a stretch of 1st St south of San Carlos St and includes numerous nightclubs, restaurants, galleries and the historic 1927 California Theatre.
Palo Alto is home to Stanford University. If it doesn’t feel like your average college town, that’d be because this is also the northern extent of Silicon Valley. In fact, it can be said that Silicon Valley started here, just before WWII, when Stanford recruited several esteemed professors from MIT. Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems are headquartered in Palo Alto. The quaint town exudes that relaxed California affluence characterized by BMW convertibles and expensive sandals.
Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz are the main coastal towns the region calls its own. A short trek over the lushly oak and pine forested Santa Cruz mountains, reveals an otherworldly place of misty foggy cliff-sides, intricate patchworks of orchid and rose hot houses and funky, hippy, California beachside towns known more for herbs and handmade pottery. The are developed as a beach resort destination back in the Victorian era, and its long stretches of beach still attract weekenders and hearty surfers ready to hit world famous Mavericks, dodging the great whites and the moss cragged boulder
