

Ask HN: I have one day, what should I see in the Silicon Valley? - axk

I will be in Palo Alto next week for a job interview and will have an entire day for myself. Where should I go and what should I do? I've been all over Europe, Australia and S-E Asia, but it's my first visit to the US. Thanks!
======
CoffeeDregs
SF and Silicon Valley are relatively standard cities/areas (but the overall,
Bay Area environment is fantastic). I don't think you'll find anything
particularly special about San Francisco: it's a nice, cultured city, but
you've already seen plenty of those.

As diego mentioned, Silicon Valley is about doing, so see the do-ers and the
do-ers hangouts:

    
    
        * Visit google's campus in Mountain View (cab ride from Caltrain);
        * Visit DogPatch Labs in SF (15 minute walk from Caltrain);
        * Visit RocketSpace in SF  (15 minute walk from Caltrain);
        * Visit Hacker Dojo in Mountain View (10 minute walk from Caltrain);
        * Walk around Stanford's campus (5 min walk from Caltrain);
        * Grab coffee at Coupa Cafe or lunch at University Cafe
          in Palo Alto (5 minute walk from Caltrain);
        * Don't visit Facebook (it's a boring campus).
    

If you're an avid reader of Hacker News, seeing some of these places might
provide some helpful context for the stories you read.

Obviously, if you're going to visit these places or others, drop another story
on HN with places + times and I'm sure folks will try to greet you.

~~~
axk
Thanks for the list! The Hacker Dojo looks like a nice place to visit (and
work in!), I wish I had more time to fully appreciate it. By the way, is it
open on Sundays?

~~~
CoffeeDregs
Also, is the day you have free a Sunday? That might change things a bit...

~~~
axk
Yes, it's next Sunday.

------
diego
Short answer: Silicon Valley is about doing, not about seeing. Given that it's
your first time in the US, enjoy San Francisco instead.

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petercooper
I suggest focusing on getting and accepting personal invitations you get on
here. Meeting _people_ is far more interesting than going to specific
locations, in my experience. The more places like Hacker Dojo you can visit,
the better (there are some great hacker places you can stay at on AirBnB,
too). You might even land more interviews out of it ;-)

If you're an Apple fan, don't forget to swing by the Apple campus store at 1
Infinite Loop. They had plenty of trinkets in there I hadn't seen at other
stores.

Palo Alto is a pretty nice town in its own right although it's not culture
central like SF. Must admit I'm not a big SF fan though and prefer heading to
where interesting things are occurring rather than wandering about as a
tourist.

If you have a car, Buck's of Woodside is worth a visit if you appreciate its
history and significance in geek culture, but if you don't, there's little to
actively see.

------
_delirium
You might find this discussion useful (both the linked article, and the many
replies): <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1757521>

Depends on what you want to see. Silicon Valley itself isn't actually all that
exciting as a tourist imo; lots of interesting stuff goes on there, but mostly
inside nondescript office parks. But the Computer History Museum is cool. San
Francisco is a fairly interesting city, but much of its interestingness isn't
specifically "silicon valley", though it does have considerable tech. There's
also lots of nature-stuff nearby if you're into that.

~~~
bps4484
I second the computer history museum. It's really great, and free. I went with
my family at my mom's behest and told them all "listen, I'm a computer dork so
I'll like this, but don't blame me if you all hate it, I'm not forcing you to
do this", and everyone loved it. Even the history major!

~~~
randallsquared
I was there a few weeks ago. It's not free, but $15 is probably trivial for
anyone visiting the Bay Area.

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encoderer
Try to setup another interview... In the city.

A commute from sf to palo alto isn't horrendous if you live in the southern
parts of the city. But try to find an opportunity in the city. Unless
apartment complex living in th valley appeals to you...

------
sdiwakar
I was in the same predicament a few months ago after coming up from Australia
(though not for job interview ;-)).

My wife and I rented a car from San Jose and drove around. If you are used to
public transport in Europe or even Australia - you'll find navigating your way
around solely on public transport difficult.

But, California has a great highway system, so if you feel brave enough and
have some cash - a rental car allows you to see more in the short amount of
time you'll have.

That said, when I visited the Google campus in Mountain View, there wasn't a
whole lot to see; plus I found myself feeling a little unwelcome with everyone
doing a double check on whether we had badges on (which is a good thing... for
campus security!). But that may have just been the SLR camera I was walking
around with ;-) On the serious side - their campus is nice - and they have
multi-coloured bicycles for getting around... cool!

I'd definitely try to checkout Stanford - the campus is gorgeous (as is
Berkeley - if you can get there); Luckily, I happened to be there the day
Steve Job's ceremony was being conducted - so we got to see the campus, the
secret service, California police, and a whole bunch of celebs.

For the Icons of IT tour, if you have the time (and a car) you could check out
all the other Silicon Valley icons within short driving distance:

    
    
        * Apple in Cupertino
        * Yahoo! in Sunnyvale
        * Cisco in San Jose
        * eBay's Whitman campus (they have a nice play house with an office built inside) 
        * Intel museum in Santa Clara
    

The Facebook office isn't very exciting - we arrived at their Palo Alto campus
but there's nothing to see - you can wander into the foyer and take a peek
through the glass doors where all the staff work, but that's about it.

Also, the computer history museum is excellent - it'll take you a few hours to
really get through the various sections so if you have the time - I'd check
that out. That's right near Google, so you could walk (20mins?) from Google's
office.

------
dillona
I'd go see the Computer History Museum. It's pretty amazing

~~~
abengoam
Agreed. Specially if they still have the Babbage Difference Engine No. 2 on
display (it was absolutely thrilling seeing it actually working).

------
RandallBrown
If you don't want to head up to San Francisco, check out Stanford, hop on the
train to Mountain View and check out Google's Campus.

~~~
tansey
Agreed here. Also, if you have time, swing by the Hacker Dojo in Mountain
View. Here's a quick video tour: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYt-E0BVSCc>

------
guruz
Take the Caltrain (huge ass train compared to Europe) to SF. Enjoy the city,
it has a really nice architecture I think. Great mix between older, newer and
a lot of colors :-)

------
seanp2k2
Go hang out at Noisebridge in the mission in SF. Tons of interesting people
hang out there and there are plenty of start-ups that frequent the place.

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alainc
Sounds like the answers are split into two camps:

* be a fanboy and visit corporate campuses

* be a tourist and go run around somewhere

Not being a fanboy myself, I'd vote to spend the day in Santa Cruz. Stay for
the sunset. Much more interesting than Google.

Good luck with your interview!

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devs1010
If you like outdoors and the beach, maybe drive over the mountains from Palo
Alto to the beach and drive up to San Francisco, its an awesome drive in my
opinion, then you can go check out SF. Actual Silicon Valley is a bit boring,
in my opinion, I prefer SF to actually go and have fun for a day.

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fendale
I was in SV for the first time recently. The google campus was cool, computer
history musuem was also cool and almost beside google. It was good to see the
Stanford campus too. SF was just like any other city for me, so I didn't do
much sightseeing there.

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rflrob
Go to the Exploratorium. It's a one-of-a-kind, hands-on science museum in San
Francisco.

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fieldforceapp
Forget technology, go see some art.

And like @jack said, buy some local artisan goods.

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RobPfeifer
Go to Buck's in Woodside for breakfast (<http://www.buckswoodside.com/>) and
try to identify who's a VC and who's a CEO. Great rich people watching. Plus
the food is good.

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jrmski
Stop by techshop (a shared maker-space) for a free tour. There's a location in
Menlo Park, and one in SF about a 15 minute walk from Caltrain.
(<http://techshop.ws>)

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Mamady
A shameless plug for our free 1 Day self-guided tour of SF:
<http://www.unanchor.com/launch>

That's exactly what you need :)

------
travisneotyler
You might find Steve Blank's guide to Silicon valley useful:
<http://steveblank.com/visitors-guide/>

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ClintonWu
Half day to explore Palo Alto then up to San Francisco before your flight out
of SFO.

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andyl
For an entire day: wander around San Francisco. For an afternoon: hike Windy
Hill.

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Mz
It's not "city" stuff, but Muir Woods is in the area and is wonderful.

<http://www.nps.gov/muwo/index.htm>

