

Ask HN: I'm visiting SJ for 3 weeks. What do I do? - linker3000

Flying in Sat 17th May (next Sat) for 3 weeks of tech training in San Jose.<p>Apart from hauling myself over to SF, what are some of the local must-sees (food, drink, culture and some tech fun). I&#x27;m working during the day so I&#x27;ll have evenings and weekends.
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hbien
Welcome to San Jose!

I assume you'll have a car, because public transportation is awful here. I
won't mention too many SF attractions but I definitely recommend you head up
there at least one weekend.

Here are some of my absolute favorite places to eat:

    
    
      * korean food? -> Jang Su Jang or Omogari
      * vietnamese food? -> Tofoo Com Chay (vegetarian), Ca Mau, practically any Pho place in SJ
      * mexican food -> La Victoria
      * burgers/fries -> In n Out is a must if it's unavailable where you live, St John's Bar & Grill
      * indian food -> Gulzaar Halaal
      * falafel -> Falafel's Drive In
      * pizza -> Pieology (build your own pizza)
      * donuts -> Psycho Donuts (crazy donuts, people from Portland often tell me that they had it first)
    

Some tech fun:

    
    
      * Computer History Museum is a must
      * checkout meetup.com for your favorite technologies, one of the advantages of living here is that there are so many to choose from for almost every niche technology
      * Hacker Dojo throws events every day
      * BioCurious, like Hacker Dojo but with an emphasis on bio-hacking (their "hello world" project is transferring Jelly fish DNA into bacteria to make the bacteria glow!)
      * TechShop, like Hacker Dojo but more oriented towards hardware/electronics.  There's one in Downtown San Jose
      * (cheated, this is in SF) California Academy of Science throws NightLife every Thursday night -- it's science + alcohol + music
      * (cheated again, sorry!) Nerd Nite happens once a month, awesome talks on very niche topics
    

For drinks/culture:

    
    
      * check out Campbell's Boogie on the Bayou, May 17/18th -- http://www.downtowncampbell.com/events.php
      * downtown San Jose, Mountain View, Palo Alto have good places to grab a drink.  Singlebarrel in San Jose or Steinsbeer in Mountain View or Old Pro in Palo Alto
      * some coffeehouses frequented by developers: Coupa Cafe, Red Rock, any Philz
      * try out some Boba drinks if you haven't had them before!
      * Stanford's Art Museum is free (if you plan on going, I'm a big fan of Ike's Sandwiches located on campus)
      * San Jose has the Tech Museum and Museum of Art
    

I hope you enjoy your visit! As someone who was born/raised/lives in San Jose,
I'm really sad most people recommend just heading to SF to most visitors (sad
because it's mostly true...) But I hope you'll spend at least a few days south
of SF.

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chippy
Where are you coming from? What are you interested in? What is the training
about? Will you have a vehicle?

I'd recommend the computer history museum. The winchester house (just for it's
random touristness). Japantown.

Edits - also - go to Santa Cruz, SF and other places. You will notice that the
valley is pretty soulless and suburban, and well... boring.

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dpieri
Rent a car and drive over 17 to Santa Cruz. Spend some time there then drive
up 1 to San Francisco. If you have time make a stop at Big Basin Redwoods
State Park to see some really big trees.

I'd also recommend driving 35 (Skyline) between San Jose and San Francisco.

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LarryMade2
If you can get over the jetlag, the Maker Faire is that weekend, up in san
mateo. really crowded but chock full of interesting DIY/Tech

[http://makerfaire.com/](http://makerfaire.com/)

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linker3000
Thanks Chippy & Massappeal.

To answer questions:

I'm Coming from the UK.

May hire a vehicle

Training: PCie Flash cards and SSD drives - in-depth technical support with
apps (VMware, Windows server...)

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linker3000
Thanks to everyone for the ideas.

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massappeal
Ya, if you're coming to SJ and looking for things to do, my first suggestion
would be to get out of SJ lol. When you have time, take a trip down to Santa
Cruz, as Chippy suggested. There's a bus that goes from Los Gatos to Santa
Cruz, I forget what it's called though. Caltrain goes from SJ to SF, so I
recommend taking advantage of that. You can also take Caltrain to Bart and go
over to Oakland and Berkeley, which are both really cool.

