Ask HN: Best Si Valley spots to visit | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best Si Valley spots to visit

7 pointsKillah91119 comments

I'm visiting the bay area for SiValley CodeCamp, what are the must see destinations before I head back to FL tomorrow? I was excited to see the highway signs for Cupertino and Mountain view, but don't wanna just drive aimlessly after the conference :)

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This may be very nerdly, but.... Look up the addresses of 3 or 4 iconic firms (Google, Apple, Oracle, etc.) and just drive by. Pick big ones so they'll have visible buildings. I don't know why, but just seeing the buildings gives an impression of the importance of technology in the area. In any other city, those tall buildings would be banks or insurance companies.

Whatever you do, don't go to Alcatraz! :-)

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm all about nerdy, so I tweeted from Google Plex (which is all I could do since everything there was closed), then went over to Apple's Headquarter's and paid my respects to Steve Jobs at the little memorial next to 1 Infinity Loop (Apple Store's only open M-F, ah well, got a pic). Then I drove over to Fry's Electronics and OMG I don't think I've seen such a huge store in my whole life, I mean, they literally had to kick me out because they had to close the store. All in all an awesome 1st night at Si Valley. Oh yeah, I had a burger at In-n-out, heard that was a very California thing, and those burgers really are as big as the ads! Plan on hitting Stanford, Golden Gate Bridge and Berkeley tomorrow after CodeCamp lets out at 3pm. If I leave Berkeley at 7:30pm, should I have any trouble getting to SFO for a 10:30 flight? I hear SF traffic can be pretty bad, but is it that way on a Sunday evening as well?

You could always take the bart to SFO. Would take you about an hour from Ashby to arrive at SFO, train schedules on bart.gov. Driving should take about a half-hour, or slightly more. If you do make it to Stanford, Steve Job's home is really close, in case you'd like to see the memorial at his place.

I totally would! What's the address?

I don't know about the others but I know you can actually go to Apple, there's an 'Apple store' there- you can't by apple hardware but it is the only place you can buy Apple swag. Agreed with the -1 Alcatraz.

Drive down University Ave in Palo Alto starting from 101 and going all the way in to Palm Drive of Stanford Campus. It's an exciting view. Going all the way back, you will actually hit 1600 Amphitheater Parkway. If you have more time, take a peek into the streets crossing University Ave. But I also agree with byoung that Castro is a pretty cool spot.

Planning on doing this tomorrow. Are there a lot of startups along the way by Stanford? Any place where I could just walk down the street and see a whole bunch of cool startups?

There's a Plug and Play on University: http://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/locations.

It might blow your mind to find out there's an actual (former) marina and (current) boat launch a couple of miles from all of the technology. Go North on Lafayette/Gold St from 237 until it ends, then turn left, go to the end, turn right, and go to the end one more time and you're at the marina park.

It has water, birds, reeds, fish, the whole bit. You'd never expect it with places like Tivo and Marvell right there by the freeway, but there it is. It gives you a wider sense of what is actually going on around here.

1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View has some cool sights to see. Also, check out Castro street. One of my favorite restaurants, Xanh, is a cool Vietnamese fusion restaurant/lounge.

If you keep on going, there's the Shoreline lake - a great place!

Cool, thanks a lot for the recommendations, I'll check it out!

Have you seen PG's list: http://www.paulgraham.com/seesv.html?

Thanks, I wasn't aware of this list. I've already hit a couple of those spots, but I'll be sure check out more on future trips here. I love SV, it's like coming to Disney for the hacker (funny b/c I actually live very close to Orlando).

Call me a stupid tourist, but I actually enjoyed Alcatraz... It's very touristy indeed, but no more than seeing the Empire State Building when you're visiting NYC. 1161Crist drive in Los Altos would be high on my to-visit list for SV. It would be so awesome to see in person that someone like Steve Jobs started out of this garage!

Drive up to San Francisco and be a tourist tonight. Best city in the world.

Over by Google in Mountain View is the Computer History Museum, the largest computer museum in the US. Check the hours, its worth a look if you enjoy computing history.

SV is pretty bland re tourism.

You have to see the Filoli house and gardens

Just beautiful !

http://www.filoli.org/explore-filoli/

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