Ask HN: I'm visiting SJ for 3 weeks. What do I do? | Hacker News Reader

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

5 pointslinker30007 comments

Flying in Sat 17th May (next Sat) for 3 weeks of tech training in San Jose.

Apart from hauling myself over to SF, what are some of the local must-sees (food, drink, culture and some tech fun). I'm working during the day so I'll have evenings and weekends.

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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.

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.

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.

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/

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...)

Thanks to everyone for the ideas.

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.

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