Experience the best of San Jose

San Jose lies at the southern end of San Francisco Bay in the Santa Clara Valley, founded in 1777 as California's first civilian town and serving as the first state capital. Today it is the centre of Silicon Valley, with a downtown of museums and parks. The Winchester Mystery House, a sprawling mansion with staircases to nowhere, and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum are two of its odder sights.

The Tech Interactive and the San Jose Museum of Art stand downtown, Japantown is one of the few historic Japantowns left in the United States, and Santana Row is a lively shopping street. Lick Observatory crowns Mount Hamilton in the hills east of the city, the Santa Cruz Mountains and their redwood parks rise to the west, and the beaches of Santa Cruz, San Francisco and Monterey are within a couple of hours.

San Jose was once the Valley of Heart's Delight, a land of apricot and prune orchards, and farm stands and wineries in the foothills keep that memory. The city's tables reflect its mix of peoples: Vietnamese pho and banh mi, Mexican tacos, Indian and Korean restaurants. The Mediterranean climate means dry summers, mild wet winters and sunny days for much of the year.