Silicon Valley, located in Northern California, is home to iconic technology companies like Apple, Google, Meta, and Uber. This guide gives an overview of things to do in Silicon Valley and is intended for software engineers and programmers looking for geeky Silicon Valley points of interest. Every year, thousands of geeks visit the Silicon Valley destinations outlined in this guide.
The Silicon Valley Tour page provides more information for visitors that want a guided tour.
Quick facts
Population is around 4 million
Highest median house prices in the US
28% of jobs are in high-tech
15% more men than women
Silicon Valley covers a wide geographic area and points of interest are spread out among several cities. The following map highlights the attractions listed in this guide.
What to expect: Visitors are often surprised when they arrive in Silicon Valley. The area is mostly suburban, filled with office parks . Companies are geographically dispersed and the traffic is bad. Many companies are developing innovative technology, but the work is done in access-restricted office buildings, hidden from the public.
Geek Appeal: ★★★★ | 15 minutes
1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Facebook, the social media giant, is based in a 40,000-square-meter main campus designed by Frank Gehry.
The Good: Take a selfie next to the big thumb up sign and make it your Facebook profile picture.
The Bad: There isn't anything else to see unless you know a Facebook employee.
Fun fact: The back of the sign still has the old logo of Sun Microsystems, the previous tenant of the campus.
Geek Appeal: ★ | 5 minutes
Sandhill Rd, Menlo Park, CA
Sandhill Road is home to the most powerful venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Accel, Benchmark Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Greylock Partners are located here. Entrepreneurs come to this area to meet venture capitalists and raise money for their start-ups.
The Bad: There isn't anything to see here except for office buildings.
Fun Facts:
Sand Hill Road has the most expensive office space in the United States.
Cougar Night was a weekly dating event previously hosted at the five-star Rosewood Sand Hill hotel. Read more at Vanity Fair.
450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305
Geek Appeal: ★★★★ | 1 hour
Stanford University is where many of the biggest tech companies, like Google, Yahoo, and Cisco, were founded.
The Good: Beautiful campus. Very smart (and sometimes famous) students and faculty.
The Bad: Parking can be hard to find if you visit on a weekday during the school year.
Tip: Parking is easier to find on the weekend.
Learn more: YouTube
Geek Appeal: ★★★★ | 30 minutes
4180 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Tesla's showrooms are open to the public. Browse and learn about their electric vehicles, even if you can't afford the cars!
Test drive: You can test drive cars for free if you are over 25 years old and have a valid US driver's license. This requires making an appointment ahead of time on the Tesla website.
The Good: Friendly staff. Sales people aren't pushy. Free test drives.
Tesla also has showrooms and stores in San Jose, Fremont, and Sunnyvale.
Geek Appeal: ★★ | 2 minutes
367 Addison Ave., Palo Alto, California
Hewlett Packard was founded in this garage in 1939.
The Good: Located in a pleasant Palo Alto neighborhood.
The Bad: The garage is part of a residential property and is only viewable from the street. You cannot go inside the garage.
Geek Appeal: ★★ | 2 minutes
260 Sheridan Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306
This statue of Nikola Tesla is also a free Wi-Fi access point and time capsule which will be opened in 2043. The statue was originally started as a Kickstarter project.
The Good: Tesla is relatively obscure compared to Edison, so it's nice to see him honored.
The Bad: It's just a statue.
Geek Appeal: ★★★★★ | 30 minutes
2000 N Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View, CA 94043
Google's headquarters, also known as the Googleplex, spans over 100 buildings in a sprawling campus in Mountain View and Sunnyvale. See this map for specific locations for taking your selfies!
The Google Visitor Center sells shirts, hats, cups, and other souvenirs with Google, YouTube, and Android branding. You can also buy the same goodies online.
Throughout the Google campus, you'll find quirky decorations such as physical Google Maps markers and Google Street View car. Colorful bikes are scattered across campus. Employees use these bikes to quickly travel between buildings on the massive campus.
The Good: Store is open during the weekdays.
The Bad: Visitor Center is relatively small.
Fun Fact: Google has nine conference bikes where teams can hold meetings while cycling.
Read more:
Geek Appeal: ★★★★★ | 1 hour
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA 94043
The Computer History Museum is adjacent to Google's headquarters. The museum has the world's largest collection of historical computing artifacts, spanning from ancient counting machines to autonomous vehicles.
The Good: World's largest collection of historical computing artifacts. Hosts a model Google self-driving car that you can sit inside.
Price: $17.50 (General Admission)
Tip: Groupon frequently has discounts for the Computer History Museum
Shockley Semiconductor
Geek Appeal: ★★ | 2 minutes
391 San Antonio Rd., Mountain View, CA 94040
Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory was the very first company working on silicon devices. Today, a produce market occupies the space.
The Good: It's fun to say that you purchased produce from the same place the transistor was invented.
The Bad: It's a produce market.
Sunnyvale
Geek Appeal: ★★★ | 30 minutes
Moffett Field, California 94035
The NASA Ames site has two parts. The first part is the NASA Exploration Center. This is a small exhibit that showcases the work done at NASA Ames. The second part is the Moffett Field Historical Museum. This contains history around the country's airships during the first half of the 20th century.
The Good: Gift shop has neat NASA gear.
The Bad: The Exploration Center and Moffett Field Historical Museum are small. Touring each will take about 30 minutes.
Cupertino
Geek Appeal: ★★★ | 30 minutes
10600 N Tantau Ave, Cupertino, CA 95014
Apple's headquarters are located in Cupertino. They have a company store that's open to the public. It's the only place in the world that sells Apple-branded t-shirts, caps, and accessories. The store is the only part of the campus that's open to the public.
The Good: View Apple's futuristic spaceship campus can be viewed from the terrace.
The Bad: The site is mostly a collection of office buildings and access is heavily restricted.
Read more: Wikipedia | Official Site
Geek Appeal: ★★★ | 2 minutes
2066 Crist Dr., Los Altos, CA 94024
The original garage where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple. It is now a historic site.
Geek Appeal: ★★★★ | 30 minutes
2200 Mission College Boulevard, Santa Clara, CA 95054
This corporate museum hosts the history the of the Intel Corporation. There is also a gift shop where you can by Intel schwag.
The Good: Free. This museum is unique because of its focus on semiconductors.
The Bad: Relatively small. Focuses exclusively on Intel technology.
Geek Appeal: ★★ | 20 minutes
3350 Thomas Rd, Santa Clara, CA 95054
The Hacker Dojo is a place where computer enthusiasts can hang out, in the spirit of the Homebrew Computer Club. It was the first location in California to host a Bitcoin ATM. Check out their calendar of events.
The Good: Great community focused on technology and hacking.
2732 Augustine Dr Ste 1600, Santa Clara, CA 95054
Geek Appeal: ★
If you're interested in biometric authentication, this Whole Foods lets you pay with your palm using Amazon One! Otherwise, it's just a regular grocery store.
Geek Appeal: ★★★ | 1 hour
201 South Market St., San Jose, CA 95113
Price: $15 for adults, $10 for kids
The Good: Unique displays that teach basic science concepts.
The Bad: This museum is targeted to kids, so you may feel out of place if you're an adult.
Read more: Yelp
2855 Stevens Creek Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95050
Step into the Gamebox and enter a fully-private, interactive digital room featuring projection mapping, touch screens, motion tracking, and surround sound to enjoy a hyper-immersive 60-minute adventure.
San Francisco is typically not considered to be part of Silicon Valley, but many hot startups have migrated to the city. Many young tech workers live in San Francisco and commute to the suburbs for work. People in the Bay Area refer to San Francisco as "the city" or "SF".
Fun fact: there are self-cleaning toilets throughout the city. The newer ones are metallic pods, like this.
Geek Appeal: ★★★★★ | 30 minutes
Waymo has self-driving service in San Francisco. Download the Waymo One app.
Geek Appeal: ★★★★ | 1 hour
Salesforce Tower is the headquarters for Salesforce. It's adjacent to Salesforce Park on the Salesforce Transit Center.
Pros: It's a nice park.
Cons: It's just a park.
Learn more: Wikipedia
Geek Appeal: ★★★ | 2 minutes
1 Letterman Dr, San Francisco, CA 94129
A life-size Yoda fountain is positioned at the Lucasfilms HQ.
Learn more: Yelp
2169 Mission St, 3rd floor, San Francisco, CA 94110
Noisebridge is a 5,200 square-foot space with an electronics lab, machine shop, sewing/crafting supplies, photography darkroom, and more.
Geek Appeal: ★★★★★ | 1 hour
Hillsdale Shopping Center, 60 E 31st Ave #304, San Mateo, CA 94403
Play virtual reality games in an immersive experience.
Learn more: Yelp
870 Great Mall Dr, Milpitas, CA 95035
Indoor LEGO playground located at the Great Mall in Milpitas, CA.
555 E. Calaveras Blvd, Milpitas, CA 95035
Yes, it's just a Safeway grocery store. But, they have a cool machine where you can bring your recycles and get reimbursed. Powered by Olyns.
UC Berkeley is a public university. Many Silicon Valley startups were founded by UC Berkeley alum. The campus is open for visitors.
3400 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94611
The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (The MADE) is a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of video game history and to educating the public as to how video games are created.
Price: $10 to play games all day
Pros: Comprehensive collection of video games and consoles.
Cons: Relatively small.
6050 Lowell St. Ste 214, Oakland, CA 94608
Ace Monster Toys is a hackerspace. It has a large collection of tools and machines. They also host regular events for hacking.
Learn more about Silicon Valley Tours.