Advice for our vacation/interview trip! (San Jose, San Francisco: apartment, neighborhoods, amphitheatre)

[veggiegirl26]

My husband has a job interview in the area and we will be visiting for about 4 days. Although we'd love to see some of the touristy sites, we would also like to do and see things that will help us decide whether we would enjoy living in the area. Can you suggest some things that will give us a good feel for what life would be like if we moved here? We are vegetarians, love our dog, and my husband is in high-tech. We prefer good scenery to good shopping. We like tasty food and walkable neighborhoods. Will take any advice you've got!

[humboldtrat]

Originally Posted by veggiegirl26

Can you suggest some things that will give us a good feel for what life would be like if we moved here?

Try driving from one end of San Jose to the other end at about 5 or 6pm in the late afternoon . Then you'll find out what life would be like when you move here.

Since you're not interested in tourist places, there is not much to see in the San Jose area unless you can break away for half a day or longer and take a drive - maybe to the coast or up to San Francisco. San Jose has a nice downtown area surrounded by suburban sprawl out to the horizon.

[MtnSurfer]

Yeah, take a drive to the coast to see some nature. Start at Half Moon Bay via the 92 and drive south to Santa Cruz and Monterey. If you want to take a shorter trip take the 17 to Santa Cruz.

Of course drive neigborhoods you think you may want to live in. Go out to eat there, etc... But SJ itself is not really that exciting IMO. It is what you have access to that is great: the coast and the High Sierras (Yosemite, Tahoe).

[veggiegirl26]

Thanks for the help! We want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly (sounds like that the commute). It's not that we don't want to visit tourist sites. It's just that we can find out about those in a guidebook. We want YOU to give us the low-down on real life in the area! Are there neighborhoods that we should check out? It can be anywhere in the area (not just San Jose). We anticipate we'd live in an apartment but we'll have our golden retriever so parks, etc nearby would be a plus. Being able to walk to restaurants or the library would be good. We know that vacationing in a city is very different than living there and we'd like to get a flavor for the residential side of the bay area during our trip.

[humboldtrat]

I would check out Mountain View, about 8 - 10 miles north of San Jose. It has a suburban feel and rents aren't bad by Bay Area standards. There is a light rail to San Jose and also a commuter train between San Francisco and San Jose. The downtown area (Castro St.) has lots of restaurants and there is a library nearby. There are plenty of parks such as Shoreline park along the bay Mountain View - Shoreline Park which has trails and lots of birds to see. There's also the Shoreline Amphitheatre if you like live concerts Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View Concert Tickets, Schedule, Information | Live Nation.

[nmnita]

veggiegirl, are you from a large metro area and are you prepared for the crowds, traffic, high cost of living and the rest you will be up against? I am not saying it isn't a good place to live, but do make sure your eyes are wide open..

With that being said, Mountain View would be a good place to live, so would some of the smaller towns inland a bit. As for site seeing, do take a drive along the coast and visit San Franciso. You won't have time to do too much in 4 days with hubby having an interview.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Nita

[veggiegirl26]

We currently live in Austin, TX, though we're not originally from here. Also, it's not our dream spot, despite the fact that there are a lot of decent things about it. I've never been to California so I have no idea whether I would like the area (my husband lived in Sacramento in the late 90s). I want to make sure I'm not looking through rose-colored glasses when we travel for the interview. We're definitely weighing all of the bad (and good) that we hear about California because we don't have to move if if we don't want to. It's basically that an opportunity has presented itself and we're open to it. If we find that it's too expensive, crowded, or dirty, we're totally fine staying where we are or checking out another area of the country. Different strokes for different folks so we know we might totally click with the Bay area or we might not.

I appreciate that a couple of people have mentioned Mountain View. We'll definitely check it out while we're there. It sounds nice from your descriptions!

[gooski]

It's a bit more pricey but Los Gatos and Saratoga have nice small downtowns with nice restaurants. Also, plenty of dog owners are always walking their dogs in those areas. Mountain View has been mentioned - Palo Alto/Los Altos are close by albeit more expensive.

Campbell is another alternative (right next to Los Gatos) and more affordable; the main drag is right along the old water tower.

Tasty food is everywhere so you should have no problems with that no matter where you live.

[Heidi60]

I agree with Gooski. We live in San Jose but I can't connect to it as a town. I do volunteer work in Saratoga and just love it but it is too expensive for us to live there. If you like Indian food there are several good places to eat in the area also. Most of California is dog friendly so that shouldn't be a problem. I would also suggest you "google" our farmer's markets to rub elbows with the locals although business might be a little slow at this time of year. I used to live in Phoenix and the Mexican food here and there is quite different so I make my own. The Sunnyvale library is one of the top rated in the country so if you like to read, drop in there also. You might also want to see whether the Mustard Festival is running in the North Bay area. Check out the Chamber of Commerce for the areas listed in these posts also.

[mother mammal]

I just wanted to also give my vote to checking out Castro St. in Mountain View, University Ave. in Palo Alto, as well as Campbell and Los Gatos.

One nice tour for a morning would be to visit Campbell (have breakfast at Stacks), then take a short drive down either Winchester Blvd or Hwy 17 to Vasona Park and enjoy a nature walk, then have lunch in Los Gatos.