What to do in San Jose for a couple of hours? (Santa Clara: neighborhoods, restaurant)

[itinérant]

Hello. I'll be heading south toward Monterey Bay in a couple of days. Will probably have a couple hours to kill. Was thinking about passing through San Jose as I've never been there. What are the top tourist attractions? I don't want to do anything really. Just park my car and take a quick peek around. Thanks.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

That's too hard to answer. What kind of thing would you want to see?

Walk in a park, go to a restaurant, what?

[itinérant]

Do you have a nice park or some kind of nature spot that is still considered a tourist attraction?

If not, I'd consider "iconic" spots downtown if they are nice enough and safe.

Food? Do you have a really good Jewish Deli that serves reubens and matzoh ball soup? If not, is there a good taco cart or street Mexican? Seriously, I don't want to dine in as I'll only be passing through.

Thanks.

[the topper]

Just walk around downtown and find out for yourself

[SportyandMisty]

Walk through the Intel Museum. Strictly speaking it is Santa Clara, but it is very close to San Jose.

[eureka1]

The Rose Garden and the Rosicrucian Canter.

[mstnghu2]

I second the Rose Garden. It's one of my favorite spots in San Jose. The neighborhood surrounding it is one of San Jose's most beautiful neighborhoods and is worth driving around to look at. The adjacent Shasta-Hanchett Park neighborhood is also beautiful.

https://www.sanjoseca.gov/facilities...ity/details/74

From this area, you can easily head southeast on The Alameda and you'll end up downtown within a few minutes.

If checking out another SJ neighborhood interests you, I'd also drive over to the Palm Haven neighborhood on the outskirts of Willow Glen. It's also one of San Jose's most beautiful neighborhoods. Just Google Palm Haven. The location is easy to find.


Other than that, if you're just trying to experience San Jose for a couple of hours, I'd just find a city parking garage downtown, park and walk around. The downtown SJ core isn't too big and is easy to navigate. I'd probably recommend the parking garage between San Pedro St. and Market St., near Santa Clara St. as a good starting point.

Enjoy your trip.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

OP, what route will you be taking? This is a city of a million people that is really spread out. Some things are really great to see, but might end up being a major detour from whatever freeway/route you will be taking to Monterey.

So, I suggest you start by saying which route you intend to take to Monterey near/through San Jose, then we can give you better info.

I had to laugh at the question about whether or not there were taco trucks.......yep, everywhere. Give us your route and we can be more specific in a way that will be helpful.

As far as Jewish eateries, I don't know. Yelp might be helpful. If you want Mexican, though, that will be easy.

If you had some time, though, I agree that the Rosicrucian Museum is really great. It's also close to the Rose Garden (which isn't that amazing, if you've ever seen amazing rose gardens, like the one in Portland, OR - the SJ one is small and just a flat garden with lots of rose beds - nothing amazing architecturally, either). The upside to that area is that there is usually plenty of free street parking. There's a popular fish taco place that's kind of like an outdoor permanent taco truck close by, too.

Just in case those sound like something you'd want to do, here is some info on all of them:

http://www.egyptianmuseum.org/egyptianmuseum

https://www.sanjoseca.gov/facilities...ity/details/74

https://www.yelp.com/biz/dia-de-pesc...h+tacos+bascom

Look at the map on the page above for the Rose Garden. You can see Bascom Avenue at the bottom left - and Naglee Ave intersects Bascom. The Rose Garden is on Naglee just a few blocks up. Just a couple blocks more, at the corner of Naglee and Park Ave is the Rosicrucian Museum. The Dia De Pesca taco place is on Bascom just a few blocks down from Naglee, at 55 N. Bascom Ave.

And Bascom Ave has an exit off Hwy 880.

These are places in my neighborhood, so I'm speaking from first-hand experience, although I haven't eaten at Dia de Pesca yet. Keep hearing good things about it, though. I usually go to another sit-down Mexican place where the parking is easier, but I thought this one would be more what you're looking for and it has a great reputation.

[bobby_guz_man]

I would stick to West San Jose places:

1) Winchester Mystery House. It's actually kinda worth the money now that they have finally opened ALL the rooms. After that, just roll into Santana Row next door and have a blast hanging out and people-watching there. I recommend getting desserts/coffee at Cocola in Santana Row and do your people-watching.

2) Egyptian Museum and Planetarium are also good. Next door to them is the free-entry, award-winning Rose Garden.

Bonus: If you are interested in Asian architecture, San Jose has several Buddhist temples and a gigantic Sihk Gurdwara temple (largest in North America). The Buddhist temples I would recommend to visit are Duc Vien and Pao Hua on the East Side, and Betsuin in Japantown. Sihk Gurdwara is in the Evergreen area. All 4 are photo-worthy places, especially the Gurdwara.

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by itinérant

Do you have a nice park or some kind of nature spot that is still considered a tourist attraction?

If not, I'd consider "iconic" spots downtown if they are nice enough and safe.

Food? Do you have a really good Jewish Deli that serves reubens and matzoh ball soup? If not, is there a good taco cart or street Mexican? Seriously, I don't want to dine in as I'll only be passing through.

Thanks.

San Jose is surrounded by mountains, so we have a lot of "viewing" spots to look down onto the Valley floor, but they are not considered tourist attractions. We also have parks that surround creeks and streams (Guadalupe River Park, Coyote Creek Park, etc)

You may want to check out:

1) Lake Almaden in South SJ
2) Communication Hill in South SJ
3) Hessler Parkway in Evergreen
4) History Park in Central SJ

If you are looking for nice gardens/small parks to stroll around in, I would suggest Rose Garden in West SJ, Hakone Japanese Garden in Saratoga, or Villa Montalvo in Monte Sereno. Usually I would suggest San Jose Japanese Garden as well but it's currently flooded