San Jose travel guide

San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California, and the 13th-most populous in the United States, with an estimated 989,814 residents as of 2025.

El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe (literally, the Town of Saint Joseph of Guadalupe) was founded by José Joaquín Moraga in 1777 near the present day intersection of Guadalupe Parkway and West Taylor Street. In 1797, the pueblo was moved to the Plaza Pueblo (now Plaza de César Chávez), around which San Jose grew. True to its location in the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose is now home to the headquarters of many tech companies such as Cisco Systems, eBay, and Adobe Systems.

If you arrive by train, there are no hotels adjacent to the train station, but there are a few that are less than a mile's walk away. Alternatively, from the train station's bus loop, you can take the local bus one or two stops along The Alameda to save your feet.

Getting in

People who ask, "Do you know the way to San Jose?" (in reference to the 1968 hit song recorded by Dionne Warwick) will be glared at. San Jose is home to one of the Bay Area's three international airports.

Getting around

The downtown area is compact and rather easy to get around on foot. Most of the streets are arranged in a grid, but the grid is not strictly aligned with north (more like north–northwest). Street address numbers increase (by 100 every 2 or 3 blocks) radiating from Santa Clara Street (an east/west street) or First Street (a north/south street). Furthermore, Santa Clara Street (and other east/west streets) carry the prefix East or West radiating from First Street; and First Street (and other north/south streets) carry the prefix North or South radiating from Santa Clara Street.

Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.