HN Explorer

Ask HN: how to experience some of Silicon Valley? (for a visiting European)

6 points by sssparkkk ↗ HN
I'm not sure how to explain this and don't really know whether you guys will have any suggestions at all for me, but here goes:

In a few weeks me and my girlfriend will be visiting San Fransisco for a few days. Coming from the Netherlands, and as a founder myself, I've always been mesmerized by the entrepreneurship and technological novelties that have their origins in the fabled 'Bay Area' in California.

So, I was wondering whether it would be possible to somehow catch a glimpse of all this. Maybe just drive around to see the offices of industry-giants like Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. Realizing there might be very little to see on the outside, and reckoning there's not anything like a visitor-centre for folks like me, my question to HN is simple: would it be possible for a tourist like me to experience maybe just a tiny bit of the world-famous Silicon Valley? If you think so, what are your suggestions?

16 comments

[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 23.3 ms ] thread
wmf
Definitely stop by the Computer History Museum. It's a shame they no longer have the Babbage engine, but there's maybe 2 hours worth of coolness there.
dwynings
Yes, you can absolutely experience SV on your trip ... quite a bit actually.

Use Plancast and Meetup to be on the look out for startup events to attend. That's the real benefit of the valley—there is a high concentration of like-minded entrepreneurs. Go to as many events as you can. The relationships you form can be taken with you back home.

If you want to meet up for lunch or need further guidance, shoot me an email: dru@druwynings.com

-dru

sssparkkk
Thanks for the Plancast/Meetup tips. A startup event sounds interesting indeed, although I'm not quite sure I can convince my GF to join me in visiting one :) A lunch meet up sounds nice as well, if there's time I might just shoot you that email. Thanks again!
mikeleeorg
Oh yea, there are also Lunch 2.0 meet-ups you could try, if one falls on the week you're visiting. Lots of entrepreneurs attend those, as far as I can remember (I haven't been to one in years now):

http://www.lunch20.com/

starkfist
There is nothing to experience in Silicon Valley. It's a bunch of office parks in the suburbs. San Francisco on the other hand seems to have been designed for tourism. Marin County is great if you like the outdoors.
starkfist
I know it's not cool to comment on your downvoted comment, but...

If he's coming all the way from the netherlands and is only in town for a few days, there really isn't that much to see in the valley. He will be in transit most of the time. I really think people suggesting he goes to Silicon Valley proper are doing him a disservice...

In contrast, in a few days in SF you can see: lombard street, the golden gate bridge, the mission district, presidio, chrissy field, china beach, chinatown, north beach, coit tower, golden gate park, ocean beach, cablecars, alcatraz, take a ferry in the bay, go to the marin headlands, or muir woods, and so on and so forth. Even Union Square and Fisherman's Wharf are worth visiting once. There are hundreds of cheap good restaurants, donzes of expensive good restaurants, some of the best coffee in the country, sneakerhead shops, skate shops, bike shops, book shops, an Apple store, typical american mall shops, etc.

AND there are plenty of startups and co-working spaces and meetups in the city proper. You really get more out of staying close to the city than you would traveling down to where Google and Yahoo are.

_delirium
I've lived in the area for three years, and I have to agree. There's isn't nothing in the Valley, but there isn't a lot, either, It really is kind of a wasteland of suburban homes with office parks. It's definitely not particularly interesting for tourists.Very bad public transit (Caltrain is better than nothing, but...), and fairly poor ratio of things to see to miles of suburban wasteland to drive through. SF isn't my favorite city either, but it beats the Valley by miles at least!
gojomo
For sightseeing, most of SV is nondescript -- office parks, suburbia, strip retail. It's just the concentration of recognizable tech names, and a few signature campuses, that will catch your eye.

In the valley, the Computer History Museum, the Stanford Campus (and nearby Palo Alto), Fry's Electronics (especially the flagship store in Sunnyvale), and Weird Stuff (also Sunnyvale) could be worthwhile stops to get the regional vibe.

The recommendation to look up overlapping events and attend those is a good one: their frequency and quality is one key to the tech scene.

In San Francisco, a walk around the Moscone Conference Center area will get you a feel for where decades of tech conferences have happened. A couple blocks away is the SF Apple Store -- though nowadays Apple's stores elsewhere are larger and more distinctive. A few blocks in the other direction from Moscone is a very high concentration of software/media/social startups (SOMA/South Park/etc.), though the buildings are mostly nondescript. The Presidio in north SF is park-like, along the bay with great views of the Golden Gate, and features Lucasfilm/Lucasarts offices, with statues of pioneers of movies, TV, and the Force.

Not precisely 'silicon valley', but still part of the bay area science/tech/startup scene, the Berkeley campus area across the bay is also a nice stop for many.

sssparkkk
So I take it it's ok to just wander around the Berkeley and Stanford campuses?

Some quick googling tells me the apple/google/etc campuses are, understandably, not open for visitors. Is that correct?

gojomo
Walking around the Berkeley/Stanford campuses, absolutely OK. You can wander many of the buildings, too. The campuses are very large and very open, and people of all ages and origins are already there, so it's hard to stick out.

Office campuses are likely to shoo you away at the main visitor lobby or other entrances as a distraction they're not equipped to handle. Still, there might be some thrill to seeing the buildings/signage, as plain as they often are, from the street.

Apple's on-campus employee store is open to the public:

http://www.apple.com/companystore/

Google hosts a lot of events in parts of their campus, but finding one at just the right time is unlikely, and poking around unannounced without a staff host isn't likely to be smiled upon. There was a previous thread with some ideas on officially-blessed ways to get a closer look:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1222642

anamax
> In the valley, the Computer History Museum, the Stanford Campus (and nearby Palo Alto), Fry's Electronics (especially the flagship store in Sunnyvale), and Weird Stuff (also Sunnyvale) could be worthwhile stops to get the regional vibe.

Intel also has a museum.

mikeleeorg
If you need to do some work while you're here, you can also check out the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, CA. They have co-working facilities (for free) and also hold events on occasion:

http://wiki.hackerdojo.com/

gojomo
Indeed! Or other hackerspaces (like Noisebridge in SF) or the commercial TechShop (in Menlo Park).
bemmu
I'm from Europe and was able to have a great week in SF. But I planned my trip around some events that were happening, and luckily managed to arrange a visit with Reddit and ICanHasCheezBurger. Maybe try contacting some interesting startups?