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Top 10 Best Things to Do in San Jose, California - Travel Guide 2024

Discover the diverse attractions of San Jose, California, from its vibrant downtown and world-class museums to unique historical sites and family fun. This guide highlights the best of Silicon Valley's cultural, natural, and entertainment offerings for an unforgettable visit.

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  • Downtown San Jose

    Downtown San Jose is a hub of culture, entertainment, dining, sightseeing, and nightlife, bordered by the Guadalupe River and San Jose State University.

  • San Jose Museum of Art

    The San Jose Museum of Art is a destination to immerse yourself in the arts and culture scene.

  • Winchester Mystery House

    The Winchester Mystery House, built by Sarah Winchester, is a peculiar building known for its late Victorian style and lack of logical plan, potentially linked to ghost stories.

  • Japanese Friendship Garden

    The Japanese Friendship Garden in Kelly Park is a symbol of American-Japanese relations, featuring ponds, a Tea House, Stepping Stones, Bridges, a waterfall, and tended shrubs.

  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library

    The Dr. Martin Luther King Junior library is one of the attractions located in Downtown San Jose.

  • Plaza de César Chávez

    Plaza de César Chávez is a meeting place with public art, flower beds, and fountains and the main stage for one of country's top jazz festivals in August.

  • The Tech Interactive

    The Tech Interactive is kitted out with gadgets, gizmos, robots, virtual reality, and innovative hands-on craziness, where you can compose your own digital world at reboot reality.

  • Santana Row

    Santana Row is a mix-used development with boutiques, galleries, well-known retailers, pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, and restaurant Terraces conceived as a village within a city.

  • Westfield Valley Fair

    Westfield Valley Fair mall is a mammoth shopping center near Santana Row.

  • Happy Hollow Park and Zoo

    Happy Hollow Park and Zoo has animal enclosures, rides, a puppet theater, and a fully equipped Animal Hospital with smaller animals like Mir cats fosas caparas guinea pigs lemur mukas owls and turtles.

  • Municipal Rose Garden

    San Jose's award-winning Municipal Rose Garden, dedicated in 1937 on a former prune orchard, features around 3,500 individual bushes from almost 200 different species.

  • Japantown

    Japan Town, one of three surviving Japan towns in the United States, originated as a neighborhood for Japanese migrant men and later included picture Brides and businesses.

  • Mount Umunhum

    Mount Umunhum is the fourth highest peak in the Santa Cruz range with a road leading to the top, offering hiking trails and views from a summit that was previously closed due to hazardous materials from the defunct Almaden Air Force Station.

  • Kelly Park

    Kelly Park is where the Japanese Friendship Garden is located.

  • California's Great America

    California's Great America mixes thrill rides with the slides and pools of a water park at Boomerang Bay.

  • Boomerang Bay

    Boomerang Bay is a water park located within California's Great America.