A Local’s Guide to San Jose

When visiting the Bay Area, most tourists go straight for San Francisco and its unique culture, intriguing history, and stunning vistas. More adventurous travelers might also visit Oakland, with its vibrant arts and restaurant scenes, or the picturesque natural beauty of Marin County. But it’s rare that a sightseeing journey includes a visit to San Jose, just 50 miles south of San Francisco.

That’s unfortunate, because what looks from the freeway like miles of suburban sprawl is actually home to beloved arts and culture institutions, tasty bites, serene scenery, and scores of passionate locals who fiercely love their city. It’s enough to make you think twice about San Jose’s middling reputation.

If you’re looking to experience San Jose through a resident’s eyes, here are six activities with local-approved cred.

Catch a game.

San Jose has a handful of under-the-radar but locally treasured sports teams with deep roots in the city. Best for all ages is the San Jose Giants, a minor-league team with a major place in locals’ hearts. Playing in a small stadium near Kelley Park, the San Jose Giants have given numerous MLB players their start. Keep an eye out for free passes distributed by local grocery and convenience stores for an affordable weeknight activity.

If you’re a soccer fan, the city has been the home of the San Jose Earthquakes for years, and match day, win or lose, is always a blast. In 2024, PayPal Park welcomed Bay FC, the buzzy, Brandi Chastain-backed women’s team. There’s also, of course, hockey and the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center, but prepare yourself. Sharks fans are as ferocious as the animal itself. 

Baseball and soccer seasons run from the spring until early fall, and the NHL from fall to spring, so you’re covered in San Jose for sports any time of year.

Go treasure hunting.

San Jose is truly a vintage shopper’s paradise, from funky thrift stores to expansive antique malls. West San Carlos Street is the hub of this world, housing old standbys like Antiques Colony, Memory Lane Antiques, and vintage clothing mecca Moon Zooom, as well as outposts of tried-and-true chains like Crossroads Trading and Goodwill.

If music is more your jam, the city is home to two well-curated vintage vinyl outlets, Needle to the Groove, near San Jose State University, and On the Corner Music in the historic Rose Garden district. The most reliable spot for used books is Recycle Bookstore’s location on the Alameda—say hi to Emma, the current cat in residence, while you’re there.

Eat like a local.

San Jose’s reputation as a culinary destination has grown in recent years, with the opening of hotspots like Eos & Nyx and Still O.G./Alter Ego. But if you want a true San Jose gastronomic experience, try some holes-in-the-wall that have stood the test of time. 

On the west side of downtown, Falafel's Drive-In is a longtime favorite, specializing in falafel and Mediterranean-inspired menu items, as well as a locally beloved banana milkshake. La Victoria Taqueria has multiple locations, but the one on San Carlos Street is the most famous (or infamous): open until 3 a.m., it routinely serves up burritos, tacos, and quesadillas with their signature Orange Sauce to late-night revelers and San Jose State students. Any time of day, Mini Gourmet is a perfect little cafe with a wide range of diner classics like steak and eggs and BLTs, and has served the Bascom area since 1965.

San Jose is also home to a regional delicacy: the Burnt Almond Cake, a white cake layered with bechamel custard, then covered with a lightly sweet meringue buttercream frosting and toasted almonds. Though its origins remain mysterious, it is unique to the city. The cakes are becoming hard to find as independent bakeries disappear, but Peters’ Bakery in Alum Rock (since 1936!) and Flower Flour are two locations still offering them.

Get artsy.

San Jose is home to a thriving visual arts community. Art lovers could easily spend a whole day browsing downtown’s many art museums and galleries: Works/San Jose, the Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose, KALEID Gallery, Anno Domini, MACLA, and more, mostly clustered in the SoFA district—plus the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, which showcases historic and contemporary quilts and other works of textile art. 

If you’re looking for arts of the performing kind, national touring productions often stop at the Center for the Performing Arts—but there are also innovative, fresh works being brewed up at independent companies like San Jose Stage and City Lights.

Explore Japantown.

San Jose has been home to a tight-knit Japanese American community since the turn of the 20th century, when waves of immigrants came from East Asia to find farm jobs. (Before tech took over the South Bay, San Jose was an agricultural area.)

San Jose’s Japantown is a perennial nexus of culture, home to some of the oldest businesses in the city and a wealth of diversions that span from the historic to the modern. Around Sixth and Jackson Streets you’ll find traditional Japanese and Hawaiian restaurants, cute coffee shops, art galleries, markets with imported Japanese goods, and gift shops. For more info on San Jose’s diverse history, visit nearby History Park, which has several interactive exhibits about other immigrant communities that made San Jose what it is today.

Take a hike.

San Jose has several beautiful spots on the outskirts of the city that are favorites among hikers, bike riders, and horseback riders. Alum Rock Park and Coyote Creek Trail provide some of the most popular hikes in the region, with the former providing sweeping vistas of the foothills (plus some fascinating ruins from its days as a mineral spring resort) and the latter tracing Coyote Creek into more scenic rural areas. 

Almaden Lake Park is good for casual walks around the lake. And Almaden Quicksilver County Park will make you feel like an urban explorer—in this former mining community, the trails are dotted with decaying equipment and structures from the 1850s.