Hotel De Anza

The best way to spend a weekend in Silicon Valley starts in downtown San Jose when you check in to the iconic Hotel De Anza. The historic Art Deco hotel first opened in 1931 and quickly became a favorite destination for visiting celebrities and political leaders, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, boxing great Jack Dempsey and jazz icon Cab Calloway. Today, the luxurious boutique World of Hyatt property remains a favorite to visiting performers and guests of the nearby SAP Center and other San Jose venues.

After Friday check-in and dinner at nearby San Pedro Square, begin your Silicon Valley stay enjoying live jazz at the Hedley Club, a cocktail lounge and wine bar right downstairs from your room at the De Anza. After a relaxing evening of food, wine, and smooth jazz, continue your weekend on Saturday exploring all there is to see and do just outside your hotel’s lobby doors.  Just a few blocks away, San Jose’s premier event venue the SAP Center hosts nearly 100 sporting events annually including more than 40 San Jose Sharks regular season home games. The building also hosts high profile concerts and a variety of family and children’s events.

SAP Center

Before or after seeing your favorite concert performer or sporting event, there are a wide variety of things to do and places to see, including the Children’s Discovery Museum, Plaza de César Chávez, San Pedro Square Market, San Jose Museum of Art, St. Joseph’s Cathedral, San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, or the Tech Interactive.  One block away from your hotel is the lively San Pedro Square public market featuring over 20 unique vendors selling everything from sushi to tapas to home goods. The aromas of fresh ground coffee and wood-fired pizza fill three market halls. For your weekend stay, the Square features live bands Thursday – Sunday.

San Pedro Square Market

Venture out a few miles to find a Silicon Valley gem, Santana Row and its neighbors Westfield Valley Fair and the Winchester Mystery House. Santana Row features a mix of over 50 shops, 30 restaurants, and a CineArts movie theatre. With your pick of dining options, everything from burgers and Italian to Asian fusion and French, you’ll have plenty of choices to refuel while shopping at The Row’s top stores. Across the street is Northern California’s largest enclosed shopping mall, Westfield Valley Fair and San Jose’s top tourist attraction, the beautiful, but bizarre Winchester Mystery House.

Winchester Mystery House

If you have your own transportation or decide to rideshare, venture out a little further in Silicon Valley to see Northern California’s premier theme park, California’s Great America or attend a San Francisco 49ers game at Levi’s Stadium. There’s also more shopping in Milpitas at the Great Mall. Nearby in Sunnyvale, stop by one of the Bay Area’s premier Farmer’s Markets in and around famed Murphy Street. If tech interests you, take a ride to the city of Mountain View to the Computer History Museum.

The museum is dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on society. Sit in a Waymo self-driving car, learn Photoshop from the pros, experience the sights and sounds of classic computing, try your hand at coding, and discover why computer history is more than 2,000 years old. In Cupertino, you  can continue your tech exploration at the Apple Park Visitors Center. The Center features an Apple Store, Apple Café, and more. A bit further north in Palo Alto take a campus tour of Stanford University, and visit the onsite Cantor Center for Visual Arts home to the spectacular Rodin Sculpture Garden.

Computer History Museum

End your weekend in beautiful Saratoga, visiting the majestic Villa Montalvo comprised of a cultural and arts center, a park, hiking trails and the historic Villa, an Italian Mediterranean Revival mansion. After, it’s a short ride to downtown Los Gatos’s independent boutiques, antique shops, and award-winning restaurants. On the way back to your De Anza hotel, stop in downtown Campbell for a choice of restaurants, bars, or cafes.

There’s so much to see and do in Silicon Valley, you might have to plan another weekend visit! To start planning, visit www.VisitSiliconValley.org