Things to Do in Silicon Valley
While Silicon Valley is abuzz with ingenuity, innovation and creativity, a break from study is often due! Here's a short list of things to check out in the Bay Area.
Professional Sporting Events
- Baseball
- Basketball
- Football
- Hockey
- Soccer
Bay Area Newspapers
Arts & Culture
- Ballet San Jose
- A classically-based ballet company with a resident company of 30 dancers and a repertoire of over 120 traditional and modern classical ballets.
- The Choral Project
- Based in San Jose, the Choral Project is a mixed-voice choir that performs locally at Mission Santa Clara.
- Opera San Jose
- Opera San Jose is a professional opera company which features numerous performances throughout the year.
- San Jose Flea Market
- Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the San Jose Flea Market is the largets open-air market in the country.
- San Jose Museum of Art
- The San Jose Museum of Art hosts a large permanent collection emphasizing West Coast artists of the 20th- and 21st-century.
- San Jose Improv
- Improv Comedy Club regularly features famous comedians such as Rob Schneider and Bobby Lee.
- History of San Jose
- The History San José preserves and shares regional history of San Jose and Santa Clara Valley.
- Computer History Museum
- The Computer History Museum, established in 1996, is dedicated to preserving and presenting the stories and artifacts of the information age, and exploring the computing revolution and its impact on our lives.
- San Francisco Visitor's Bureau
- The official visitors site for San Francisco.
Outdoors/Leisure Activities
- Shoreline Golf Links
- Located adjacent to San Francisco Bay in the City of Mountain View, California, Shoreline Golf Links is an eighteen-hole, championship-level golf course.
- Sunnyvale Municipal Golf
- Sunnyvale Golf Course is a par 70 regulation 18-hole course with numerous bunkers, dog legs and water holes.
- Undiscovered Country Tours
- Undiscovered Country Tours delivers road bike tours for adults throughout the state.
- Outback Adventures
- Guided kayaking, backpacking and rock climbing trips, instruction, and sales serving Santa Cruz, Monterey, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
- San Francisco Scuba Schools
- Scub Schools offer PADI scuba diving training and tours throughout Monterey Bay and Northern California.
- Raging Waters
- Raging Waters is the Bay Area's largest water theme park.
- California's Great America
- Paramount's Great America is an amusement park that offers rides, family shows and water park.
- Center of Balance
- Located a few blocks from CMU's campus, Center of Balance offers daily Yoga lessons
- California Wine Hikes
- California Wine Hikes combines wine tasting and hiking tours to wineries in the Santa Clara Valley.
Local Dining Options
Getting Around
Bay Area Mass Transit
- Bay Area Travel Planner: transit.511.org - A comprehensive mass transit website that encompasses the entire San Francisco Bay Area, http://511.org provides a thorough overview of the various transportation systems in the area PLUS provides door-to-door directions to various locations throughout the area using public transporation.
- MUNI - The San Francisco Municipal Railway, commonly known as Muni, is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco. Its network consists of bus lines, trolley bus lines, light rail lines (known as the Muni Metro), cable car lines, and a heritage streetcar line known as the F Market & Wharves. Muni shares four metro stations with BART. For more information, visit http://www.sfmta.com/cms/mhome/home50.htm
- BART - The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) is a heavy-rail public rapid-transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. BART has 104 miles of track around the Bay Area, running from Fremont into Oakland, San Francisco and then south again to the San Francisco Airport and Millbrae. Travelers can connect to San Francisco International Airport and Oakland International Airport via BART. While BART does not directly serve the Silicon Valley area, it is accessible via Caltrain, as Caltrain and BART share the same transit center at Millbrae. For more information, visit http://www.bart.gov.
- Caltrain - Caltrain is a commuter rail line that connects San Francisco to Gilroy. Trains operate out of San Francisco and San Jose on an approximately half-hourly basis every weekday, with more-frequent service provided during commute hours and for special events (such as sporting events) and less-frequent service at night and on weekends and holidays. Service between San Jose and Gilroy is limited to three daily commute-hour round trips. The Mountain View Transit Center, located at Central and Castro Sts., is a popular Caltrain stop. For more information, visit http://www.caltrain.com.
- VTA - The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA, operates a bus and light rail system connecting various cities within the Santa Clara Valley. The Route 51 bus line connects the Mountain View Transit Center to NASA Moffett Field. For full-time students, contact Gerry Panelo for more information regarding VTA resources. For more information, visit http://www.vta.org/.
Bay Area Airports and Shuttle Service
- The Silicon Valley campus is roughly 40 minutes from San Francisco (SFO) airport (http://www.flysfo.com) and 10 minutes from San Jose (SJC) airport (http://www.sjc.org). Both airports are fine options when traveling to the Silicon Valley You can rent a car, take a shuttle, or take a taxi.
- The Oakland International Airport (OAK) also services the San Francisco Bay Area and is 1 hour away from the Silicon Valley campus. (http://flyoakland.com)