Santana Row is a shopping and restaurant mecca right outside your room at Hotel Valencia Santana Row that you’ll want to explore, but there’s much more to see in San Jose within an hour’s walk from your hotel.
Santana Row
Walking time: 1 minute
This shopping hub for downtown San Jose is right outside your hotel, featuring a mix of boutique shops, national brands, and some of the most inventive restaurants in the city, like whiskey bar and rustic eatery Roots & Rye.
Tesla Motors
Walking time: 3 minutes
If you’re in an aspirational mood, check out the inventive carmaker’s showroom at Santana Row, where you can learn about the company’s electric vehicles and design your own dream Roadster.
Winchester Mystery House
Walking time: 6 minutes
Celebrated for its oddness, this Victorian mansion is home to stairs that go straight to the ceiling, miles of hallways that feature secret passages between rooms, and eerie statues and wanly lit rooms throughout. Give yourself a few hours to explore because it’s easy to get lost.
Le Papillon
Walking time: 31 minutes
Food and art mingle on your plate here, with three- and four-course French meals that are heavy on fresh fruit and vegetables, foraged mushrooms, and delicate sauces. Reservations are highly recommended.
Municipal Rose Garden
Walking time: 36 minutes
This gorgeous five-and-a-half-acre garden boasts nearly 200 kinds of roses, plenty of places to sit and enjoy a picnic lunch, and a natural grass stage that affords striking views of every flowering shrub and the larger city. It also, as you might expect, smells nice.
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
Walking time: 40 minutes
One of the more unique museums you’ll find in America, not just San Jose, the Rosicrucian’s imposing, Egyptian temple-inspired facade gives way to many small rooms with exhibits that show hieroglyphs, burial practices, and the relics of day-to-day life for Egyptians during the height of their empire.
Habana Cuba Restaurant
Walking time: 46 minutes
Florida gets all the love for Cuban food, but San Jose’s Habana rivals anything you’ll find in Key West. Sample the restaurant’s crispy take on the classic Cuban sandwich, or fuel the next leg of your walking tour with filling papas rellenas, fried potato balls stuffed with beef.
Lohr Vineyards and Wine
Walking time: 51 minutes
This longtime San Jose winery is family-owned and sustainably farmed, but you’ll care more about how the wine tastes, and J. Lohr delivers delicious wine without the need to leave Silicon Valley. This satellite location of the vineyard’s Napa home base offers the opportunity to sample a flight, and, if you’re lucky, meet the family of winemakers themselves.
Stay with us: Hotel Valencia Santana Row
