San Jose Travel Guide

While San Francisco may get the press as the region's cultural and entertainment hub, San Jose is increasingly becoming a destination spot for high culture, as well as slick dance clubs, unique museums, outdoor pursuits, and all kinds of diversions for the younger set.

Music and Dance

The quality of San Jose's performing arts organizations has risen in recent years to rival those of San Francisco's. The San Jose Symphony has grown from a regional ensemble into one of national stature. Guest artists are regularly featured with the orchestra, which plays at the Lord of the Dance (San Jose Center for Performing Arts), as well as Cupertino's Flint Center for Performing Arts. The San Jose Chamber Music Society offers impeccable performances of robust late Classical/early Romantic fare at the Le Petit Trianon Theatre. There is, too, the Opera San Jose, whose productions are staged in the Montgomery Theater, and the renamed reconstituted, and revitalized San Jose Ballet. The ballet can be seen at the Lord of the Dance (San Jose Center for Performing Arts). Additional ensembles include the San Jose Symphonic Choir, the San Jose Wind Symphony, the Lyric Theater (for light opera in the Gilbert and Sullivan tradition), and the folkloric Los Lupenos de San Jose.

Theater

San Jose's theater scene is led by the highly regarded San Jose Repertory Theater and the San Jose Stage Company, both of which have their own downtown stages; as well as the Northside Theater Company, the daring City Lights Theater Company, Latin-themed (but English speaking) Teatro Vision, and smaller comedic stages such as Big Lil's Barbary Coast Dinner Theater. Musicals thrive in San Jose, as well, at the American Musical Theater at the Lord of the Dance (San Jose Center for Performing Arts) and the San Jose Children's Musical Theater.

Museums and Galleries

San Jose's museums have come a long way in recent years, rising to the level of San Francisco's in the traditional fine arts categories. And they've gone San Francisco one better in the techno-culture that is San Jose's purview. The San Jose Museum of Art, an architectural melange of new and old, usually hosts touring exhibits of national importance, increasing numbers of which are being coaxed to bypass San Francisco and stop at the SJMA instead. The San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art showcases the work of Silicon Valley's many talented visual artists. The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles and the Peralta Adobe & Fallon House Historic Site are fine specialty museums. At the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium, you will find an entire Egyptian tomb that has been painstakingly reconstructed. The tomb tour is one of the better ones for kids, who will find it slightly spooky and thoroughly interesting. Another sure-fire choice for kids is the Tech Museum of Innovation with exhibits like a $10 million "clean room," where silicon chips are prepared; a virtual roller coaster, a U.S. Olympic bobsled team simulator; countless interactive learning stations dealing with computers, the Internet, and biotechnology; and interesting temporary exhibits. To top it off, there's a 295-seat IMAX dome theater.

Sports and Recreation

There is no question that San Jose has a tertiary importance in the Bay Area professional sports galaxy. However, San Jose is die hard in support of its HP Pavilion at San Jose, the Bay Area's sole National Hockey League franchise, who play their games in the HP Pavilion at San Jose; the San Jose SaberCats, for those who like Arena Football; and the San Jose Giants, a AAA league farm club of the San Francisco Giants.

The South Bay is known for its healthy, outdoor lifestyle, and there is more than enough to do if you want to get outside for some recreation. Runners have a variety of courses to follow. Mountain bikers are particularly fond of San Antonio Park, but enjoy many of the other parks and open spaces in Santa Clara Valley, while the area's terrain and economy send packs of expensively equipped road cyclists onto its country roads every weekend. For roller-bladers, the Vasona Trail, a loop from downtown San Jose to the foot of the Santa Cruz Mountains, is very popular.

Fun For Kids

For those of sturdy constitution, there is California's Great America off Great America Parkway in Santa Clara. Along the same lines (but possibly less fraying to the nerves) is Raging Waters, a huge water slide development that's fun for the whole family on a hot day.

Last but not least, a guide to San Jose cannot go without mention of Winchester Mystery House (The). This peculiar, 160-room mansion, the lifetime obsession of firearms heiress Sarah Pardee Winchester, is a singular San Jose landmark. The Mystery House bears investigation if only to learn something about the eyebrow-raising story behind its construction.2008-08-02T07:29:22.000 280