A Friend in Town

The Premier Personalized Tour Service for the San Francisco Bay Area

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We can pick you up anywhere within 90 minutes’ drive of San Francisco — at your home, hotel, or the airport!

Silicon Valley & San Jose Sightseeing Tour

IMG_0048_editedSilicon Valley and its 'capital,' San Jose have revolutionized not only global communications but how we manage our daily lives. Come see where nearly a million creative minds are engineering the future. We custom-design your tour and will pick you up anywhere in the San Francisco Bay area.

Why tour Silicon Valley and San Jose with A Friend in Town and not just rent your own car?

Because it's often hard to reach sites in Silicon Valley: most are far from each other, public transit is sparse, and traffic frequently terrible. We put what you're seeing in an historical context, respond to your questions, and help you optimize your time, minimize your stress, maximize your enjoyment.

There are so many reasons why we're your best choice for a tour of Silicon Valley and San Jose.

Our Silicon Valley Tour & San Jose Tour Itinerary

We start with the drive to the Intel Museum: this exceptionally well-designed space features the history of, the concepts behind, and the design and manufacture of microchips, the essential core of every computer...and explains the operation of "clean room" facilities. Afterwards, we enjoy a student-led tour of the beautiful, multi-faceted campus of Stanford University, the intellectual wellspring of much of the Valley's innovation.

After lunch we can catch the current IMAX release at The Tech Museum (in downtown San Jose) whose exhibits emphasize the innumerable roles computers play in our workaday lives. (If you're over 15 and meet other requirements, you can also ride their Segway course on the roof!) Or we can learn about the current heroes of Silicon Valley and see the antecedents of current technology like that Atari or WANG you remember, while visiting the Computer History Museum   --which for the remainder of 2010 will demonstrate the Babbage Engine, a computer first designed in the 1840s!  Mid-afternoon offers several options:  a guided tour of heiress Sara Winchester's haunted Mystery House, an eccentric yet technologically avant-garde Victorian mansion and grounds; the Rosicrucian Museum, the most complete display of ancient Egyptian artifacts on the West Coast; or drive-bys of Apple, Google, eBay,Yahoo, Adobe, Oracle, McAfee, Cisco...drive-bys since they don't offer public tours. (Apple does have a retail store selling logo'd merchandise.)

Yet again, you may choose to play hooky so as to visit the elegant Hakone (Japanese) Gardens in Saratoga...or to cruise Santa Cruz' Boardwalk, an old-fashioned amusement park on the beach—with its own engineering marvel, an 80- year-old wooden roller-coaster. Or taste the wines of the newly discovered Santa Cruz Mountains viticultural area--lots of varietals and excellence. And, if the fog hangs just off the coast, our return drive features beautiful vistas.

What will it Cost?

Because each tour is designed to fit your interests, our fees vary. Basically you pay by the number of hours in your itinerary. We do not add the fuel surcharges, "license fees," "tax" and mandatory gratuities that many other companies do.

FEE Average Duration Additional Costs
(paid to vendors)		 Gratuity Add'l Hours Minimum Duration Minimum Fee
$480* 8-9h Museum Admissions, Lunch ** $55 ea 7h $370

* Not  per-person

* These fees are for couples, groups of up to 6/7 people or solo travelers. For groups of 7 to 25 (whereby we charter a minibus), please ask for a quote.

** A gratuity is customary and will be appreciated, but is not required.

Click Here to find out more about our Fees.

If you are not satisfied with your tour — its adherence to the tour description or your stated requirements/preferences, A Friend in Town will issue you a complete refund, within 10 days.

Call: 1-800-960-8099Reserve Your Tour