Journey: Postcard from San Jose

By Dennis Lennox, CP Contributor Sunday, August 30, 2026

San Jose, California’s third-largest metropolis, has a bigger inhabitants than San Francisco but stays comparatively missed.

It can also be nearer to the businesses that outline Silicon Valley. Think of it because the valley’s capital — a metropolis extra essential than its low profile suggests.

I visited earlier this month for San Jose Jazz Summer Fest. Founded in 1990, the three-day pageant stuffed the immensely walkable downtown with jazz and different music. Stages rose within the shadow of the Roman Catholic Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph — St. Joseph being the English translation of San Jose — and close to the Romanesque former publish workplace, which now homes the modest San Jose Museum of Art.

The Spanish Colonial Revival publish workplace that changed it in 1933 is equally notable. Facing St. James Park, the constructing remembers an period when public structure was anticipated to be lovely.

St. Joseph is not San Jose’s solely cathedral. Near the 1933 publish workplace stands the humbler Carpenter Gothic-style Trinity Cathedral, inbuilt 1863 as a parish church and now the seat of the Episcopal (Anglican) bishop of El Camino Real. Unlike St. Joseph, which welcomes guests each day, Trinity seems to open just for common companies. Catty-corner throughout St. James Park is one other Romanesque landmark: First Unitarian Church.

Downtown could also be largely devoid of retail — admittedly, a well-recognized downside in American metropolis facilities — but it surely’s hardly missing in locations to eat. Restaurants vary from old-school Original Joe’s to Il Fornaio contained in the Westin. The lodge occupies the previous Sainte Claire, the type of early-Twentieth-century downtown lodge each decent-sized metropolis as soon as had earlier than generic chains got here to dominate.

For one thing extra informal, head to San Pedro Square Market, which has been reworked right into a meals corridor with greater than 20 bars and eateries. Next door, the Peralta Adobe dates to 1797 and is San Jose’s oldest surviving constructing.

Retail, in the meantime, has migrated to Santana Row. It is basically an outside mall wearing a streetscape vaguely evocative of Spain or Italy. Some will dismiss it as pastiche. It jogged my memory of Las Colinas within the Dallas suburb of Irving: manufactured, sure, however not unenjoyable. I loved the people-watching over a meal at Augustine, the place coastal California cooking meets French and Italian influences.

Two quick drives expose a special San Jose. Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve has miles of trails within the foothills. I went each day. Moving inside minutes from concrete and asphalt to hills with sweeping views throughout Santa Clara Valley is a exceptional luxurious.

In the other way, Alamitos Vineyards presents laid-back tastings and extraordinary views. The drive passes settlements that grew round Nineteenth-century mining. The treasure right here wasn’t gold however mercury, or quicksilver, indispensable to extracting gold elsewhere.

The metropolis’s best-kept secret may be the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. It has greater than 4,000 artifacts, constituting the biggest assortment of Egyptian antiquities on exhibit in western North America. A museum of this caliber is surprising right here.

No go to to San Jose is full with out the Winchester Mystery House. Sarah Winchester, widowed heiress to the firearms fortune, expanded a farmhouse right into a sprawling Victorian mansion from 1886 till her loss of life in 1922. The tour leans into commercialized fable that’s unsupported by the historic report. Still, it is value seeing for the structure and craftsmanship.

If you go

Combine the Egyptian museum with a picnic on the close by 6-acre Municipal Rose Garden, residence to greater than 4,000 rose shrubs representing 189 varieties.

Strata, reverse the postmodern San Jose City Hall and Civic Plaza, is one other good restaurant alternative.

Consider staying at Hotel Valencia, an upscale boutique anchoring Santana Row. For a downtown lodge, the cookie-cutter Marriott won’t disappoint as a result of you realize what you are getting.

The subsequent San Jose Jazz Summer Fest is scheduled for Aug. 13-15, 2027.

San Jose’s airport, named after Norman Mineta, a former mayor, congressman and cupboard secretary below Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, is served by all the main airways. You’ll want a rental automotive for those who plan to hike on the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve or go to Alamitos Vineyards. Otherwise, getting round San Jose with Waymo, the self-driving robo taxi, is secure, simple and cheaper than driving with Uber.

Trip planning sources can be found by means of the Visit San Jose website.

Dennis Lennox writes a journey column for The Christian Post.