I hate to say it, but most of the valley is just cubefarms in nondescript office parks. A tour heading south on 101 of the more interesting bits could be: Ora

I hate to say it, but most of the valley is just cubefarms in nondescript office parks. A tour heading south on 101 of the more interesting bits could be: Oracle campus - one of the more eye pleasing campuses from the outside (the inside of the buildings is awful - don't bother going in). Off of 101. Palo Alto (downtown + Stanford) - take 101 exit to University Ave, drive through University Ave (slowly) to Palm Drive, park in the Oval at Stanford and check out the old courtyard. Stanford is a beautiful campus (at least the old part). In Palo Alto downtown a large number of deal meetings happen at University Cafe (on your right). The original Google offices and the former Facebook offices are all within 2 blocks of the Romona/University ave intersection. Special trivia note: the Persian rug dealers also run an investment group (Amidzad) and the Plug-and-Play Tech Centers (startup friendly office spaces). They got stock in Google when GOOG wanted to rent some of their space on Univ Ave. Googleplex - take Rengstorff exit off of 101. Buildings 41/42/43 are the core Google campus and the old Silicon Graphics campus as well. You may be able to walk through the center of the campus without being hassled by security. Much better if you can get someone to invite you in for lunch. LinkedIn is at the end of Sterlin Ct (right near the Googleplex). Formerly buildings #7 and #8 of Silicon Graphics campus (the whole Sterlin Ct area was SGI for 10+ years). *) Lion and Compass Restaurant in Sunnyvale (Fair Oaks Ave exit North). http://www.lionandcompass.com/ http://www.lionandcompass.com/ The building is the original headquarters for Atari. (underwhelming, but a nice bit of trivia) Apple campus - cupertino (off of 280 near De Anza) - not all that interesting, but at least you'll know where it is. Sand Hill Road - on the way back up from Apple stay on 280N and exit onto Sand Hill Road. This nondescript road is home to Stanford Linear Accelerator and across the street (left side as you go downhill) most of the more famous VC firms all have their headquarters (Sequoia, etc). It's not much to see, but if you're there around lunchtime, head over to the Quadrus Cafe and have a bite surrounded by whatever VCs aren't doing lunch meetings that day. (warning: boring). However, I besides Stanford Campus, I might suggest skipping all of this and just heading down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (if they're open), the 17-mile drive, Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz and maybe swing by Bonny Doon to get some wine on the way back up. During sundown, the ridge above the valley on Skyline Blvd is beautiful.