Get to Know Mountain View

Mountain View lies at the heart of Silicon Valley, both literally and figuratively. Geographically, it sits in between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the San Francisco Bay, bordering Palo Alto. And in the mental map of the popular imagination, Mountain View’s position as the home of the Googleplex, Google’s headquarters — a 42-acre site with three buildings — place it squarely at the center of the tech world. Mountain View has one of the Bay Area’s cuter downtowns, centered around Castro Street and packed with restaurants, cafes, and shops. It’s also home to Shoreline Park, which has a golf course and the Shoreline Amphitheater, a large outdoor stadium that hosts many major music concerts. Mountain View is regarded as very pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly, not to mention transit-oriented: You’ll find two Caltrain stations and access to the VTA light rail and bus network.

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Living in Silicon Valley

Twentieth-century innovation transformed the Santa Clara Valley, once a verdant Eden of blossoming plum and apricot orchards, from the rural “Valley of Heart’s Delight” to suburban Silicon Valley. Located at the south end of the San Francisco Bay Area, its borders are more or less congruent with Santa Clara County, though they're sometimes stretched by extension to cover tech-forward areas up the peninsula and the lower East Bay. Though roads are the default thoroughfare for local travel, there's a growing number of transit alternatives: Caltrain and now BART provides easy travel to San Francisco and Oakland, and the VTA light rail slinks streetcar-style through downtown San Jose on its way from Milpitas and Mountain View to Campbell and Santa Teresa. The Santa Cruz Mountains to the south and west, along with Mt. Hamilton and the Diablo Range to the east, keep nature in easy reach.