Photo: The Pancake of Heaven!, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Drive around the large campus of buildings to see where all the geeks work and get a taste of the mischievous Google corporate culture. The campus is also a 10- to 30-min walk from the Computer History Museum depending on where exactly you want to go. Make sure to take a picture in front of the huge bunch of Android statues on the Google Android lawn on Landings Dr. They are located right next to the company store, which sells a wide range of rather affordable swag and has a Google bike to take pictures on. On your way, have fun spotting the colorful bikes (easy), the "Noogle" propeller hats bestowed upon new employees (less easy, but worth it!), and the various Android statues hidden between the buildings. Google is arguably the friendliest of all tech giants with tourists—the Googleplex's courtyard, complete with a dinosaur skeleton, is open for selfie takers. Google opened a visitor center in 2023 called the Google Visitor Experience that features a café, pop-up shop and various events. As with the rest of Silicon Valley companies, no public tours of its offices are generally available. However, some tech events advertised on Meetup are held at the Google campus.
The Googleplex is the corporate headquarters complex of Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. It is located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California.
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Outdoor concert venue with huge tent cover, location for many large Bay Area concerts as well as community events.
Large movie theater with ample parking showing recent big movies.
The world's largest and most complete museum on computing history, documenting the area's primary industry. Be prepared for a massive collection of room-sized computers, vacuum tubes, entangled wires, and devices large and small. A geek's delight and a must-see in Silicon Valley.
Once the site for dumping trash, Mountain View closed this area as a dump and turned it into a park instead. Now it's a beautiful 700-acre park with a saltwater lake, golf course, rolling grassy hills, and bay trails. Good place to see shorebirds and jackrabbits in the early morning.
Water sports center with boating, windsurfing, and other aquatic activities. Equipment rental available.