A few hours before our night flight out of San Jose - anything easy to do?
 

We will be leaving Yosemite sometime on a Friday and our flight out of San Jose is not til 10:45 that night. Will probably do something more at Yosemite in the morning and then take our time getting to San Jose. What can we do for the few hours before we have to be at the airport without getting into traffic problems and such. Something that allows easy access to the airport - or is that not a problem there? Dinner/activity? Didn't know if going downtown would complicate life for us!

Sue, <BR><BR>Downtown is only about 3 miles from the airport, so that would be a very good option since there plenty of restaurants in the area. How much time will you have in the city? <BR><BR>Assuming that you arrive in the city sometime in the afternoon, you could visit one of the museums downtown (Tech, SJ Museum of Art, etc) and have dinner before going to the airport. What type of food do you prefer? Another option instead of a museum is to have afternoon tea at the Fairmont and take a walking tour of downtown and then have dinner. There are informative signs in front of the points of interest along the tour route. Check out the following links for more information.<BR><BR>www.siliconvalley.citysearch.c om<BR>www.sjdowntown.com<BR>www.sanjose.org

I would definitely recommend going downtown and having dinner before your flight. Friday nights are pretty busy downtown, but not overly crowded and there are plenty of restaurant choices.<BR><BR>

Do you have a car? If so go to Saratoga for dinner, my favorite place to eat is La Fondue. So yummy, you will need a reservation and a good amount of time to eat. www.lafondue.com

Be sure to allow plenty of time for your arrival at San Jose airport. They're in the process of doing some major roadwork around the terminal that has been causing some backups. Also, the new security measures have been delaying entry to the gates. Access has always been a problem at the airport on Friday nights, so plan ahead.

Agree with the previous advice of going to Downtown San Jose. There's plenty to keep you occupied. Saratoga is a nice suburb of SJ but it would require you leave to city going in the opposite direction of the airport. As Jem alluded to, traffic heading into the city on a Friday night can be a pain.

You all have been amazing - thanks! We are pretty flexible as to when we leave Yosemite. We will be bringing our rental car back to the airport. Those of you warning of traffic - do you have advice about when to reach San Jose downtown and when to leave downtown for the airport? Flight 10:45 p.m. We would like to have dinner and maybe walk around, explore a little. Is there easy parking in San Jose? Won't want huge dinner before flying, and will be looking for someplace that we can be casual in our sleeping on the plane clothes!! But - we do like good food. Any ideas here?

Getting into SJ on a Friday wont be a problem - you'll fly down the highway while watching all the poor souls stuck in traffic trying to get OUT of SJ. From Yosemite I'd head west to I5, west on 580 at Tracy, and south on 680 at Pleasanton which turns into 280 and goes right through downtown San Jose. You will probably hit traffic in SJ but that wont be a huge deal. <BR><BR>When you arrive in San Jose really depends on how much you want to do. If you want to check out the Tech Museum, I think it closes around 5, so come earlier. For a 10:45 flight, I would plan to leave downtown around 8 or 8:30 to be safe. Leaving that late, you should miss the bulk of the traffic, but be there early just to be safe. <BR><BR>As far as parking is concerned, there are city lots everywhere downtown. There is a map and information on: www.sjdowntown.com<BR><BR><BR><BR>

As J Correa mentioned, if you want to see any of the museums, you would want to arrive in the early afternoon. At that time the traffic should not be too much of an issue. Traffic heading into the city becomes more of a problem during the evening hours, especially if there is a game or show at the HP Pavillion or some other function downtown. What day will you be coming? Depending on where you plan to have dinner, you may want to make reservations. Also, be sure to bring your parking garage stub to the restaurant so that they can validate it. It should only take about 15 or 20 minutes to get to the airport from Center City. Do allow extra time to return the car as you will have to take a shuttle to the terminals.<BR><BR>Some restaurant suggestions:<BR><BR>Italian: Original Joes, La Pastaia, Bella Mia, Spiedo<BR><BR>Seafood: Scotts(Great food and also has a nice view of the city), Lou's Village (Is actually in Midtown but is also good).<BR><BR>Steaks/Ribs: Blake's, Waves Smokehouse and Saloon<BR><BR>American: A.P. Stumps, Stratta Grill and Bar, Eulipia, Gordon Biersch<BR><BR>Asian Fusion/Thai: E&amp;O Trading Company, House of Siam<BR><BR>