San Jose: A guide to short-term rentals
San Jose is the epicenter of Silicon Valley’s tech industry, but it’s also a culinary and cultural center surrounded by natural beauty. A short-term rental is the best way to explore all that the city has to offer.
Kasa's short-term rentals in San Jose
With short-term rentals in the city’s most exciting neighborhoods, Kasa offers comfortable and convenient accommodations no matter what brings you to San Jose or where you need to go.
Kasa's short-term rentals in San Jose
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Kasa University-Airport Santa Clara
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- Full kitchen
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Whether traveling for business or pleasure, our Kasa in Santa Clara combines luxury with the comfort of home in a convenient location. Just a short...
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Discover San Jose
After booking your short-term rental in San Jose, here's everything you need to know for your trip.
Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, 50 miles southeast of San Francisco, San Jose is known for the internet giants that call it home. But this city of 1 million people—the largest in Northern California—isn’t just a tech center. It’s surrounded by rolling hills, touches San Francisco Bay, and neighbors soaring redwood forests. The Pacific coastline, including Half Moon Bay, is a short trip away, and the cultural and natural treasures of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley to the north and Santa Cruz, Monterey Bay, and Big Sur to the south are easily accessible.
San Jose was inhabited by the Costanoan Indians when the Spanish arrived in the eighteenth century and founded a farming community, the first European civic settlement in what is now California. After the United States conquered the Spanish territory in 1846, San Jose briefly served as California’s state capital. In the coming years, it would become a trading center for prospectors in the goldfields to the east. Until the mid-twentieth century, however, the local economy was dominated by agriculture, thanks to the region’s famously sunny, temperate climate. During World War II, military manufacturing moved into the area to produce plane parts and other wartime tools. This set the stage for San Jose’s rise as a technology hub that anchored the internet boom of the 1990s.
Today, San Jose’s main industries are the design and production of computer hardware and software, along with a myriad of internet enterprises, and after waves upon waves of newcomers it’s the tenth largest city in America. San Jose State University sits in the center of the city, and Stanford is just north, both contributing to Silicon Valley’s youthful dynamism. Like its neighbors to the north, San Jose is also rich in culture, with an array of museums, including multiple museums focused on science and tech. The city is also known for its large parks and beautiful flower gardens, and there are great short-term rental options near it all.
San Jose International Airport, located less than four miles from downtown San Jose, is a bustling transit hub with an ever-increasing selection of domestic and international flights, making it easy to fly in and out of the city from just about anywhere.
For in-state travel or flights that arrive in San Francisco, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (or BART) and Caltrain systems extend south from San Francisco and Oakland to San Jose, linking the Bay Area’s urban centers together.
Within San Jose, it’s easy to get around on the city’s light rail system, run by the VTA (Valley Transportation Authority). If you want to explore the city’s parks, gardens, and downtown, renting bikes is a great option. So close to the birthplace of ride-sharing apps, you can of course also call a taxi at your convenience. If you’re interested in exploring the suburbs and sprawling tech campuses that surround the city, or hiking in the nearby hills and redwood forests, you’ll want to consider renting a car. A car is also best for seeing the coastline on California’s legendary Route 1.
For the inside scoop on the most innovative place on Earth, head to the Tech Interactive in downtown San Jose. This science and technology center has exhibits on the kind of dynamic entrepreneurship that has made Silicon Valley famous. It also features hands-on activities, design challenges, and an IMAX Dome Theater with a four-story wraparound screen and 12,000 watts of digital surround sound.
A short ways away, you can see works by California and Pacific Rim artists at the San Jose Museum of Art, and you can stroll down Santana Row, a bustling pedestrian shopping stretch.
For lovers of odd old houses, the Winchester Mystery House is a must. It’s a 160-room Victorian mansion, built by an arms heiress, full of doors and stairways that go nowhere.
For a distant glimpse at the corporate campuses of Silicon Valley’s tech giants, head northwest to Cupertino, Mountain View, and Menlo Park.
San Jose attracts tech workers from around the world, and it’s one of the ethnically diverse cities in the U.S. That diversity is evident in the city’s cuisine, which features some of the best restaurants in the Bay Area. A major highlight of the city’s food scene is its Vietnamese offerings: San Jose has the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam, and there are numerous opportunities to indulge in pho, the brothy, herby noodle dish often served with meat.
San Jose boasts amazing opportunities to explore the outdoors. Take a walk or jog in leafy, 172-acre Kelley Park, with its koi-filled pond in the Japanese Friendship Garden. You can also stop by Happy Hollow, an amusement park and zoo. Hikers should head to Almaden Quicksilver County Park, with its scenic relics of mercury mining in the Santa Clara Valley in the mid-nineteenth century, or to the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve, with its exceptional views.
Thanks to decades of tech dominance, San Jose is one of the planet’s wealthiest cities and has the world’s third highest GDP per capita. San Jose also has the country’s most expensive housing market, ranking fifth in the world. Steve Wozniak, who founded Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976, was born in San Jose, and the street Woz Way (outside of the Children’s Discovery Museum, which he contributed to) is named after him.