Discover Santa Clara: Culture, History and Nature

Santa Clara combines impressive nature experiences with an unusually diverse cultural history. Those wishing to plan a trip with varied daily itineraries will find trails through preserves, historic sites, museums, gardens and interactive exhibitions. When choosing a holiday apartment or holiday home, the key consideration is therefore which combination of landscapes, history and family experiences you would like to place at the center of your trip.

Nature among Trails, Hills and Wildflowers

Rancho San Antonio County Park and Open Space Preserve offers more than 25 miles of trails through the preserve and the adjacent county park. During regular farm opening hours, you can take a self-guided tour of Deer Hollow Farm and see farm animals, a volunteer-tended garden and an orchard. Another route in Rancho San Antonio Preserve is three miles long. It follows a creek through a fern-lined canyon, climbs through chaparral to open meadows on the middle ridge and leads back to Deer Hollow Farm.

Henry W. Coe State Park protects 87,000 acres of scenic hills and ridges in the Diablo Range. Backpackers, horseback riders, mountain bikers and day hikers find a variety of ways to experience the landscape there. In spring, flowers include California poppies, lupines, goldfields, baby blue eyes, mariposa lilies, larkspur, wild hyacinths and Ithuriel’s spear.

Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve offers a clearly defined hiking option with the four-mile Arrowhead Loop Trail. The trail passes rare serpentine rock outcrops and runs through grassland as well as woodland characterized by oaks and California bay trees. There are also opportunities to observe red-shouldered hawks, golden eagles and yellow-billed magpies. The preserve lies on the western edge of Coyote Valley, which forms a greenbelt between San José and Morgan Hill.

Missions, Museums and Living History

Santa Clara also offers many distinctive cultural attractions. Mission Santa Clara de Asís is the eighth-oldest of the original 21 California missions. The Computer History Museum’s signature exhibition, “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing,” is dedicated to the development of computer technology. At The Tech Interactive, Pixel Playground invites visitors to create animals from building blocks in order to train an artificial intelligence, design and test a roller coaster, or paint with digital brushes.

History Park is a 14-hectare site with original and reconstructed homes, businesses and landmarks that conveys the history of the Santa Clara Valley. On a guided tour, you can explore how people worked and lived in San José from 1850 to 1970; the site also includes operating streetcars. The first floor of the Chinese American Historical Museum explores the experiences of Chinese Americans in the Santa Clara Valley from the mid-19th century to the present day.

Gardens, Animals and Special Insights

The Japanese Friendship Garden was modeled after the Korakuen Garden in Okayama and established in 1965 as a symbol of the lasting friendship between San José and Okayama in Japan. The Winchester Mystery House is a Victorian mansion that Sarah Winchester had built over 36 years, from 1886 to 1922. The Mansion Tour takes guests through 110 of the 160 rooms in total.

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum houses the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts exhibited in western North America. Rosicrucian Park also includes the Rosicrucian Labyrinth. All tours in the museum are self-guided; a free museum app is available for this purpose. Happy Hollow Park & Zoo is home to more than 150 exotic, endangered and rescued ambassador animals. The park also participates in Species Survival Plan programs.

Choose the Right Base for Your Trip

When looking for a holiday apartment or holiday home in Santa Clara, you can first determine your preferred travel rhythm. Those who want to focus on trails, hills and wildflowers will plan differently from someone who wants to combine museums, historic sites and gardens. The experiences described offer several distinct focal points, without requiring you to limit your trip to just one type of excursion. This makes it possible to choose accommodation based on your personal itinerary rather than just a single destination.

More Places for Planning Your Trip

You can also find information about Morgan Hill, Saratoga, Campbell, Gilroy, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San José, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Los Altos, San Martin, Coyote and Los Altos Hills.

For the overarching travel overview: California.