Silicon Valley sights you can visit

Visitors often arrive in Palo Alto expecting to tour the famous tech campuses. Most of those are working offices with badge-only doors. What the valley does offer is a set of museums, visitor centers and historic sites that tell the story from radio tubes to AI. Several are free. A few of the most important sites are ordinary buildings you see from the street, which is part of the charm.

This guide groups the sights by what you can actually do there. Hours and prices come from each place's own site, checked in late October and early November 2026. For a one-day walking and driving route through the Palo Alto sites, use our tech history tour.

Where it started: Palo Alto sites

1. The HP Garage

At 367 Addison Avenue, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard formalized their partnership on January 1, 1939 in a small wooden garage behind the house. It is California Historical Landmark No. 976 and has been on the National Register since 2007. HP owns the property and it is not open to the public. View the garage and plaque from the sidewalk. Our HP Garage guide tells the story.

2. The downtown tech walk

Within a mile of the garage you can see where Lee de Forest worked on the vacuum tube amplifier, marked by a pavement plaque at Channing Avenue and Emerson Street (California Historical Landmark No. 836). Google's first office outside a garage opened at 165 University Avenue in February 1999. Facebook's office from 2005 to 2006 was at 471 Emerson Street. Our famous tech addresses guide maps them.

3. Fairchild Semiconductor's building

At 844 East Charleston Road, on the Palo Alto side of the Mountain View line, the "traitorous eight" set up Fairchild Semiconductor in November 1957. Robert Noyce conceived the planar integrated circuit here. The building is California Historical Landmark No. 1000, with state and IEEE plaques near the door. It is private, so stay on the sidewalk. See our Fairchild profile.

4. Stanford Research Park

Drive Page Mill Road and Hanover Street to see the research park that Stanford opened in 1951. HP Inc. has its headquarters at 1501 Page Mill Road. Tesla named 3000 Hanover Street its engineering headquarters in 2023. Up Coyote Hill Road at number 3333 sits PARC, where the Alto personal computer appeared in 1973; it is now part of SRI. None of these offer tours.

Museums and visitor centers

5. Computer History Museum, Mountain View

This is the essential stop. The Computer History Museum at 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard holds Revolution, a core exhibit of 19 galleries and about 1,100 objects, plus newer shows on AI chatbots and extended reality. Restored mid-century machines still run for visitors. It opens Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closes on Thanksgiving, December 24 and 25 and January 1. Buy tickets on the museum's site.

6. Google Visitor Experience, Mountain View

A few blocks north, the ground floor of Gradient Canopy at 2000 North Shoreline Boulevard opened to the public on October 12, 2023. It has a Google Store, a public cafe, an event space and a plaza with art. Entry is free and there are no guided tours. Our Google Visitor Experience guide lists hours and parking.

7. Apple Park Visitor Center, Cupertino

Across from Apple's ring-shaped headquarters, the Apple Park Visitor Center at 10600 North Tantau Avenue works as a public Apple Store with demos and sessions. Apple lists hours of 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The main campus is closed to visitors. It is about 20 to 25 minutes from Palo Alto by car.

8. Intel Museum, Santa Clara

Intel's museum fills the lobby of the Robert Noyce Building at 2200 Mission College Boulevard. It explains how chips are designed and made and traces the company from its 1968 founding. Admission and parking are free and it opens weekdays only, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. See our Intel Museum guide.

9. The Tech Interactive, San Jose

Downtown San Jose's science center at 201 South Market Street lists more than 100 hands-on experiences plus the Bay Area's only IMAX dome theater. General admission is $38 for adults and $28 for children 3 to 17, students and seniors, including one educational IMAX film. It runs on a seasonal calendar, so check the daily schedule.

Labs you can tour

10. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Stanford runs SLAC for the U.S. Department of Energy at 2575 Sand Hill Road. Its two-mile linear accelerator has run since 1966. Free public tours of about 90 minutes are open to ages 12 and up and usually run on the last two Fridays of the month. Register early on SLAC's tour page. NASA Ames next to Moffett Field offers no public tours.

Seen from the curb

11. Shockley Semiconductor site, Mountain View

At 391 San Antonio Road, the first silicon device company in the valley opened in 1956. The original building is gone. An outdoor monument with an IEEE Milestone plaque, an information panel and sculptures of early semiconductor devices stands there now, open at any hour.

12. Sand Hill Road

The venture capital strip along Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park has no visitor center, but a slow drive past the low-rise offices of firms like Sequoia Capital at 2800 is a rite of passage for startup fans. Our Sand Hill Road guide lists who sits where.

13. Meta's sign on Hacker Way

At Meta's Menlo Park headquarters, the large sign at the Hacker Way entrance replaced Facebook's thumbs-up sign in October 2021, when the company renamed itself. The campus is closed to the public, so the sign is as close as visitors get. Use the sidewalk and do not block the driveway.

The aerospace side of the valley

Before chips, the valley built airships and aircraft. Two museums cover that story.

14. Moffett Field Museum

Inside the gates of Moffett Field in Mountain View, this small museum covers the base, its giant airship hangars and NASA Ames. It opens Wednesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Adults pay $10. Adults must show a Real ID compliant license, a state ID or a passport at the gate. Hangar One looms nearby. See our Moffett Field Museum guide.

15. Hiller Aviation Museum

At the San Carlos Airport, 601 Skyway Road, this museum was founded by helicopter pioneer Stanley Hiller Jr. and opened in June 1998. It opens daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is about $22 to $23 for adults and $14 to $15 for seniors and youth, depending on whether you buy online or at the door. See our Hiller Aviation Museum guide.

Planning a tech day

• Wednesday to Friday is best. The Computer History Museum is closed Monday and Tuesday and the Intel Museum is closed on weekends.
• Group by area. Pair the Computer History Museum and Google, which are a few blocks apart. Pair Apple and Intel on a South Bay afternoon.
• Expect exteriors. The HP Garage, Fairchild, PARC and the corporate headquarters are private.
• Book SLAC early. Tour spots are limited.

If you would rather have a guide handle the driving, browse Silicon Valley tours. Most cover the outside of the big campuses and stop at a visitor center or two.

Frequently asked questions