San Jose

San Jose

San Jose is Silicon Valley's anchor city, much bigger than San Francisco by population, and culturally underrated because everyone drives through it on the way somewhere else. The Vietnamese food scene (especially in Little Saigon) is one of the best in the country. The weather is impossibly mild, the Santa Cruz Mountains rise to the west, and the tech money funds a genuinely excellent restaurant scene.

Albany

Albany is one of the oldest chartered cities in America (1686), with the New York state capitol building wearing every architectural style from Romanesque to Victorian on different sides. The Hudson River and the surrounding Adirondacks and Berkshires give it a serious nature backbone. Five colleges feed in young energy, and Lark Street is the local main drag for food and bars. Quieter than its neighbors, and full of layers.