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.

Little Rock

Little Rock is the Arkansas River curving past downtown, the Clinton Presidential Library lit up at night (it's a striking modernist building), and a state capitol modeled directly on the U.S. Capitol. The River Market district is the food and bar center. Pinnacle Mountain on the western edge is a quick hike with a view of the whole valley. It's smaller and friendlier than its reputation.