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.

Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach is a three-mile boardwalk, a giant Neptune statue keeping watch, and Atlantic surf that's warm in August and gentle in September. The military presence (Navy and Air Force) gives the city a structured, welcoming feel. False Cape and Back Bay nature areas are wild marshland just south of the high-rises. October on the boardwalk might be the prettiest month on the East Coast.