Silicon Valley,campus by campus
- Two hours at Stanford — the one campus you can walk into
- An hour at the Googleplex, the Computer History Museum, and the only Apple building open to the public
- Eight hours door to door, from SFO, the peninsula or the South Bay
- Most of the valley is closed to visitors — this is the honest version, driven by someone who knows which gate to stop at
Extra hours $75, agreed before we run them. Two cars for a bigger group — send an inquiry, or text and say “Silicon Valley campuses”.
Quoted on request: Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
Five stops, one valley
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The pins are numbered in the order the day meets them, and the line between them is the driving order — not a walking route.
A plan, not a schedule
A reference itinerary, not a fixed program: change the stops or their order within the hours and the area your quote confirms. Times hold unless the day changes them, and it usually does.
- The SFO curb, or any hotel from Millbrae down to San Jose — all of it in the price
- Most of that stretch is closer to the valley than the airport is; Palo Alto by three quarters of an hour
- San Francisco, the East Bay or Marin: we come, and the booking adds two hours at $75–$140 an hour — one each way, the time the car spends fetching you and going home
- Further out we do not run this day. From Napa you would spend more of it on a freeway than on a campus
- Saturday and Sunday the Cantor opens an hour earlier and so does the day — pickup at eight, back by four
- In up Palm Drive, and out of the car for the rest of the morning
- The Oval — the lawn on every brochure, and bigger than the photographs make it
- Main Quad: sandstone arcades around Memorial Church. The facade is a mosaic and the inside is more of one, in Venetian glass. Free, and shut without notice for a wedding
- Hoover Tower, 285 feet, the thing you navigate the campus by. The lift to the observation deck is ticketed and its hours move with the academic calendar
- The Rodin garden belongs to this hour rather than the next: outdoors, free, never shut, and holding a cast of the Gates of Hell
- Opens eleven on a weekday, ten at a weekend, and dark on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
- On those two days the morning stays outside and the Rodin garden carries the hour on its own
- Inside is free: bronzes cast from Rodin's own moulds, one of the largest gatherings of his work outside Paris
- The Anderson Collection next door is postwar American painting, also free
- Green Library wants an ID past the lobby, so that one is a look at the building
- A full hour, which is what it takes with children
- The Android lawn statues, the coloured bikes, and a walk through Charleston Park
- The visitor store on Landings Drive, on the days it is open
- The buildings are private. The sculptures, the store and the sign are not
- Hangar One is the steel skeleton on the skyline from here — a 1933 airship hangar stripped to its ribs, still one of the largest freestanding structures anywhere. We look rather than drive: the Ames visitor centre closed for good in 2018 and the detour costs half an hour
- Lunch on Castro Street, then the museum four minutes away
- Shut on Mondays and Tuesdays — the closure most likely to hollow out this day
- The Revolution galleries run from the abacus to the machine in your pocket
- The restored mainframes are demonstrated by volunteers on their days rather than on ours
- This stop and the next hold the day's spare half hour — and give it back when the traffic takes it
- Entry is yours, and so is lunch
- The one Apple building the public may enter
- The roof terrace, looking across at the ring
- An augmented-reality model of the ring, on a table
- A store selling a shirt you cannot buy anywhere else
- The ring itself is employees and their guests, and asking at the desk does not change it
- Cupertino back up to SFO is three quarters of an hour at four, and a good deal more at six
- Which is the whole argument for a day that ends when this one does
- Stanford's two hours and the Googleplex hour do not move. They are what you booked
- Sand Hill Road, a specific office, or a campus interview instead of any of the above, on request
One car, one price
Your driver stays with you for the whole block — no re-booking between stops, no waiting for a car in a parking lot, no meter running while you decide.
- A private car and driver for your group alone, for the hours you book
- Door pickup — SFO, the peninsula or the South Bay
- Fuel, tolls, parking and driver hours
- Bottled water; child seats on request
- Stops changed on the day, within the hours and area you booked
- Meals for your party
- Tasting fees, entry and attraction tickets
- A tour guide — the driver drives and waits
- Hours past the listed day — $75–$140 each
- Gratuity is not required or expected
Students, families, business visitors
- Prospective students and their parents
- Engineers on a first trip to California
- Delegations with an afternoon free between meetings
- The classic family day, where one person works in tech and the rest want to see where
- Most of them are already staying on the peninsula, which is why the day is built to start there
- Real meetings, campus interviews or a recruiting visit? We run the tour in the morning and stay for the appointments
- Hours past the eight are $75–$140 each
- The driver waits at whatever gate you are behind
Most campuses are closed
There is no tour inside Google, Apple, Meta or Nvidia — badge only, no exceptions, and anyone promising otherwise is selling you a car park. What this day gives you is two hours inside the one campus that is open, the visitor centre, the museum, the geography, and a driver who does not waste an hour looking for the right entrance.
Which day of the week should we come?
Thursday to Sunday. The Cantor is shut on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the Computer History Museum on Mondays and Tuesdays, so a Tuesday closes both indoor stops at once and a Monday or a Wednesday closes one. The day still runs — Stanford's grounds and the Googleplex have no opening hours — but you would be paying a full day for a day with a hole in it, and we would rather move you than take the money.
We are staying in San Francisco.
Then we add two hours to the booking — one each way. The route and every stop are identical; what changes is that the car spends an hour coming up to you and an hour going back, and that is the car's day whether or not anyone is sitting in it. Anywhere on the peninsula or in the South Bay is in the price as it stands.
Can we go inside Apple Park?
The Visitor Center only — terrace, augmented-reality model, store. The ring itself is employees and their guests.
How much of Stanford can we actually walk into?
The Oval, the Main Quad, Memorial Church, the Rodin garden, the Cantor and the Anderson are all open and all free. Lecture halls, labs and dorms are not, and the libraries want an ID past the lobby. Two hours covers the open half at a walking pace rather than a march.
Why is the Meta sign not on the route?
Because it is in Menlo Park, and going for it costs about forty minutes — most of that driving away from everything else — for a photograph of a sign, since the campus behind it is badge only. Leaving it out is what buys Stanford its second hour and the Googleplex its first. Say the word when you book and we put it back in.
Is Nvidia or Tesla on the route?
Nvidia's Voyager building in Santa Clara and Tesla's Fremont plant can be added; Fremont costs an extra hour each way. Say so when you book.
We have a real meeting in the afternoon.
Then this is a half-day tour plus hourly service. The driver stays, waits outside, and takes you between offices — no re-booking between stops. The block prices are on the hourly car service page.
中文行程？
可以。加微信 yakaainc，中文说明每个园区能看什么、不能进什么，报价按车。上车地点限 SFO、半岛到南湾一带；市区、东湾、马林上车加两小时。
Ready when you are
Tell us the date and the party size and we come back with the car, the hours and a fixed price — usually within the hour, any day of the week.
Ten languages by phone, text or WeChat (yakaainc) — and ask for a driver who speaks yours when you book.