From Apple Park to Googleplex: On a Silicon Valley tech tourism trail
Also drop by: Uber’s global headquarters, a massive swathe of glass and steel, on Third Street, San Francisco. At Menlo Park, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms has established nothing short of a city sprawled across a claimed 1 million square feet of office space. The most impressive, however, is Meta’s latest building—which the company claims houses “the world’s largest open-plan office space." From the outside, an iconic visitor attraction of Silicon Valley is the erstwhile Facebook’s signature address billboard—a big ‘like’ button placed on a blue background that will remind you of the Facebook platform of yore.
Also drop by: A cluster of Amazon offices in the company’s signature colour. It is not the e-commerce firm’s largest, but is still interesting to see on a tech tour. Right down the San Francisco Expressway, you can see the Ames Research Center—one of the biggest research and top-secret work hubs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa).
The Nasa facility is visible from the Expressway itself, if you do not wish to stop by. On most days, expect to see an ensemble of private and little-known aircraft that offer great joy for aviation geeks. While Ames does not have an elaborate visitor experience, do drop by at the Center’s gift shop for one of the best technology and science souvenir destinations around.
The Center also houses a small number of Nasa exhibits that you can see. Take a detour: If you have time, a 40-minute detour to Oakland, California will take you to Ames Research Center’s official visitor experience zone. Located at Nasa’s Chabot Space and Science Center, as a technology and science enthusiast, you will come across one of the best space and science walkthroughs outside of
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