San Jose Walks & Talks

My family and I went on the Adobe to Adobe tour on July 3^rd with Mike and Hafid and found the tour very informative and interesting. We had a group with wide-​ranging ages – 12 to late 60’s – and our two guides kept the tone friendly and informal while providing a lot of historical and cultural information about the area. While they were very enthusiastic about San Jose, they also included events and information that would be considered negative, so they weren’t just cherry-​picking the positive stories. Half of our group has lived in San Jose for 20 years; the other half are visitors from out of town; both halves learned a lot of new information from Mike and Hafid. The tour lasted just over an hour and went from San Pedro Square to St. James street to First, then south on First to Post street and eventually back to San Pedro Square. I found all of the information interesting, but especially the information about St. James Park. The two guides took turns providing information and neither one used cards or notes of any kind – they knew their stuff. San Jose Walks and Talks is a nonprofit business and currently charges only a nominal fee per person. The tour is more than worth it. I am sure the prices will eventually be raised, but if the tours continue to be this high in quality, they will still be worth the price. I highly recommend this tour to both locals and visitors. At least currently, the company doesn’t have regularly scheduled tours, so be sure to e-​mail or call several days or a couple of weeks in advance to arrange a time for your group.

I went on the downtown tour (Adobe to Adobe) today. Totally worth it! The student tour guides did a terrific job. I’ve lived in downtown San Jose for 13 years. It was great to finally associate familiar names with specific buildings and locations.

I have now used San Jose Walks & Talks tours several times to lead groups of international students on tours. They are fantastic! The guides are very informative of San Jose and most importantly, know how to tailor their information to each group.
The guides are engaging, responsive, and definitely a whole lot of fun! I would highly recommend them to anyone… individuals wanting to learn more about their city, adults, student groups, and international tour groups. Call them today!

My wife and I had an awesome experience on the Adobe-​to-​Adobe walk! The San Jose State students were etnusiastic and informative and it was a very enjoyable hour. As a 63 year old San Jose native I learned a great deal of history on a beautiful Sunday afternoon! Highly recommended!!!

Two tour guides from San Jose Walks & Talks were at the National Night Out party at St. James Park last night — and wow, did they know a lot!
I consider myself to be slightly more knowledgeable than most on downtown San Jose history, but they really knew it. Sure, they had flash cards to help them remember the talking points/​facts, but I felt like my guides knew what they were talking about.
The half-​hour tour took us around St. James Park, down 1^st street, to Post, up Lightston Alley, and back to the park via Market. There were lots of interesting buildings to look at and it was great to hear the story behind them.
I highly recommend San Jose Walks & Talks to anyone who has an interest in the past!

I brought my class on a downtown tour. The tour guide kept the students interested and learning. We heard stories about «old» San Jose, got a personal museum tour, ate giant donuts and learned about a pile of Art. This was a great afternoon: organized, thoughtful and fun. I will schedule another tour.

Had an awesome tour on a beautiful day. Very energetic tour guides who present ancient history of the city in a very interesting way :-)

I like to do walking tours and found out about this one in San Jose so invited some of my friends. It was great learning about some early history of the Spanish settlers from two young student guides who volunteer for this non-​profit kind of like CityWalks in S.F. They know their history! We finished off eating at a restaurant in San Pedro Square in beautiful weather.

A friend and I went on the Adobe-​to-​Adobe walk Saturday, February 16^th, and found it extremely enjoyable and informative. A very good job done by the two students leading the walk. They imparted a lot of very interesting information and made note of anecdotal information offered by some of the participating walkers. Both Hafid and Matt were confident and engaging. I had a nice conversation with both of them, after the walk, and was eager to learn more about future walks. I will definitely be out again and look forward to an expanded portfolio of walking routes.
I live in Redwood City and found it very easy to take Caltrain back and forth, with a short walk to the meeting location.
Thank you for a very nice Saturday outing.

A great education on the early and more recent history of San Jose. The walk lasted just over an hour, with about 15 people and 2 guides. The guides were both local students with both a keen interest in and passion for the local history, and an enthusiasm for sharing what they have leanrt. The walk covered the early history and early Spanish settlers (1776 — De Anza Party), some of the key early figures (eg the fallons), and more recent history including the war memorial and adobe building.
I am looking forward to doing another soon :)
Martin.

Hafid and Matt conducted our Adobe tour and they were both very good guides. I enjoyed it very much and learned many interesting things about San Jose. The tour was so much fun, the time just flew by. Highly recommend it. Looking forward to taking future tours with them.

My wife and I really enjoyed this tour of Downtown San Jose. We took the «Adobe to Adobe» tour, and the guide was Hafid. He was engaging and articulate. It was a great experience. It was one of their first tours and we started with about 10 people. Others kept joining and we had 25 tagging along by the end. It was really a lot of fun. And, it helped us discover San Pedro Square Market. We are typically «Los Gatos Centric» and this was a fun way to see what is happening in San Jose (both historically and now).