Santa Cruz Mountains/Los Gatos?

Travel Info
Hello. I'm currently flying to this area to interview for a job. I would like your thoughts on the area of Los Gatos. I have never been to this area of California and I'd like to hear anything about the weather, good places to eat, distance from major points of interests, anything you might have to offer would be great!

Travel Tips

As a resident of LG, I'd have to say that for anything, you'd definitely want to hitup downtown. There are plenty of upscaleish stores, restaurants of all cultures, bars of all types. You can go hiking up in the hills, the beach is 25 mins away there are so many things.

Others
Los Gatos is about 5-10 miles south of San Jose, the largest city in northern California. Los Gatos itself is very much a rich city with astronomical real estate prices and tons of fancy boutiques.
Congratualations on your interview, now, don't blow it...:)

Los Gatos is located in the west hills south of San Jose California; despite the fact that it is near the Bay Area and right near San jose, it remains a nice little village. Downdown Los Gatos ("the cats") In Spanish is like Carmel if you have ever been there; it is a cultured town with typical coffee shops and trendy shops like Beverly hills. Los Gatos is an affluent city with more wealthy folks per capita than most; it also has many-many celebrities that live there and a Ferrari dealership, yes, you'll see Farrari's around town on occasion I'd guess as I did.

45 minutes away is Santa Cruz, take hwy 17 west and take the Beach exit or "toward the boardwalk" exit...

Santa Cruz is not your typical California Surf city as there are many identities the city has. The boardwalk area is tourism, cotton Candy and roller coasters; Go north a mile and you find "Steamer lane" where some of the worlds best surfing takes place. Typical waves are 6-8 feet and the experience surfers can be found in rough tide on the 10-15 footers that can reach higher.
There are wet suit and board rental shops all over; I recommend if your going to surf, get lessons from an old guy.
Down town Santa Cruz is....wierd. Downtown Pacific avenue is fun, shops, not typical shops but shops like used record shops, hippie shops, hippie and trendy clothing shops, more chicks with tatoos than a Harley owner.....no dress code and you'll see true to life California hippies (both original 1960's and new fangeld ones), the tie die clothing is all over; coffee shops are pretty cool and one, located one block North of Pacific ave is called "Doc Millers" or something like that, It's an old Victorian converted into a coffee shop; UCSC students often study there and it is not uncommon to see 73 year old men sitting or talking with 20 year old females, rather uncommon in most ares of the state; however, this is Santa Cruz down town and you'll will notice that there is extreme Tolerance and interaction between everyone regardless of "what they are". This is what makes that area unique. There are problems like anyplace and sometimes people party and get out of hand and go to Jail; Santa Cruz PD is tuff, like LAPD, but if you do not screw around and get rowdy, your good to go.
Good luck on your interview, make eye contact, be flexible and remember your personality is more important than any skills you have as skills are taught quicker than behavior. :)
Well..that gut patrick hit it on the spot!! If u do go,go to a restaurant called El Burro...very good!!!
HI, i live about 30 minutes away from los gatos, it is a very pretty kind of mountainy area, downtown los gatos is great, very gorgeous, it gets hot a lot though, not A LOT of rain but they do get a substanital amount, 30 minutes from santa cruz which is about one of the most fun places to go, santa cruz is the beaches, if you are in to sports spartan stadium and sharks hockey are liek 15-30 minutes away, san jose is great for shopping, 1.5 hours from san fransisco
Los Gatos is an upscale community...a very nice area. There are some wonderful wineries in the Santa Cruz area. For more info on Santa Cruz wineries go to http://www.cheers2wine.com/santa-cruz-wi...