The name Silicon Valley came about when the region in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Are in Northern California used to house large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers. Today, the name is synonymous with America’s high-tech sector. Intel, eBay, Apple Inc, Symantec and Yahoo! are some of the familiar names that are located in Silicon Valley!

Computer History Museum

Technophiles, if you’re reading this, the first place you should pay a visit will the Computer History Museum http://www.computerhistory.org. It is the home to the largest international collection of computing artifacts in the world, taking you back from the abacus era to the smartphone era. We are talking about over 2,000 years of infocomm history here!

The HP Garage

Although the HP Garage is not open for public tours, if you come by in small groups, it is not a problem to view and snap pictures of the property from the side of the road. This garage is a historic landmark in California where in 1938, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard developed HP’s very first product. It was a Model 200A audio oscillator – possibly one of the longest active lifetimes for any electronic product lasting 33 years in production!

1 Infinite Loop

If you’re an Apple fan, memorise this address by heart as it is the only Apple store that sells Apple logo shirts, caps and other cool merchandise that you will not be able to buy anywhere else! Well, if are thinking eBay, that’s technically cheating. No way you will deserve to wear one of their t-shirt that says “I Visited The Mother Ship”.

SmugMug

It has been said that SmugMug is probably the friendliest place in Silicon Valley where visitors are welcome to look around their workspace. They have every wall space available covered in gigapixels of photos! If you are lucky enough, they might invite you to race around their office in their go-karts! Watch the video for a sneak peek into their workspace and family-oriented work culture.

The Winchester Mystery House

This may not be Facebook or Google but if you like a good spook with a fee, check out this 160 room-mansion cum maze called The Winchester Mystery House http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/ that was purchased in 1884 by Sarah Winchester who had the place constantly under renovation for 38 years. It was believed that she remodeled the internal architecture constantly to ward of the bad spirit and keeps the good ones in. The coolest way to enjoy this tour is to signup for their special 65-minute Flashlight Tours organized every Friday the 13th and on Halloween. Quick tip is to ensure you don’t stray away from your group and risk being lost in the mansion for hours!

If you have visited Silicon Valley (especially the places I had just listed), share with us your stories! The superheroes would love to hear first-hand experience! Be one of the lucky winners to be sent to Silicon Valley in 2012. For more details, check out this website.