The Tech Museum of Innovation

201 S Market St, San Jose, CA 95113, USA

Address:	201 S Market St, San Jose, CA 95113, USA
Phone:	+1 408-294-8324
Site:	thetech.org
Rating:	4.2
Working:	10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM 10AM–5PM

Location

Photos 1

Reviews 7

Jennifer Chesley

My husband and I along with our 17 year old and 11 year old came here last Sunday afternoon. I ordered our tickets online and they included the exhibits plus I bought tickets to the IMAX show of Dream Big. The cheapest parking lot we could find charged $5 per hour and that on top of our tickets for the IMAX and the museum was about $150 day! Definitely not cheap! We went right into our IMAX showing when we arrived and the theater was amazing! The screen and sound quality were amazing, the seats were very comfortable, it was very clean, and the showing was probably the best part of our experience. Once it was over, we headed up to the third floor to find many different activities to engage in and things to discover, but to be honest this museum is a little too young for our kids. If you have a K-5th grader, thats probably the best age. Some of the activities were broken down and there werent a lot of available staff around to ask if you had even the simplest questions. Overall, its a very nice and clean museum with a good variety of things to do for kids especially for exploring, but there wasnt really anything new and innovative that I have not seen before. The only exception was the virtual reality. There is one where you actually lay face down and get to move around for an extended period, but it costs extra. I tried out the other virtual reality activity they offered for free. Normally, you have to book this in advance however someone didnt show up so I lucked out and they slotted me in. For about five minutes, you get try on the glasses with both hands holding these small controllers. I got to paint and draw and move around using the many different features. The audience can see what your drawing on an elevated screen as your drawing it. It was a pretty amazing experience and that combined with the IMAX show is really what made this a good experience for me. I dont plan on going back unless I want to see something at the IMAX, but I would recommend the museum for parents with younger children.

Shrey Gupta

This is review about watching commercial flicks here. I watched the Dark Knight Rises. There are only two real 70 mm IMAX in Bay Area, the on at AMC Metreon in SF and other is this one. This is a dome shaped though. I realized that the dome version is not meant for seeing a full length featured film. I did not have a good experience. Its great for watching specific scenes like Aerial shots and satellite images etc but it does very bad job for regular scenes in movies where you may have hard time to absorb the whole scene without moving your eyes. For fight scenes shot in closeup it might hard to follow whats happening. And you feel a lot tired after a 2+ hour flick in this setting, sits are not meant for sitting longer than 30-45 minutes. Also, another issue was the dust/lint(?) particles being projected on the screen. They came often and were very distracting. They clear it time and again but you find new ones appearing after some time. Not a good experience.

Helen Mint

Do you want to be an illegal parker? Go to San Jose city, especially this museum. No parking lot for tourister. No guide for parking. Theres one sign saying "Tech museum parking" I followed the sign, I pulled away my car beside a park and behind other car. I paid money throug the machine next to my car. But I ended up to be fined 63 doller for illegal parking.I still dont understand why I violated the red curb as they insist because there are no clues for that. No guide when I am parking, and only after 10 minutes, a fine was put on my wind shield by unknown officer. It is just like a trap of illegal parking for strangers. I cnceled every tour inside the city after that. I made up my mind no t to visit, shop and eat there. San Jose city hall will become richer by tourister, but shop owners and restaurants will lose tourister by this city administration. I myself cherish the law and was confident in keeping the rule. I was angry at the way they fined me.

Brian Gorzelic

I went to see Interstellar on the IMAX and it was ok. You have to keep your neck cocked the whole movie and it is uncomfortable for that long of a duration. My Oakley sunglasses fell at some point during the movie (I had them on when I went in cause we were taking pictures and I was wearing them) after wards I walked out of the theater and realized i did not have on my sunglasses. We sat in the back row and by the time I convinced the employee Josh to let me go look for them they were gone. The only person that could have found them was an employee, as we were the last ones out of the theater. Make sure you dont leave anything behind because they will take it. I even confronted Josh and he said he found nothing when cleaning. I suspect he lied right to my face about them. $200 sunglasses. Stolen.

Andrew Wagner

Super crowded, kids everywhere, and too much going on. If you came here to actually learning about tech instead of screwing around youre better off with a book then spending close to 100$ here for your family to get lost in a childrens playhouse. Unsupervised and loud, they learn nothing because they try to make the things fun and enjoyable, but dont add education. And everything is poorly explained. I had to explain about 1/2 of the stuff to my sister because the information wasnt direct enough. Like doing a connect the dots puzzle with 21-26 missing. You almost have to guess. A childrens destination at best, not actually a museum. If I could trade it 0 stars I would, so the planetarium(?) makes up one star for the show. Poor quality though.

A Private User

I took my son to the tech museum today on his day off of school. This place is way overpriced. It might as well be a bookstore with all the reading you have to do to experience the full benefit of the exhibits. It is not a kids place. Also we paid an extra amount for the star treck museum and while we were walking through some of the best parts the museum had set up a photographer that was making people get out of her way while she took pictures to sell. I paid money to get in there. The rides were separate and of course those were staffed with people but nothing else was staffed, your kids have to read or just figure out how to do something by themselves. Dont waste your time! Sorry Tech Museum, we wont be back anytime soon.

Amanda Martino

Fun place to hang out and spend a couple hours downtown. All the best exhibits are in the basement, so go there first. Head for the jetpack chair to go on a spacewalk, then over to the earthquake simulator to relive one of several different earthquakes from around the world. On the second floor, highlights include the wet lab (if its open) where you can grow your own bacteria, reactable, which lets you mix and match music sounds from around the world, and the roller coaster simulator. Build your own coaster and, if its not too deadly, hop in the simulator to experience your creation. Also, if you scan your ticket at each exhibit, you can go online to download photos and little extras from your visit!