Nestled in the foothills of the Santa Clara mountains, Saratoga offers small-town coziness and first-class cultural attractions on the western edge of Silicon Valley. This semi-rural community has access to trails and creeks, as well as first-class urban amenities, including world-class restaurants and unique shopping options.

Saratoga has a rich history and went through several name changes based on powerful early settlers, including Campbell’s Gap and McCarthyville. The name Saratoga was finally settled on in 1865 due to similarities between the mineral content of this town’s springs and those in Saratoga, New York. 100 years later, the town incorporated to avoid being annexed to nearby San Jose. Residents rallied around Saratoga’s incorporation slogan “Keep it rural”. Saratoga today maintains its historic charm, with vineyards and orchards dating back to the town’s early settlement.

Saratoga properties are a diverse mix of elegant classicism and innovative designs. Many homes take advantage of mild weather with outdoor pools. Saratoga has long been a highly desirable place to live, ranking high in lists such as CNN/Money’s countdown of America’s top earning towns and Forbes’ piece on America’s most-educated small towns. 

Saratoga is a small town with a highly educated and high earning populace. Many residents have high-tech jobs in Silicon Valley. Most homes belong to couples and families, with Saratoga’s laid-back rural lifestyle making it a perfect place to settle down, while retaining the advantages of big city cultural attractions. The downtown area is packed with shops and restaurants but it moves at a relaxingly calm pace.

Saratoga also has several vineyards and orchards, the best-known of which is Mountain Winery. Mountain Winery is listed as a California Historical Landmark and it appears on the National Register of Historic Places. Its reputation was bolstered by a series of advertisements in which Orson Welles proclaimed “We sell no wine before its time.” Concerts are regularly held in an amphitheater admist the vineyards.

Montalvo Arts Center is a highlight of Saratoga’s cultural scene. Its centerpiece is Villa Montalvo, an Italian Mediterranean Revival mansion snuggled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains. The arts and cultural attractions of Montalvo Arts Center include two theaters, a residency complex for artists and an art gallery. Theater productions are sometimes held on Villa Montalvo’s front lawn. Beautiful gardens on the mansion grounds are open to the public, while trails lead from the mansion to the redwood-dotted hills behind it.

Hakone Gardens are another attraction popular with residents and visitors to Saratoga. Modelled after Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, Hakone Gardens are among the oldest Japanese-style gardens in the western world. Individual attractions include a strolling garden, bamboo garden, Zen garden, tea houses, and a stunning reconstruction of a 19th-century Kyoto tea merchant’s house. These beautiful gardens were used as a filming location for 2005’s Memoirs of a Geisha.