The Ameswell Hotel Mixer in August
Hotel bars make good mixer rooms. They are built for people who are meeting up, there is usually space to move around, and nobody looks twice at someone arriving on their own. The August night at the Ameswell Hotel gave Mountain View and Peninsula singles a spot closer to home than the San Jose or San Francisco venues.
Mountain View mixers follow the usual Singles Mingle pattern. Guests RSVP free on the site, come in during the three hour window, and spend the evening mingling. There is no program and no pairing up. If you have only ever tried speed dating, this is the opposite approach: no timer, no rotation, just conversation that goes as long as it is good.
Hotels have worked well for Singles Mingle elsewhere too. The Renaissance Hotel in Walnut Creek and the Lafayette Park Hotel in Lafayette have both hosted mixers this year.
Friday, Saturday or Sunday: Picking Your Night
One thing newcomers like to know is how the week is laid out. Across the region, mixers mostly land on weekends, and each day has a slightly different feel.
Friday and Saturday mixers are evening events, usually 6 to 9 PM, 7 to 10 PM or 7:30 to 10:30 PM. They suit people who want to go straight from work or turn the mixer into a full night out.
Sunday mixers run earlier, in the afternoon or early evening, often 3 to 6 PM, 4 to 7 PM or 5 to 8 PM. They are easygoing and good if you would rather be home at a reasonable hour before Monday.
Some nights are age editions, like 35 & Up or 50 & Up, meant for a crowd closer to your stage of life. Most are 21 & Up and open to any single adult. The event page always tells you which kind it is, along with whether entry is free or $10 at the door. Payment, when there is any, happens in person. Nothing is charged online.
Castro Street and the Downtown Transit Center
Mountain View is easy to reach. The downtown transit center, at the north end of Castro Street, is a stop for Caltrain and the end of the line for VTA light rail. That means you can ride in from San Francisco, San Mateo, Sunnyvale or San Jose by train, or from much of the South Bay by light rail.
Castro Street itself is the city's main dining and drinks strip, so it is a natural place to grab a bite before a mixer or keep the conversation going after. Drivers have US 101, Highway 85, Highway 237 and El Camino Real, and Shoreline Boulevard takes you north toward Shoreline Amphitheatre and Shoreline Park. Look up the exact venue address on the event page before heading out, because the city runs all the way north to the bay.
If Mountain View does not have a date that works, neighboring cities usually do. Sunnyvale is one Caltrain stop south and hosted an LGBTQ+ night in July. San Jose has the busiest calendar in the South Bay. And up the Peninsula, San Mateo and San Carlos have held age-edition mixers, listed on the cities page.
