Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California. It is located on the west side of the Santa Clara Valley, directly west of San Jose, in the San Francisco Bay area. The population was 30,318 at the 2007 census.

Located on the western edge of the Silicon Valley, Saratoga is locally known for its suburban small-town feel, wineries, and high-end boutiques. In 2008, CNN/Money ranked Saratoga number 4 in its listing of top-earning towns. Saratoga was also ranked by Forbes in 2009 as one of America's top 20 most educated small towns. In 2010, Bloomberg Businessweek named Saratoga the most expensive suburb in California. Major attractions include Villa Montalvo, Hakone Gardens, and the Mountain Winery.

The European settlement of what is now Saratoga occurred in 1848, when William Campbell (father of Benjamin Campbell, the founder of nearby Campbell, California) constructed a sawmill about 2.5 miles southeast of the present downtown area. An early map noted the area as Campbell's Gap. In 1851, Martin McCarthy, who had leased the mill, built a toll road down to the Santa Clara Valley and founded what is now Saratoga as McCarthysville. The toll gate was located at the present day intersection of Big Basin Way and 3rd St., giving the town its first widely used name: Toll Gate. In 1867 the town received a post office under the name of McCarthysville.

Industry soon sprang up: at its height the town had a furniture factory, grist mill, tannery, and a paper factory. To commemorate this newfound productivity, the town was renamed yet again in 1863, this time as Bank Mills. In the 1850's Jud Caldwell discovered springs which were called Pacific Congress Springs because the water had a mineral content similar to Congress Springs, in Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1865, the town received its final name, Saratoga, after the city in New York. At the same time, a resort hotel called Congress Hall was constructed at the springs, named after the famous resort Congress Hall at Saratoga Springs, New York. California's Congress Hall attracted tourists to the area until it burned down in 1903.

 

Saratoga then became quietly agricultural, along with much of the rest of the valley. A few vineyards and orchards from this period remain today. After World War II, the town quickly became urbanized, and it incorporated in 1956, mostly to avoid being annexed to San Jose. A slogan during the campaign to incorporate the city of Saratoga was "Keep it rural," according to historian Willys I. Peck. Today the city serves as a bedroom community for upper-middle class Silicon Valley tech workers.