I'm a student at Stanford, my personal recommends:
- Walk around Stanford because it's nice (esp. Quad area). For food, check out the commonly-admired Ike's place, and CoHo is an ok place to sit down and have a sandwich/coffee.
- Consider taking the hike up to the Dish above Stanford. The loop takes about 1 hr. There are two entrances and the road between the south entrance and the dish offers epic views of the entire valley and Stanford. You can sometimes make out SF in the very back.
- Stroll University Ave. main Palo Alto in evening. NOLA restaurant/bar is a fun, unique and distinct looking place to have a few drinks.
- Do yourself a favor and visit the Computer History Museum in Mountain View (I've been 4 times and still want to go). From there, Google main campus is only ~10 minute walk as well, and across the street a movie theatre Cinema Century 16. Downtown Mountain View is also ~30 minute walk and Red Rock Cafe is a nice place to pull out a laptop and hack a bit.
- For transport: there are many ZipCars around Stanford, and also Enterprise car rental (for longer periods) has a branch on Stanford campus.
Can anyone elaborate on PG's comment at the end of the first linked article?
I also skipped San Jose. San Jose calls itself the capital of Silicon Valley, but when people in the Valley use the phrase "the city," they mean San Francisco. San Jose is a dotted line on a map.
He makes it sound like nothing happens there, but if so, why do they claim to be the capital of SV?
While San Jose pales in comparison to San Francisco, as a Bay Area native I've always enjoyed Santana Row, some parts of downtown (near 1st Street) and some of the outskirt cities like Campbell and Los Gatos. The only thing about the South Bay is that since everything is so spread apart, cab/uber rides are a bit pricier than SF.
If you're in town for Startup School, I highly recommend journeying up to SF afterward.
He makes it sound like nothing happens there, but if so, why do they claim to be the capital of SV?
Geographically, San Jose is much closer to the "heart" of the valley -- Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Mountain View and the surrounding areas -- than San Francisco is.
It is also, going strictly by population, the larger of the two cities.
- Walk around Stanford because it's nice (esp. Quad area). For food, check out the commonly-admired Ike's place, and CoHo is an ok place to sit down and have a sandwich/coffee.
- Consider taking the hike up to the Dish above Stanford. The loop takes about 1 hr. There are two entrances and the road between the south entrance and the dish offers epic views of the entire valley and Stanford. You can sometimes make out SF in the very back.
- Stroll University Ave. main Palo Alto in evening. NOLA restaurant/bar is a fun, unique and distinct looking place to have a few drinks.
- Do yourself a favor and visit the Computer History Museum in Mountain View (I've been 4 times and still want to go). From there, Google main campus is only ~10 minute walk as well, and across the street a movie theatre Cinema Century 16. Downtown Mountain View is also ~30 minute walk and Red Rock Cafe is a nice place to pull out a laptop and hack a bit.
- For transport: there are many ZipCars around Stanford, and also Enterprise car rental (for longer periods) has a branch on Stanford campus.