Palo Alto Getting there & around

Getting there & around

Palo Alto is about 35 miles south of San Francisco and 15 miles north of San Jose. The easiest way to get here from either end of the Peninsula is via CalTrain (800-660-4287, 650-817-1717), which stops in Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Stanford. Departures are every 30 or 60 minutes on weekdays, hourly on Saturday and every two hours on Sunday. San Francisco to Palo Alto takes about an hour and costs $5. Palo Alto to San Jose takes half an hour and costs $3.50. Palo Alto’s CalTrain Station is beside Alma St, just north of University Ave.

Buses arrive at and depart from Palo Alto at the Transit Center, adjacent to the CalTrain station. From Palo Alto, SamTrans (800-660-4287, 650-817-1717; www.samtrans.com) bus 390 runs to the Daly City BART station ($1.50), and bus KX goes to San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal via San Francisco International Airport ($4). Both operate about every half-hour daily.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Agency (VTA; 800-894-9908, 408-321-2300) serves Palo Alto and the Santa Clara Valley. Bus 22 runs from Palo Alto to San Jose ($1.75).

Marguerite (650-723-9362) is Stanford University’s free public shuttle, providing ser- vice from CalTrain’s Palo Alto and California Ave stations to the campus. Trains run about every 15 minutes during the day, and every half-hour between 8pm and midnight.

There’s free two-hour car parking all over town, or you can park all day for $1.50 at CalTrain stations.

Palo Alto Bicycles(650-328-7411; 171 University Ave) rents bicycles at its Bike Station, at the CalTrain depot.