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San Francisco International
Airport
to Stanford Area Transportation
Even if you've made this trip many times, please note that there have been significant
changes between last year and this year!
- Rental Cars – (New airport location!) All of the on-airport rental
cars have been moved to a remote part of the airport (a "convenient central location" in airport-speak);
after collecting your luggage, you must make your way upstairs to the departure level and then up another
level to the "Air Train" blue line, which will take you to the rental car center. (IEEE Travel offers
special discounts with some rental agencies if you will be renting a car for your visit to this area.)
Normal non-rush hour driving time from SFO to Palo Alto is approximately 45 minutes.
- Taxi – (Special Warnings!) The airport taxi stand, on the arrivals
level of the airport, is served ONLY by San Francisco taxis, who are authorized to charge 1.5 times the
meter reading when driving to Palo Alto and vicinity. Beware that the average charge for a one-way trip
to Palo Alto using a San Francisco cab is currently $110 plus tip. If you want to take a taxi to the
Stanford/Palo Alto area, you can save some money by calling one of the Peninsula taxi companies to come
get you (one such possibility is the collection of companies calling themselves Yellow Cab and/or
Computer Cab, which can be reached from the airport by dialing 1-888-512-1234). Using a peninsula-based
taxicab company, a one-way trip to the Stanford area will cost approximately $45–$60 plus tip.
- Shuttle Van – South&East Bay Shuttle (1-800-548-4664)
and SuperShuttle (415-558-8500) are two companies offering door-to-door
service in shared vans. A one-way trip on South&East Bay Shuttle
is $25 for the first person and $8 for each additional person
to the same destination. A one-way trip on Super Shuttle is approximately
$26–31 per person for the Palo Alto / Los Altos / Mountain
View region. While the van is likely to make several stops on
the way, generally the shared shuttle van represents the best
compromise between cost and travel time expended. Shared vans
are dispatched from the center island on the upper level of the
terminal.
- Bus Service – (Cheapest, but most awkward) San Mateo Transit
(Samtrans) operate an express bus, route KX, from the airport to Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto.
There are no special provisions for carrying luggage, so this is unlikely to be a good service for
you if you have significant amounts of luggage. The service makes local stops beginning in Redwood
City, and is scheduled to take just over an hour. One way fare is $1.25, no change provided. Service
is on a schedule (available at
http://www.samtrans.org/schedules.html), approximately every 30 minutes
until 7:15 pm, then hourly at 8 minutes past the hour in the evenings with the last service at 11:08 pm.
At the Stanford shopping center, it is generally possible to transfer to VTA's bus #22 (separate
fare of $1.50 exact change only) which continues down El Camino Real past Stanford University and
most of our recommended hotels. The schedules are not synchronized.
- Caltrain & BART – (New this year, but not on the weekend)
An all-rail trip to Palo Alto is now possible, using Caltrain and a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
train-shuttle now operating from the International Terminal at San Francisco Airport to Caltrain's
Millbrae station. If you arrive at one of the domestic terminals, you must make your way to the upper
level and ride the Air-Train to the International Terminal to access the BART trains. At the BART
station, be careful to board the Millbrae bound shuttle, and not the San Francisco bound train. Note
that there is no Caltrain TRAIN service on Saturday or Sunday this Summer due to major track re-construction
work. The BART shuttle runs approximately every 20 minutes, connecting with Caltrain's service which
runs on a schedule (every 30 minutes during the day, and once per hour during the evening). Caltrain
serves stations at "Palo Alto" (approximately one block from the Westin and Sheraton hotels) and
"California Avenue" (approximately a mile from Dinah's and the Hyatt). With the best possible luck,
this trip will take at least an hour and a quarter. One way fares total approximately $7 (you must buy
separate tickets for the BART shuttle and for Caltrain, in each case from machines before boarding the
trains). Note that there is not a taxi stand at the train station, but there is a local bus center at
the Palo Alto station, from which one may catch the Valley Transit Authority bus #22, which provides
frequent local service on El Camino Real (and stops near all of the hotels in our list). Both Caltrain
stations are also served by Stanford University's Marguerite Bus Service.
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