Looking for the best things to do in Palo Alto? The heart of Silicon Valley and home to Stanford University, Palo Alto pairs a gorgeous campus with a lively downtown and beautiful baylands. Locals point to the Stanford campus and its free art museum, the shops and dining of University Avenue, and the trails of the Baylands Nature Preserve.

Things to do in Palo Alto

Stanford University

Wander the stunning campus, climb Hoover Tower for valley views, visit the Cantor Arts Center (free, with a Rodin sculpture garden) and Memorial Church, and hike the Dish loop in the foothills.

University Avenue & California Avenue

Downtown Palo Alto’s University Avenue and the second downtown on California Avenue — restaurants, cafés, bookstores and shops.

Baylands Nature Preserve

One of the largest tracts of undisturbed marshland on the bay — miles of flat trails and boardwalks, superb birding, and big-sky sunsets.

Family & History

The Junior Museum & Zoo, the HP Garage (birthplace of Silicon Valley), and Foothills Nature Preserve.

Things to do in Palo Alto at night

University and California Avenues lead for dining and a relaxed evening, with Stanford events and easy Caltrain access up and down the Peninsula.

Free things to do in Palo Alto

• Wandering the Stanford campus and the free Cantor Arts Center
• Hiking the Dish and the Baylands
• Strolling University Avenue

What Palo Alto locals actually recommend

The best campus spots, quiet Baylands trails, downtown eats — that comes from people who live here. On Neighborhood Nurturers’ Palo Alto community, real neighbors answer “what should I actually do this weekend?” Join your Palo Alto neighbors free →

Fitting it into a day in Palo Alto

The best days here mix the well-known spots with the places only locals frequent. What sets Palo Alto apart is how close everything sits together. Start near the Stanford campus and free Cantor Arts Center, work in one of the spots from this guide, and you are minutes from the Baylands Nature Preserve if you want to keep going. Locals often round out a full day out with a detour to Foothills Nature Preserve or a quieter stop at University Avenue. Because the distances are short, you can improvise as you go rather than lock the whole day down in advance.

More Palo Alto guides

Palo Alto rewards people who dig a little deeper. These related guides map the same neighborhoods from different starting points: Free things to do in Palo Alto, Best restaurants in Palo Alto, undefined Palo Alto — enough to plan a whole day or two.

Get a local’s take

Guides are a starting point; the current, on-the-ground details come from people who live in Palo Alto. Hours shift, favorites change, and residents always know what is genuinely worth it now. Ask Palo Alto neighbors directly or join your town community free to hear from real locals.

The Baylands — the biggest thing in Palo Alto, and the least visited

The Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve covers 1,940 acres and is the largest tract of undisturbed marshland remaining in San Francisco Bay. It holds fifteen miles of flat multi-use trails across tidal and freshwater habitat, and it is free.

It is also considered one of the best birdwatching sites on the West Coast, with important habitat for migratory shorebirds on the Pacific Flyway.

It exists because of a campaign: Lucy Evans, a local schoolteacher and Audubon Society member, fought to preserve the baylands with enough determination to be nicknamed “Baylands Lucy”. The nature centre — known locally as the birdhouse — opened in 1969 and was renamed the Lucy Evans Baylands Nature Interpretive Center in 1978.

Two practical notes: check a tide table before going for the birds — a falling tide brings feeding birds close, a full high tide pushes them out of sight — and bring a layer, because the preserve is flat, open and consistently windier and cooler than the city a couple of miles inland. Full detail in the Baylands guide.

The Junior Museum and Zoo

The Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo is the city’s single most-searched attraction after the shopping centre, and the obvious answer for anyone visiting with children. Check current hours and ticket arrangements directly rather than through a listing — both change, and a wrong figure costs you a morning.

The two downtowns

Palo Alto has two commercial cores, and the reason is historical: the city annexed the neighbouring town of Mayfield in 1925, whose main street ran around what is now California Avenue.

University Avenue is the original core — the densest restaurant strip, with the main Caltrain station at the end of it and the Saturday farmers market, 8am to 12pm, on Gilman Street.

California Avenue — “Cal Ave” — is the quieter second downtown, with its own Caltrain station and the Sunday farmers market, 9am to 1pm.

Walking both in an afternoon is the fastest way to understand the city. They are ten minutes apart and they feel like different towns, because they were.

Stanford Shopping Center

Stanford Shopping Center at 660 Stanford Shopping Center is the most-searched place in Palo Alto by a wide margin — open-air since 1955, 1.32 million square feet, on land leased from Stanford University, with free parking.

Hours: Monday to Saturday 10am to 7pm, Sunday 11am to 6pm. See the full guide.

A day in Palo Alto

Morning: the Baylands. Fifteen miles of trail means you choose your distance; an hour is plenty for a first visit, and early is the calmest and least windy.

Late morning: Cal Ave for coffee and a walk — or the Sunday market if it is Sunday.

Lunch: University Avenue downtown, walking the strip and choosing.

Afternoon: Stanford Shopping Center if you want retail, or the Junior Museum and Zoo with children — remembering the centre shuts at 7pm.

On a Saturday, start at the downtown market at 8am instead. Almost all of this works from the two Caltrain stations without a car.

Being straight about Palo Alto

Palo Alto is not a city with a long list of attractions, and padding one out would not help. It has a nationally significant marshland preserve, two genuinely pleasant commercial streets with real history behind their existence, a large open-air shopping centre, a well-regarded children’s museum and zoo, and Stanford next door.

Treated as that, it makes an excellent and unhurried day. Treated as a sightseeing checklist it will disappoint, because that list does not exist here — and the single most under-visited thing in the city is the 1,940-acre preserve at the end of it.

Palo Alto through the seasons

The Bay Area climate means almost nothing here shuts for the winter, but the seasons still change what is worth doing.

Autumn is frequently the clearest and warmest weather of the year, and the best season for the Baylands as shorebird migration builds.

Winter is mild and green. Both farmers markets run year-round, the Baylands is at its peak for waterfowl, and the marsh is at its most striking after rain — though it is also the coldest and windiest out there.

Spring brings the return migration and long light, and both commercial streets are at their most pleasant to walk.

Summer is the quietest for birds, which is exactly when most people think to visit a nature preserve. The open-air shopping centre is at its best, and the markets are at their fullest.

Getting around

The single most useful fact for a visitor: Palo Alto has two Caltrain stations — one at the top of University Avenue and one serving California Avenue. That is the practical expression of the city having two downtowns, and between them they cover both commercial districts without a car.

Stanford Shopping Center is close enough to the Palo Alto station to reach on foot or with a short ride, and the Baylands is the one destination that genuinely wants a car or a bicycle, being out at the bay end of the city.

Parking downtown is metered, time-limited and competitive at lunch and on weekend evenings. Arriving by train removes the problem, and the shopping centre’s free parking is the exception rather than the rule here.

Frequently asked questions

What are the top things to do in Palo Alto?

Explore the Stanford campus (Hoover Tower, the free Cantor Arts Center and its Rodin garden, Memorial Church, and the Dish trail), stroll University and California Avenues, and walk the Baylands Nature Preserve for birding and sunsets.

What is Palo Alto known for?

Being the heart of Silicon Valley and home to Stanford University — known for the tech industry (the HP Garage is here), the Stanford campus, and an affluent, walkable downtown.

What are free things to do in Palo Alto?

Wandering the Stanford campus and the free Cantor Arts Center, hiking the Dish and the Baylands, and strolling University Avenue are all free.

Is Palo Alto worth visiting?

Yes — for the beautiful Stanford campus and its free art museum, the downtown, and the Baylands trails, it’s a highlight of the Peninsula.