[mikhailovich]

The only bad area to avoid is East Palo Alto. Just stay away from there and you will be fine. The Stanford campus is quite beautiful. I would recommend you check the towns of Los Gatos, Cupertino, Menlo Park, or Palo Alto itself, for lodging. You may know that entire area is one of the wealthiest in the U.S. With the lone exception of East Palo Alto, which is like a ghetto town.

[rockvillem]

The only bad area to avoid is East Palo Alto. Just stay away from there and you will be fine. The Stanford campus is quite beautiful. I would recommend you check the towns of Los Gatos, Cupertino, Menlo Park, or Palo Alto itself, for lodging. You may know that entire area is one of the wealthiest in the U.S. With the lone exception of East Palo Alto, which is like a ghetto town.

+1 to this advice.

[Disambiguator]

The only bad area to avoid is East Palo Alto. Just stay away from there and you will be fine. The Stanford campus is quite beautiful. I would recommend you check the towns of Los Gatos, Cupertino, Menlo Park, or Palo Alto itself, for lodging. You may know that entire area is one of the wealthiest in the U.S. With the lone exception of East Palo Alto, which is like a ghetto town.

Stay away from East Menlo Park, too.

There are some decent places to stay along El Camino Real in Palo Alto and Mountain View. Be sure to eat at Chef Chu's on the corner of San Antonio and El Camino. If you want the historic perspective, go have lunch and a beer at the Alpine Inn in Portola Valley (Corner of Arastradero and Alpine Road, near the 280 freeway interchange).

[martin_fierro]

There are even efforts afoot to gentrify East Paly!

But agreed, stay away from there if you don't have to be there.

There may be some OK hotels a little further north of there, like San Carlos or San Mateo.

Also: AVOID FRIGGIN' OAKLAND