Cities Near Stanford University: Distances, Trains and the Free Shuttle

Stanford isn’t a city. Most of the campus sits in unincorporated Santa Clara County, in a census-designated place called Stanford, and the university’s land, 8,353 acres by Stanford’s count, spreads across seven jurisdictions. Five cities and towns touch it. Here’s how close each nearby city is, whether you can buy a home on campus, and how people get there without a car.

The cities closest to Stanford

Distances are straight-line, from the center of campus to the center of each city. Cities marked “touches Stanford land” include part of Stanford’s acreage, so their nearest edge is right at the campus.

• Palo Alto, 1.3 miles. Touches Stanford land. Santa Clara County, incorporated 1894. Stanford’s medical center, shopping center and research park are inside Palo Alto’s city limits.
• Menlo Park, 1.9 miles. Touches Stanford land. San Mateo County, incorporated 1927, across San Francisquito Creek from Palo Alto.
• Atherton, 2.7 miles. San Mateo County, incorporated 1923. Its Caltrain station closed in 2020.
• East Palo Alto, 3.2 miles. San Mateo County, incorporated 1983. It borders Menlo Park and Palo Alto, not Stanford.
• Los Altos Hills, 4.3 miles. Touches Stanford land, by a single acre. Santa Clara County, incorporated 1956.
• Portola Valley, 4.5 miles. Touches Stanford land; the town’s north side borders Stanford’s Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. San Mateo County, incorporated 1964.
• Woodside, 4.6 miles. Touches Stanford land. San Mateo County, incorporated 1956.
• Redwood City, 5.3 miles. San Mateo County, incorporated 1867. Home to Stanford’s separate 35-acre Redwood City campus, opened in 2019.
• Mountain View, 5.5 miles, and Los Altos, 5.7 miles. Both in Santa Clara County.

Not sure between two of them? Our City Match-Up puts any two side by side with live prices, trains and transfer tax.

Can you buy a home on the Stanford campus?

Not on the open market. Stanford’s faculty and staff housing office says the founders specified that campus land could never be sold. Homes on campus are sold on ground leases, so the buyer owns the house but leases the land, and only eligible faculty and staff can hold those leases. Stanford counts 1,165 ground-leased faculty homes. Some homes carry a restricted lease and can only be sold back to Stanford.

Next to campus, anyone can buy. College Terrace is a Palo Alto neighborhood beside the university, and it isn’t Stanford land. Our guides also cover Southgate and Evergreen Park in Palo Alto, and Sharon Heights and West Menlo Park on the Menlo Park side.

Getting to campus without a car

• Caltrain, Palo Alto station. The main Stanford stop, at 95 University Avenue, next to the Palo Alto Transit Center.
• Caltrain, California Avenue station. Stanford’s CAX shuttle runs from here to Stanford Research Park on weekdays during commute hours, a route added in September 2024.
• Caltrain, Stanford station. Next to the stadium, and trains stop there only for select events.
• The Marguerite shuttle. Stanford’s shuttle is free and open to the public. Most lines run weekdays, except university holidays, from the Palo Alto Transit Center around campus, to the medical center and to the research park. Line S runs along Sand Hill Road during commute hours, Line RWC connects the Redwood City Transit Center, and Line AE-F reaches Fremont BART and the ACE Centerville station. Stanford lists no current line serving East Palo Alto.

Where Stanford ends and the cities begin

Stanford’s land doesn’t follow one set of rules. The medical center, Stanford Shopping Center and Stanford Research Park are in Palo Alto. SLAC, on Sand Hill Road, has a Menlo Park mailing address but sits on Stanford land in unincorporated San Mateo County. The campus core falls under Santa Clara County, which approved Stanford’s General Use Permit in December 2000 and draws an Academic Growth Boundary around the main campus; changing that boundary takes a four-fifths vote of the Board of Supervisors. Stanford filed a new long-term campus plan with the county in September 2026, so watch that process if you’re buying nearby.

See what’s for sale near campus

Our Homes Near Universities & Hospitals page opens on Stanford and shows every home for sale within 1, 2 or 3 miles, live, along with Stanford Hospital, SJSU, Santa Clara University and 28 other campuses. If you’re commuting by train, Homes Near Caltrain does the same for each station.

Moving near Stanford? Call the Boyenga Team at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606. Commissions are negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what’s included.