Garden Court Hotel Concierge

Here are our recommendations for exploring Palo Alto and the Peninsula.

Local Restaurants
Il Fornaio
Spago

Palo Alto Resources
Stanford Theatre
Stanford Shopping Center
Palo Alto On Line
Gamble Garden Center
City of Palo Alto - Arts & Culture
Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce
City of Palo Alto (Municipal Web Site)

Local Resources
Stanford University
Stanford Linear Accelerator
Stanford Lively Arts
Cantor Center for Visual Arts
Sunset Magazine
Allied Arts Guild
Filoli Center
Golf
NASA Ames Research Center
Intel Museum
Tech Museum of Innovation
Shoreline Amphitheater

Regional Resources
California Wine Country
Transportation
Weather

Local Restaurants

We will immediately tell you our favorite restaurants, and I'm sure the Zagat Survey will agree. In addition, here is an exhaustive guide to restaurants by cuisine.

Il Fornaio, Palo Alto is located on the hotel property and is our restraunt for room service and catering our special events.

We have a terrific partnership with Wolfgang Puck's Spago. Ask about our specials, pairing a dinner at Spago and a night's stay at the Garden Court Hotel.

Palo Alto Resources

Stanford Theater is our local movie palace. The Packards refurbished the Grande Dame of Palo Alto, and made it possible to see 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's movie stars larger than life. On weekends, they've been known to raise the Mighty Wurlitzer organ before the curtain goes up!

Stanford Shopping Center is THE place to shop. We are ready to chauffeur you to the entrance and give you the day to enjoy La Belle's Saloon, shop till you drop, or we'll wait while you run in to pick something up. At any rate, we'll bring you home to a Jacuzzi, fireplace, snuggly robes and a glass of tawny port.

In the mood for some live music or a theatrical adventure? Palo Alto Online is your source for local entertainment.

Take a stroll through the tranquil grounds of the Gamble Garden Center, a restored historic estate in Palo Alto with formal and demonstration gardens. Free admission daily during daylight hours. Distance 1.5 miles.

City of Palo Alto - Arts & Culture
This site is the official guide to all of Palo Alto's theatre and performing arts activities. Information on the Children's Theatre, West Bay Opera, Palo Alto Players and TheatreWorks is highlighted, as well as listings for art exhibits and the current activities of the local art commission. A must-see site to learn more about the arts in Palo Alto.

Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce contains valuable information for local residents as well as tourists.

Local Resources

Visit Stanford University's home site for links to everything Stanford.
It's a long, long walk all the way around the Stanford Campus. Why not just take the Stanford Picture Tour? For athletics information, please see Stanford Sports.

Not only is the Stanford Linear Accelerator the premier home of particle physics research, hosting projects that resulted in three Nobel Prizes, it's a building that's 2 miles long. Drop in on their Visitor Center, in person or on the web. Call in advance for a tour. Distance (to their front door) 1.9 miles.

Stanford Lively Arts, the performing arts series of which the Garden Court is a proud supporter, continues through early May at Stanford University.

The art museum at Stanford reopened in January 1999 as the Cantor Center for Visual Arts after a 10-year renovation occasioned by the Loma Prieta earthquake. The extensive collections include the Rodin Sculpture Garden, which you can also visit in a virtual tour. Distance 1.3 miles.

If you're a home gardener, visit Sunset Magazine's display gardens at the headquarters of their magazine. Here they plant for different regions in the west and test their new gardening projects. Distance 0.8 miles. Click on Sunset's Garden.

The Allied Arts Guild is a charming complex of shops and galleries in a lovely garden setting in nearby Menlo Park. A nice short afternoon excursion. Distance 1.6 miles

The Filoli Center, a magnificent estate and formal gardens in Woodside, is a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Visit the spectacular gardens in person from mid-February through October (Tues-Sat, arrive before 2pm), or pay Filoli a virtual visit year-round. Distance 11 miles.

Golf-- Relax and unwind on the courses of two nearby Golfing facilities. Both courses are located within 10 miles of the Garden Court Hotel. The Shoreline Golf Links in Mountain View, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., is a challenging course that golfers of all ages will enjoy. The Palo Alto Golf Club invites you to play a traditional game along while enjoying its plush surroundings. Contact our concierge desk to arrange tee times during your stay, or call Shoreline Golf Links at (650) 969-2041 or the Palo Alto Golf Club at (650) 856-0881

If you call ahead you can tour Mountain View's NASA Ames Research Center -- a major facility for space technology research. While on the tour, you may experience the world's largest wind tunnel, a flight simulator, and a hangar display of research aircraft. Distance 7.2 miles.

The computer chip is the modern-day equivalent of the wheel. Visit the Intel Museum in Santa Clara to learn how the chip began, and where it's going. Distance: 14 miles.

The Tech Museum of Innovation, in its new orange and blue building, is a centerpiece of San Jose's revitalized downtown. Many hands-on exhibits explain every-day technologies to the science-baffled and electro-wizard alike. Distance: 19 miles.

Located just down the road in nearby Mountain View, Shoreline Amphitheater is host to many popular entertainers

Regional Resources

The California Wine Country continues south from Napa into the Santa Cruz Mountains, Woodside, Los Altos Hills, and Saratoga. Wine tasting is a terrific day outing.

The Front Desk staff at the Garden Court would be pleased to make airport shuttle, taxi, or limousine reservations for your transportation to and from the hotel in advance of your arrival. Please call the hotel at 800-824-9028, or email hotel@gardencourt.com.

Caltrain connects San Francisco, the Peninsula, and San Jose by rail. Find an interactive schedule on their website.