weekender.
Weekend trips from Stanford
Hidden spots near Stanford, day trips and weekend road trips from Stanford in November, scored 1–10 on price, timing and what's happening, with gas, park fees, a campsite or room and food included.
Plan your own trip from Stanford →Local finds near campus
Half Moon Bay & Pescadero
Tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and warm artichoke bread in tiny Pescadero.
Alum Rock Park
California's oldest city park: a canyon of old mineral-spring grottoes right above San José.
Big Basin Redwoods
California's oldest state park, regrowing after the 2020 fire: blackened giants sprouting green.
Day trips
Monterey & Carmel
Sea otters on kelp, 17-Mile Drive and Carmel's fairytale cottages.
Mission Peak
The Bay Area's most-climbed summit and its famous pole; go at sunrise.
San Francisco
Mission burritos and murals, cable cars, the Castro and fog rolling over Twin Peaks.
Mount Umunhum
A summit hike near campus, found in OpenStreetMap.
Sonoma Valley
Bike between family wineries, then picnic on Sonoma's mission plaza.
Santa Cruz
A 1907 boardwalk roller coaster, surfers at Steamer Lane and redwoods ten minutes inland.
Weekend trips
Monterey & Carmel
Sea otters on kelp, 17-Mile Drive and Carmel's fairytale cottages.
Muir Woods & Mount Tam
Old-growth redwoods in a canyon, then the sunset over the fog from Mount Tamalpais.
Bodega Bay & Sonoma Coast
Where Hitchcock filmed The Birds: whale-watching headlands and secret coves.
Big Sur
McWay Falls dropping onto a beach, Bixby Bridge and the purple sand at Pfeiffer Beach.
Pinnacles National Park
Crawl through talus caves with a flashlight while California condors circle above.
Angel Island
A ferry to a car-free island with 360° bay views and the immigration station's poems.
Long weekends
Bishop & the Buttermilks
World-class bouldering, Keough's hot springs and Erick Schat's famous bakery.
Hearst Castle & San Simeon
A newspaper tycoon's hilltop castle with a marble pool, and elephant seals below it.
Palm Springs
Midcentury pool motels, palm oases in Indian Canyons and a rotating tram up the mountain.
Reno (Nevada)
Cheap rooms, Midtown's murals and bars, tubing the Truckee River and Tahoe's east shore 40 minutes away.
Solvang & Los Olivos
A Danish-style village with windmills and aebleskiver, next to Santa Ynez wine country.
Ashland (Oregon)
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Feb–Oct, cheap student rush tickets) in a small town with no sales tax.
Personalize it
Set your budget, how many friends are coming, your car (or no car: train and bus), and what you're into (hiking, beaches, camping, stargazing, food and more), and Weekender re-ranks every trip for you, with a day-by-day plan, directions and campsites.
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