Stanford campus has several interesting sites (but maybe not fun?), Cantor museum, Hanna House (Frank Lloyd Wright House), Hoover tower. Great shopping center (Stanford mall) and downtown palo alto are within walking distance. There are some nice parks in the area (foothill park, shoreline), but it would be difficult to reach without a car. Also Beach would be difficult to reach without a car. Shuttles from stanford would take you to Caltrain station (also can walk from stanford) and that is any easy way to visit San Francisco . Its fun and inexpensive to take a ferry boat from SF to Jack London Square in Oakland. Can even take a ferry boat to Marin area.

Whereabouts are you staying in Palo Alto? University Avenue is the main street and is full of restaurants and other businesses. Lots of independent shops and one of the biggest Borders stores in the Bay Area, housed in a historic movie theatre.

Depending on your schedule at Stanford, you could take CalTrain to San Jose. The Palo Alto station is not far from Stanford, and there is a campus shuttle. Get off at San Jose-Diridon station to be near downtown, which is pretty lively. This is also where you get CalTrain to S.F., or a SamTrans (San Mateo County Transit) bus if you're in no rush and want to see every stop light in every city and town along the way.

If you're interested in ancient Egypt, the Rosicrucian Museum is a long walk or a short cab ride from the San Jose station.

http://www.egyptianmuseum.org/

The Sunken Diamond is pretty close to a beach. Catch a Stanford baseball game there. It's right on campus.

Depending on when you'll be in town, swim meets and water polo games are excellent at Stanford.

As for a real beach (sand + water), there's a public bus run by the Santa Clara VTA that runs from downtown San Jose. From Stanford, you'll first have to get to downtown San Jose.

University Ave just north of the railroad tracks from Stanford is full of life. Lots of restaurants, etc.

Uh, just for clarification, there is no beach within walking distance of the Stanford campus or Palo Alto. The Sunken Diamond might be "close to" a beach only in the sense that you can throw a towel down and camp out on it while you watch the game and sun yourself, but there's no body of water there.

The Amtrak/VTA Hwy 17 express bus runs from downtown San Jose to Santa Cruz, where there is a real beach on the ocean, but this is a couple of hours from Palo Alto via Caltrain to the San Jose Diridon station, and then the Amtrak/VTA bus over the mountains on Hwy 17 to SC. Could be done as a day trip, but definitely not a spur of the moment type thing.

There are some good restaurants in PA, and also some very mediocre ones, with similarly high prices. Lytton Street (just a block north of the main drag, University Avenue) has a couple of good ones, Darbar for Indian is quite good, but avoid Janta on the same street. There was a pretty good Thai place further down the street, Bangkok something or other, next to a coffee shop, but it may have closed, unfortunately.

Caltrain north to San Francisco is probably the most worthwhile trip without using a car. You can even get to the beach there via the N-Judah line just outside of the end of the Caltrain line at 4th and King in downtown SF.

The Stanford campus is absolutely beautiful, with many sites to visit within it. It is especially good for art and history lovers. Goldworthy fans would enjoy the "snake" by Goldworthy next to the cantor museum. Also, for day trips from Palo Alto, you can take the Cal train up to San Fransisco, and have fun up there. Stanford also has a free bus service called the Marguerite, which is also eco friendly.

The Stanford Mall has great shopping and there is the Oakville Grocery there that has lots of yummy things to eat. We enjoyed shopping here while we were in the area for a birthday party for an elderly, dear friend. :)

If parks appeal to you, there is great hiking on the uphill (SW) side of Stanford. There is a lake on campus, Lake Lagunita, but it dries up over the summer. Foothills Park is impossible to get to without a car and if the gate is manned, you need to show proof of Palo Alto residency.

If you enjoy shopping, Stanford Shopping Center (the locals don't call it a mall) and University Avenue are your best bets.

If you like books, there are some good libraries on campus and there is a great used/new bookstore called Bell's off University on Emerson. It's a long standing, family run labyrinth of a place.

Palo Alto is on the bay side of the San Francisco Peninsula, so there is no wave action to make sand and beaches. There is a nice wetland walk called Baylands at the bay end of Palo Alto, but I don't know if you can get there by bus. It has marshes and wooden walkways to view the wildlife (mostly water birds) from.

The coastline is beautiful and can be very dramatic and is usually good for tidepooling. The beaches in the area aren't particularly comfortable for swimming since the water is so cold. But there are sandy spots for sunning. Santa Cruz gets a bit less fog than San Francisco in the summer.

For nightlife, most people look to the city, meaning San Francisco. The train is close to campus. Post on the San Francisco forum if you want specific tips to suit your tastes.

Oakville Grocery went out of business a while ago.

Stanford runs shuttles buses between the train stations and the campus as well as around the campus on weekdays all year round. From September - June when school is in session, the buses run at night and on weekends.

Sports on campus run from late August through May. During the summer session, athletes are working out but there are generally no intercollegiate competitions.

Stanford's first home football game this year is August 28 at 6pm.

Bear in mind that the Stanford campus is about a mile from downtown Palo Alto. So you'll need to figure out the shuttles other posters have mentioned, or rent a car or rent a bike. Renting (or borrowing) a bike might be a good idea in any case just for getting around the campus.

University Ave. is the main downtown of Palo Alto and is where most of the good restaurants are. Some that I'd recommend:

Tamarine (Vietnamese)

Osteria (Italian)

Taipan (Chinese)

Evvia (Greek)

St. Michael's Alley (California cuisine)

You could stop by Gelato Classico on Emerson for dessert afterwards, or Red Mango on University for frozen yogurt.