If you decide to come to Stanford for your residency training, you will live in one of the most beautiful and diverse areas of the world. A typical weekend might include hiking in the Marin headlands, shopping for produce at a local farmers’ market, or dining in San Francisco. A mecca for innovative and diverse cuisine, the city offers everything from tasty dim sum in Chinatown to the best burrito of your life in the Mission or a Burmese tea leaf salad in the Richmond. The Bay Area also boasts a variety of venues for music, art, and theater: catch a concert at Bill Graham or Shoreline Amphitheater, or enjoy world class art at the SF MOMA, the Legion of Honor, or the Asian Art Museum. If wine tasting is your thing, consider taking a day trip to Sonoma or Napa to enjoy the rolling hills of wine country. For the outdoors folk, Tahoe and Yosemite are just a 3-4 hour drive away and offer stunning hiking, skiing, and climbing right at your fingertips.

Closer to home, Stanford University offers a plethora of recreational activities. The campus houses one million gross feet of indoor athletic facilities including 4 pools, 33 tennis courts, 3 fitness centers and a championship golf course. Frost Amphitheater and Bing Concert Hall, which are both walking distance from the hospital, host wonderful concerts with artists from the 2024 line-up ranging from Fred Again to Van Morrison. The Cantor Art Museum on campus is free to all and showcases beautiful Rodin sculptures in an outdoor garden. Right near campus, the well known Dish Trail attracts bikers, runners, and walkers. Residents host everything from game nights to pool parties to potluck dinners and casino nights.

No matter your interests, we are confident that the Bay Area has something for you!

Where do residents live?

The majority of residents live in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Redwood City or Mountain View. A handful of residents commute down from San Francisco or up from the Sunnyvale area. 

Can residents afford to live in the Bay Area?

Although you pay a premium to live in the Bay Area, you live in paradise. The Bay Area is one of the most expensive areas to live in the country (on par with New York & Boston), but the Stanford resident compensation package is adjusted to help cover the extra cost of living in such an expensive area. All residents have a safe living situation!

How do residents commute to the hospital?

There are many options! Some residents bike or drive to the hospital, some take Cal-Train, and others live close enough to walk to work! Having a car is definitely recommended for the commute to some of our other rotation sites including the Palo Alto VA, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and the Redwood City Outpatient Surgical Center