Stanford Park Hotel

While Silicon Valley might be taking over this corner of California, tech culture hasn’t infiltrated every single house on the block. Case in point: the Stanford Park Hotel. As the name and the red-brick exterior indicate, it’s a hotel with closer ties to the Ivy League than to Facebook, a place where you’ll find rocking chairs on the front porch and old fashioneds served in crystal glasses, not virtual reality rooms and a burrito bar.

The hotel is, indeed, around the corner from Stanford University — a leisurely stroll or a quick bike ride or a three-minute drive, with complimentary bicycles and free parking at the hotel included — and it’s that collegiate air, that dignified sort of elegance, that informs the hotel’s style and character.

The guest rooms, in other words, won’t be winning any awards for cutting-edge style. But they’re spacious and comfortable, smartly designed with large picture windows and working wood-burning fireplaces, stocked with down blankets and microfiber robes, flatscreen HDTVs, artisanal bath products by ROAM, a coffeemaker and a complimentary morning delivery of The Wall Street Journal.

The better to keep you informed before you venture down to the Barista Lounge for espresso, or later, when you belly up to the bar at Menlo Grill Bistro, the Stanford Park’s classy restaurant. Better brush up on the headlines and the content, too. This is the intersection of Stanford and Silicon Valley, after all. You never know who you’ll bump into when you’re wading into the indoor swimming pool or working out in the fitness center, who’s enjoying a steak in one of the bistro’s leather armchairs, who’s sipping a craft cocktail out by the fire pit.