Arboretum Rd, Palo Alto

Arboretum Road, while not a residential street so much as a connector of two major locations, is classic Palo Alto in that it is well-maintained, attractive, somewhat ritzy and central to two major Palo Alto locations - Stanford Shopping Center, and Foster Field (aka Stanford Stadium). The former is a lovely outdoor mall, and Arboretum runs right through. The latter is the site of the Stanford Football games, classic for western Palo Alto.

The cell phone reception here is just fine, traffic is average (it is Palo Alto, after all), and the whole area is quite ritzy. While it is college-friendly, it is surprisingly filled with high-end shops, which could be indicative of the type of audience that Stanford draws in - affluent students from affluent families all over the world. But if you don't mind a little bit of traffic and a few upturned noses, the drive on this aptly-named street is quite lovely.