Money, housing, furniture, cars and more:
Craigslist: A very well-known website where you’ll find classifieds about… everything! You can an apartment, furniture, a car, bike, and other household supplies.
Stanford Federal Credit Union: A great bank located on Stanford campus. You must be affiliated with Stanford, but they are very good at understanding the needs of those relocated from abroad.
Things to do:
California State Parks: California Parks is the official website for all the State Parks in California. This website will help you to plan your next trip into nature.
Visit California: California travel information including California vacation, California tourism
The Weather Channel: This is a good website to check the weather and temperatures before you embark on an adventure. Be aware of microclimates in the San Francisco Bay Area.
U.S. Geological Survey: This is a website which constantly monitors earthquakes in the California and Nevada region. Check it out, it is amazing how many quakes happen everyday and we just don’t fell them.
Yelp: Great resource to find restaurants, hair salons and other services in your area.
Administration & Bureaucracy:
California Department of Motor Vehicles: DMV will probably one of your first stops, if you plan to drive. This is where you get a driver’s license, registering a car and more.
Transportation:
Bay Area FasTrak: Drive nonstop through Bay Area bridge toll plazas and Express Lanes and have your tolls automatically deducted from a prepaid account. NOTE: You can no longer pay cash on the Golden Gate bridge, more information in provided here.
Public Transit 511.org: This website will tell you how to get from A to B. You can print out bus schedules, check on fares and plan your trips with BART, bus, muni or streetcar.
City Car Share and Zipcars: These two Car-Sharing-Corporations have many locations in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Local News:
KTVU News: Local news channel covering the San Francisco Bay Area. Mobile app available too!
SF Gate: Daily newspaper for the greater San Francisco area. Includes global news, regional information, classifieds, and entertainment.
Patch: A great resource for local Palo Alto news. Other local cities can be viewed as well.
Almanac Online: The Almanac Online is the community news and information service for Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley and Woodside, contiguous communities located on the Midpeninsula south of San Francisco.
