Seriously depends on your age/family situation/what you want out of the town you live in I suppose! Palo Alto is the most sterile, cliched, overpriced of them all and Mountainview is not far behind. One gets tired of tripping over Teslas and listening to overprivileged Stanfordies yakking on about their new app but again, I am having a hard time actually justifying to myself that I am perpetuating ridiculous rents/the tech bubble takeover up in this part of the USA ... so I could be a little over critical.

Los Altos is definitely cute and definitely a bit better, that's true, but you'll struggle to find a beer after 11pm ... Campbell is very nice but I thought it was too far from SFO and is not on the Caltrain line so was not a realistic option.

For sure all of the towns mentioned are clean, safe and have everything you need close by.

Shallow Alto was the term my friend at Stanford used.

California has so many different places/cultures and people I find it amusing when people generalize. California is 20% larger than England, and is the most populous state in the Union.

True, but when you look at liveable areas, California isn't that big. When it comes to employment opportunities, you only really have Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego. You can also mention Sacramento, but after that there isn't much.