Milpitas

Milpitas sits at the very bottom of San Francisco Bay, where Santa Clara County runs into Alameda County. It is a city of about 80,000 people with a strong tech base, large Asian American communities and a reputation across the Bay Area for good, affordable food. Most Palo Alto residents know it for one thing: the Great Mall, an outlet center built inside an old car factory.

Milpitas is also the place where VTA light rail meets BART, which makes it a useful transfer point for trips to Fremont and the East Bay. This guide covers how to get there from Palo Alto, the history, the Great Mall, where to eat and the hills behind the city.

Where Milpitas is and how far

Milpitas is in northeastern Santa Clara County. It borders San Jose to the south and west and Fremont to the north. Interstate 880 runs through the flat western half of the city and Interstate 680 runs along the foothills to the east. The highest point, in the southeastern hills, rises to about 1,289 feet.

From downtown Palo Alto it is about 15 miles. The usual drive is Highway 101 south to State Route 237 east, which ends near Interstate 880 at the city's edge. Outside rush hour that takes 20 to 25 minutes. Route 237 is heavily congested at commute times.

Getting there from Palo Alto

Caltrain and light rail

There is no direct train, but the connection is simple. Take Caltrain south to Mountain View, one zone from Palo Alto ($4.00 in October 2026). At Mountain View station, board the VTA Orange Line light rail, which starts there and runs east through Sunnyvale and north San Jose to Milpitas. Get off at Great Mall or Milpitas station, both a short walk from the mall. Allow about an hour each way. Our VTA guide explains fares and Clipper.

The Milpitas transit center

Milpitas station, at East Capitol Avenue and Montague Expressway, is one of the busiest transfer points in the South Bay. The elevated light rail stop opened as Montague station in June 2004 and was renamed Milpitas in December 2019, when a bus plaza and footbridge opened. The underground BART station opened on June 13, 2020 as part of the Silicon Valley BART extension, with a parking garage. BART's Orange and Green lines stop here. Head north for Warm Springs and Fremont or south to Berryessa in San Jose. AC Transit and VTA buses use the plaza.

By car

The Great Mall has acres of free surface parking. Use the Great Mall Parkway or Montague Expressway entrances. The mall gets busy on weekends and during the holiday season, so arrive early.

A short history

Tamien Ohlone people lived here for thousands of years before the Spanish arrived. In 1835 the Mexican government granted Rancho de las Milpitas to the Californio José María Alviso. His adobe house, along with the adobe of his neighbor José Higuera, still stands and these are the oldest buildings in the city. The city bought the Alviso Adobe in 1995 and has been restoring it.

Farmers from the eastern United States and Europe arrived in the 1850s and built a small village along what is now Main Street, the old Midtown district. For a century Milpitas was a rural stop on the road between Oakland and San Jose, surrounded by hayfields, orchards and vegetable farms.

Everything changed in the 1950s. Ford moved its assembly plant from Richmond to Milpitas. Residents incorporated on January 26, 1954 to keep from being absorbed by a fast-growing San Jose. Historian Richard Rothstein's book The Color of Law describes how the new city then used zoning to block housing for the plant's Black workers, a pattern our fair housing history traces in Palo Alto too. Voters rejected annexation to San Jose in 1961. The population grew from about 800 in 1950 to more than 62,000 by 2000 as subdivisions and tech companies replaced the farms.

The Great Mall

The Ford San Jose Assembly Plant, despite its name, stood in Milpitas from 1955 until it closed in 1983. Ford's land development arm and a partner turned the building into the Great Mall of the Bay Area, which opened on September 22, 1994. Because it was built inside a factory, the mall is a single story laid out as an oval racetrack, with neighborhoods along the loop instead of the usual stacked levels. When it opened, the courts were themed on cars, railroads, ships and planes. An oak tree with a plaque in the southwest parking lot marks the site's history.

Simon Property Group has owned the mall since 2007. With about 1.4 million square feet of leasable space, Wikipedia calls it the largest outlet mall in California. Expect outlet versions of department stores and brands, sporting goods, a cinema and a food court near Entrance 4. Our Palo Alto shopping guide covers the very different stores closer to home.

Legoland Discovery Center Bay Area

The mall's family attraction is the Legoland Discovery Center Bay Area, which opened in 2021. Its own site describes two rides, ten Lego play zones and a 4D cinema for children ages 3 to 10. On the day we checked, it listed hours of 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with last entry at 5:30 p.m. Timed tickets sell out on weekends and school holidays, so book Legoland Discovery Center tickets ahead. It is a solid rainy day outing with younger kids.

Games and movies

Dave and Buster's, the arcade and restaurant chain, is one of the mall's anchors, as is a Century movie theater. Our guide to bowling and arcades compares it with other options around Palo Alto.

Food in Milpitas

Food is the other big reason to come. Milpitas has no single downtown. Instead, restaurants cluster in large shopping centers, many anchored by Asian supermarkets, along Calaveras Boulevard, west of Interstate 880 and around the Great Mall. One of the largest, Milpitas Square, is just west of the freeway.

The range is wide: Vietnamese pho and banh mi, Cantonese and Taiwanese restaurants, hot pot, dim sum, Filipino food, Korean barbecue, Indian and Pakistani restaurants, boba shops and bakeries. Supermarket food courts offer quick, inexpensive meals. Restaurants change often, so we name none here. Walk a center, look at what is busy and order. For more on similar food closer to Palo Alto, see our guides to Vietnamese food and hot pot.

Ed R. Levin County Park and the hills

East of Interstate 680 the city climbs into grassy hills. Ed R. Levin County Park, run by Santa Clara County Parks, is the big open space here. Trails lead north and up to Monument Peak, with views over the whole south bay. The park also has a launch area for hang gliders and paragliders. Its dog park is operated by the City of Milpitas, according to the county. Our Ed R. Levin County Park guide covers trails and facilities. Santa Clara County charges $6 a day in most of its parks. Bring water, since the hills are hot and shadeless in summer.

On the bay side, the salt ponds and marshes around Alviso are a short drive west. Our page on Alviso Marina County Park covers the levee trails there.

Why a Palo Alto visitor might go

1. Outlet shopping. The Great Mall has more stores under one roof than anything near Palo Alto.
2. Food. Milpitas offers some of the best value Asian food in the South Bay.
3. Kids. Legoland Discovery Center makes an easy indoor outing.
4. The BART link. Milpitas station is a handy way into Fremont and the East Bay from the Peninsula. See our San Jose day trip for nearby sights.

Frequently asked questions