Atherton Coach is the Limo and Car Service that cares. We are on time, precise, detailed and want to make you feel safer and more welcome than at your own wedding ! In 25 years of operation we have been asked to provide service for airports, weddings, funerals, proms, corporate events, tours of the wine country, personal services for the elderly, nights out on the town, and all of the celebrations of life ! Our personalized one on one service has our customers asking for our chauffeurs by name. We cheerfully perform all of these duties for our clients.
We are headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Once we travel twenty miles, time and fuel become a big factor in cost. We service Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Stanford University, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Woodside, Atherton, Redwood City, San Carlos, Belmont, San Mateo, Burlingame and Hillsborough. It is common to travel much greater distances. For example: during the holidays there is a lady who likes to visit her daughter. The daughter lives in Fresno, California. The lady lives in Menlo Park. We take the lady to Fresno and four days later we pick her up in Fresno and return her to Menlo Park. She travels in complete comfort and safety.Many of our clients have children who attend private schools. For example: there is a school in Monterey, California. We pick up the child on the last day of school and return him to his family in Atherton. All of our chauffeurs have twelve years or more experience, have families of their own and understand the responsibility of carrying your child.
Atherton Coach business hours of operation for the vehicles is 24 hours a day. For answering phones in the office it is usually 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. The most valuable commodity in our industry is sleep ! It is very important for your chauffeur to be well rested. Bear in mind that if you need a car at 5:00 am in the morning that your chauffeur is getting out of bed at 3:00 am. We have a regular customer in Palo Alto who normally needs his car at 5:00 am. The chauffeur assigned to that customer is not allowed to work past 6:00 pm on that day. If he does not get his rest he is not alert enough to operate the limousine in safety. So, if you are requesting a car at 9:00 pm the night before a 5:00 am pickup you are not allowing your chauffeur enough time to sleep !
What separates our Limousine and Car Service from all the others ? In Atherton, Menlo Park, Palo Alto Woodside, Portola Valley, Redwood City, from Hillsborough to Los Altos Hills we provide car services on a much higher level than everybody else. The biggest difference is the average level of experience of our chauffeurs being 12 years compared to many chauffeurs we have met in other companies who are mere entry level employees. The recent tragic accident, fire and the loss of five lives on the San Mateo bridge involved a chauffeur with only two months experience. He also did not understand his customers clearly at that critical moment. A chauffeur with poor language skills can turn a routine trip into a nightmare.
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This breathtaking artwork is meant to break the monotony of the look-alike ads you will see before ours ! Every advertisement I have seen in the country shows pictures of the same cars. My thought was a visit to the Louvre is infinitely more appealing than a visit to a used car lot ! Also, it seems that there is a lack of imagination in the limousine industry. The terrific paintings depict a time in America when prosperity and innovation set the trend for the entire world. I prefer to think that the hiring of a chauffeured limousine is to highlight these lofty feelings in the life of every single one of our customers. We wish for this experience to be a treasured memory for the rest of your lives. Don’t forget to bring your cameras !
One of our claims is the finest chauffeurs in the industry. One of our chauffeurs came to this country as a hotel bellman. More than 20 years later he has raised a family, earned his U.S. citizenship, and has represented Atherton Coach for nearly this entire period. We consider him the best in the industry. Our customers agree and frequently ask for him by name. Another one of our chauffeurs comes from a well-established family on the peninsula who earned their way in life in the real-estate and financial fields. The ability to be able to communicate with business professionals is a must considering the demands for time, production, employee needs, to be delicately balanced with the raising of a family. A third chauffeur comes from a retail management background spanning more than 25 years and completely understands the need for good customer relations. In a short period of time our goal is to instill a feeling of confidence that will make you, your 14 year old daughter, and your 92 year old grand-mother feel safer with us than their own wedding. Bravo to you for choosing us ! |
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Dating back to the days of the Roman Coliseum, men have always had a love for violent contact sports. Baseball, certainly the tamest of them always generates the loudest cheers when the teams have a fight ! In Hockey, people go to see the men fight. In Football, men crave to see the violent contact and collisions. In Auto Racing the people sit and watch mindlessly while the cars circle around and around, hoping to see the crash ! Even on the freeways every day, other motorists love to slow down and have a nice long look at the massive auto accidents. Certainly sporting events coat our warlike nature with the thinnest veneer of civilization and with some rules and organization prove to be very exciting and entertaining happenings. Going to and from the game in a big limousine with a fully stocked bar is simply the best way to do it ! Do not forget to reserve your limos for the post season ! |
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For many Rock fans, turning the clock back to the time of more youthful pursuits is an exhilarating experience.. These performances take us all back to,our younger years when words like responsibility and obligation were not in our vocabulary ! Hiring a limousine to go to and from these events is a popular way to go. There are 4 major venues for rock concerts in the bay area. Concord, Oakland, Mountain View and San Jose. The crowds who attend can be loud and boisterous. It is very common for our passengers to drink to add to the spirit and excitement of hearing these rock groups yet again. The best way to make this a perfect event is to agree on where your chauffeur will be with your limousine at the end of the performance and not to drink more liquor than you can hold ! Schedule your limo and enjoy the show ! |
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The two newlyweds eloquently depicted here are celebrating the gateway to the rest of their lives. They probably enjoyed dancing, a fine meal and champagne in addition to the ceremony. Today, the police forces found in most parts of our country have zero tolerance for operating a vehicle under the influence. A client of ours, a very prominent attorney, was apprehended after a night of celebrating at his daughter’s wedding reception. After failing the field sobriety test, his drivers license was revoked. The fine was in the thousands of dollars, and his career was seriously disrupted. He calculated that the cost of this one indiscretion was over two hundred thousand dollars ! After a night on the town, of food, entertainment and merriment a few hundred dollars is a very wise choice compared to nearly ruining a fine career.
Another client went to the wine country with his wife and another couple to enjoy the beautiful countryside and the wonderful ambrosia of flavors of the regional wines. He acquired several cases of wine to take home and savored an excellent culinary experience as well. Over the course of that day he had tasted over a dozen wines. In the Napa Sonoma area the police and sheriff departments are very aware of the tasting habits and the driving habits of the wine enthusiasts. All four passengers were jubilant about the way the day had gone. The driver of the car was so involved and distracted by the pure joy of the moment he didn’t notice that he ran a stop sign. He pulled into the intersection just far enough to feel the rear half of his car get sheared off by a fully-loaded gravel truck. The fine people in the back seat were killed instantly. The deceased couple left five children and twenty-one grandchildren. Most people will agree with me when I say that nothing in life is more important than family. So our advice to our customers is that if there are any alcoholic beverages involved in the festivities to hire a professional driver. We have found in our life experiences that coming up roses is a much better choice than pushing up the daisies ! |
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Ah yes, the airports ! Please understand that the purpose of operating an airport is to collect revenue for the governmental agencies running them – not to serve you ! We provide full limousine service to the airports of the bay area. Oakland airport is the worst. They charge 800.00 for an annual permit to operate a limousine there, picking you up or dropping you off. So expect twice as much to go there compared to SFO or San Jose ! If you have any complaints about inflation consider this. Both San Jose and San Francisco airports have raised their annual fees to limousine operators 600 % in 4 years ! Please understand the unbelievable pressure this puts on us small business owners to cover our own staggering costs ! Getting you to your flights and home again is the easy part ! We tend to show up early, pay close attention to the details and take the trauma out of air travel !
The best and most efficient way to meet you when you arrive at the airport is to utilize your cell phone, pull the limousine right up to the curb and take you to your destination. Meeting you inside the airport with a sign adds significant time to the process and also generates additional parking fees. International arrivals can mean a very long walk to the car. 90% of our customers prefer to be picked up at the curb. The technology of cell phones has changed the every day way of doing business. It is suggested that you turn on your phones immediately when you disembark. We eagerly anticipate seeing your shining faces when you return fresh from your dream vacations ! |
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Nothing is as final as death. When it strikes in any family it is devastating. Your chauffeur doing the driving can only be best served by being completely silent. I do not cope well with absquatulation in the family. The passing of my Grandfather was the darkest day of my life. Mired in crushing grief, I wrote to a client who had a similar Grandfather figure in his own family. His Grandfather often asked about my Grandfather. My Grandfather often asked about him. I told the client of my Grandfathers death and reminded him that having the old man around in his family was the greatest treasure life has to offer. He told me he made it a point to have his children spend plenty of time with the old man. We have compassion for our clients at this terrible time. We understand loss and what strength it takes to go on. You hire us because being consumed by grief and numb from such loss like this can make it very dangerous for you to drive your own car. We will show up in a black suit and a black limousine and just quietly drive. Call us and we will take care of it. |
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Going to the opera or symphony is an exciting night on the town. The great masters like Puccini and Verdi composed sounds with voices that identify the great Opera culture of Europe. It is generally acknowledged the greatest voice ever heard in the Opera halls of the world was that of Enrico Caruso. In 1906 Mt. Vesuvius erupted and buried Naples under four feet of volcanic ash. Caruso’s performances in that great city were canceled. So he was booked on a steamer and arrived in San Francisco to make his much anticipated debut in April. After thundering applause and the stamping feet of approval by the audience, his successful opening was complete. That night at 5:15 in the morning San Francisco and the opera house were destroyed by the great earthquake of 1906. Caruso vowed never to return to San Francisco. The rich tradition of the opera house after it was rebuilt continues to this day. Often a nice meal with wine or champagne highlight this festive evening. The opera and symphony performances are often held during the holiday and rainy seasons. The nutcracker ballet is a particularly popular event during this time. Parking near these events is often impossible. We pick you up at your home, get you to the performance, keep you out of the rain and away from the police. You and your chauffeur have agreed where your pickup will be when the last notes fade away. This tends to go very smoothly. At nights end you say Bravo to the performance and Bravo to Atherton Coach ! Enjoy yourselves ! |
