Local Arrangements
NSF ICER Western Region Workshop
January 27-28, 2006
Palo Alto, CA
NSF has awarded a grant to Stanford University to support the ICER workshop. Each participant’s costs of attending the workshop will either be paid directly, or reimbursed, by Stanford.
Travel, Meals, and Lodging:
The NSF ICER grant to Stanford will reimburse workshop participants for reasonable travel expenses (e.g., coach class).
We will provide a flat stipend of $250 for incidental travel expenses (to include, transport to/from the airport, parking, etc.).
We will pay the hotel directly for your lodging expenses and provide all meals at the workshop (Thursday evening heavy hors d’oeuvres at the reception, and Friday breakfast through Saturday breakfast), and. Renting a car for local transportation in Palo Alto should come out of this stipend.
If you arrange travel through Palo Alto Village Travel, 800-245-3260 or 650-326-0510, Stanford will also pay directly for your ticket. You can also email Marilyn Prout, mprout@pavt.com, who is our main contact for questions on travel arrangements. (Fax: 650-326-0245).
If you make your own travel arrangements, Stanford will reimburse you, but remember that o riginal receipts are required. If you are driving your own car, you will be reimbursed mileage at the standard Stanford rate. We will not reimburse you for renting a car without prior OK from Peche Turner ( peche@cs.stanford.edu); if you need to rent a car for transportation to/from Palo Alto or there are extenuating circumstances, contact Peche
As indicated above, we will pay your hotel expenses directly to the hotel. Palo Alto is pretty much equidistant from two of the Bay Area airports: San Francisco International (SFO) or San Jose (SJC). San Francisco airport has more flights and is often more convenient as a result.
Hotel reservations:
Lodging for the ICER workshop has been arranged for $119 per night plus taxes for the Sheraton Palo Alto Hotel, 625 El Camino Real, near the University Avenue underpass. To reserve a room, please call the Sheraton reservation line at 800-598-1753 or 650-328-2800 or visit the Sheraton Palo Alto website at http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/search/hotel_detail.html?propertyID=214
When you make your reservation, please ask for the ICER 206 room block, which is being held only until Friday, January 13. All participants should call the hotel to reserve their room individually and guarantee the reservation with their own credit card. Before the workshop starts, we will arrange for lodging and taxes to be billed directly to a workshop account. You are responsible for hotel charges such as phone, room service, etc.
Please reserve your room early!
Getting from the Airport to Palo Alto :
From either airport, you can catch the door-to-door shuttle vans run either by the South and East Bay Shuttle or SuperShuttle services. At SFO, the departure points are from the center island on the upper level of each terminals. At SJC, things are more complicated because the departure point depends on which airline you’re using. The best thing to do is follow the signs. If you need to call the shuttle services for any reason, their reservation numbers are
South and EastBay Shuttle 800-548-4664, or SuperShuttle 800-BLUEVAN
From SFO, you can also take BART and Caltrain. The BART station now connects to the airport, and you can take it one stop south to Millbrae. From there, you can take a train south to the University Avenue station in Palo Alto, which is essentially adjacent to the Sheraton. For train times, see the Caltrain web site at http://www.caltrain.com/.
If you’re renting a car, the following driving directions will get you to the Sheraton:
Follow signs leaving either airport for US 101. From SFO, you’ll be heading south; from SJC, you’ll be heading north. Continue on 101 until you come to the exit for University Avenue in Palo Alto. Take this exit and head west, toward the mountains and away from the bay. After going through downtown Palo Alto, you will descend into an underpass that takes you under the Caltrain tracks. Take the first exit you find as you start to climb back up. This puts you on University Circle, and the Sheraton driveway is about halfway around the circle.
Weather:
January is the rainy season in the Bay Area, so you should be prepared for rain. Temperatures will likely be moderate with highs in the mid-50s to the mid-60s. Lows will typically be in the mid-40s, but colder weather is not out of the question.
For questions about local arrangements, contact Peche Turner, at by email at peche@cs.stanford.edu.