Accomodations

The conference hotel will be the Westin Palo Alto, where a shared double room is approximately $100 a night including fees and taxes. On the edge of Stanford's campus, it provides easy access to the conference site and also downtown Palo Alto, with many fine shops and restaurants. Use the registration site to reserve a room.

Travel*

*Including travel by air, driving, parking, and transportation from the hotel to the conference site

For air travel, participants can use either the San Francisco Airport or the San Jose Airport, where they can use either public transportation, airport shuttles, ortaxis to reach Palo Alto. By car, Palo Alto can be accessed via CA 101 or I 280. See below for more detailed information.

General information about driving and airports:

http://www.stanford.edu/search/maps/directions.html

AIRPORT TRANSPORTATION

San FranciscoAirport

Information from the SF airport:

http://www.flysfo.com/transport/services/gt_tsv_search.asp

Public transportation: Take the airport’s Airtrain to the BART Rapid Transit station; take a BART train to the Caltrain station at Millbrae; from the Millbrae station, take the Caltrain SOUTH (toward San Jose) and get off at Palo Alto. The Sheraton is a 5-minute walk from the station. The cost is about $5.

Airport shuttle: The Sheraton recommends Silicon Valley Airporter. You can make a reservation at (408) 482-4415. The cost is about $50 one way.

Taxi: The cost is about $80-90 one way.

San Jose Airport

Information from the SJ airport at:

http://www.sjc.org/travelers/ground_trans.html

Public transportation: Take the VTA Airport Flyer bus to the Santa Clara Caltrain station. Take Caltrain NORTH (toward San Francisco) and get off at Palo Alto. The Sheraton is a 5-minute walk from the station. The cost is about $5.

Airport shuttle: The Sheraton recommends Silicon Valley Airporter. You can make a reservation at (408) 482-4415. The cost is about $45 one way.

Taxi: The cost is about $70-75 one way.

DRIVING

Driving directions are available at:

http://www.stanford.edu/search/maps/directions.html

The Sheraton is at 625 El Camino Real (a major north/south thoroughfare) in Palo Alto, very near the Palo Alto Caltrain station.

PARKING

Parking is available at the Sheraton for $9 a day (self parking) or $12 a day (valet parking).

To park on campus, you can either use a meter or buy a parking permit. Parking permits can be purchased for $12 a day from the Parking and Transportation office on campus. There’s a lot of information (including directions and parking maps) at:

http://transportation.stanford.edu/

TRANSPORTATION BETWEEN THE SHERATON AND THE INSTITUTE SITE ON THE STANFORD CAMPUS

From the Sheraton, walk to the Caltrain station (also known as the Palo Alto Transit Center). Take a Marguerite bus (several different routes will bring you to the right place, but to be sure, take the A bus and get off at the Main Quad). For more info, see:

http://transportation.stanford.edu/marguerite/MargueriteShuttle.shtml

THE INSTITUTE SITE

The IWCA SI 2006 will hold most of its events in the Stanford Writing Center and the building in which the SWC is housed: Margaret Jacks Hall, Building 460, on the Main Quad facing the parking oval at the top of Stanford’s famous Palm Drive.

Institute Participants (not yet available)