Information for Participants

Lodging

There are many options available. I have reserved blocks of rooms at the better hotels in town near Stanford. I also list some cheaper places. Below are lists of various hotels available to conference participants, their phone numbers, addresses and distances from the conference site.

CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING THEIR OWN HOTEL RESERVATIONS. Conference registration will be a separate process and will not guarantee you a hotel room.

YOU MUST RESERVE YOUR ROOM BY MAY 31 TO GET THE CONFERENCE RATES!

When making reservations, please indicate that you are with the Computational Economics conference sponsored by Ken Judd at the Hoover Institution. Some combination of those words should get you the conference rates. I have limited number of rooms available at each of these hotels.

The Holiday Inn and the Stanford Terrace are nice walking distances. Stanford is perfectly flat so a half mile is an easy walk. The Stanford Park is the nicest of the hotels, and is not a bad walk. If you stay at the Creekside Inn or Hyatt Rickeys, you might want to have a car. See my comments below on transportation in the area. If you are going to rent a car, then please stay away from campus so that others can stay at the closer hotels.

Official Conference Hotels:

Rooms have been reserved at the following Hotels at special conference rates:

Holiday Inn Palo Alto
625 El Camino Real
(415) 328-2800
(415) 327-7362 (FAX)
$109 (single or double occupancy)
(half-mile from conference site)

Hyatt Rickeys Palo Alto
4219 El Camino Real
(415) 424-0836 (FAX)
(415) 493-8000
$102 (single or double occupancy)
(about five miles south of conference site)

Stanford Park Hotel
100 El Camino Real
(415) 322-1234
$140 (single or double occupancy)
(about a mile from conference site)

Stanford Terrace Inn
531 Stanford Avenue
(415) 857-0333
$94-104 (single or double occupancy)
(half-mile from conference site)

Creekside Inn
3400 El Camino Real
(415) 493-2411
$85-144
(two miles south of conference site)

General Housing Information:

Following is general information on hotels and motels in the Stanford University area. Many of them are cheaper in price and lower in quality.

Best Western
2300 El Camino Real West
Mountain View, CA 94040
Phone: 1-800-785-0005 or 415-962-9912
2 miles from conference site
$125.00 per night

Country Inn Motel
4345 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Phone: 415-948-9154
Fax: 415-949-4190
2.5 miles from conference site
$46.00 per night - queen bed

Cardinal Hotel
235 Hamilton Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Phone: 415-323-5101
Fax: 415-325-6086
2 miles from conference site
$90 per night - standard or two doubles

Dinah's Garden Hotel
4261 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA 94306
Phone: 415-493-2844 or 1-800-227-8220
4 miles from conference site
$145 per night - corporate rate

El Rancho Inn
3901 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA
Phone: 415-493-2760
4 miles from conference site
$65 per night

Hotel California
2431 Ash Street
Palo Alto, CA
Phone: 415-322-7666
2 miles from conference site
$59 per person/ $357 weekly ($51 per day)

Imperial Inn
3945 E1 Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA
Phone: 415-493-3141 or 1-800-900-0524
4 miles from conference site
$42 per night (say you saw ad in Stanford U. Phone Directory) or weekly rate of $245

Menlo Park Inn
1315 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA
Phone: 415-326-7530 or 1-800-327-1315
2 miles from conference site
$95

Travelodge
3255 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA
Phone: 415-493-6340 or 1-800-578-7878
4 miles from conference site
$59 one bed/ $69 for two doubles/$55 or $65

Oak Motel
4279 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA
Phone: 415-493-6644
Fax: 415-493-3593
3 miles from conference site
$50 per person

Red Cottage
1704 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA
Phone: 415-326-9010 or 1-800-324-9010
Fax: 415-326-4002
4 miles from conference site
$70-queen/$80-king

Skyranch Inn
4234 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA
Phone: 415-493-7221 or 1-800-255-4759
Fax: 415-493-0858
3 miles south of conference site
$70 for one bed
Super 8 Motel
3200 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA
Phone: 415-493-9085 or 1-800-800-8000
Fax: 415-493-8405
3 miles from conference site
$65 for single

Townhouse Inn
4164 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA
Phone: 415-493-4492 or 1-800-458-8696
2 miles from conference site
$60 for single

Dorm Rooms:

There will be 40 dorm rooms available on campus. They will cost $43 per night for single occupancy ($31 per person for double).

If you want dorm room application forms sent to you, please tell me by e-mail (judd@hoover.stanford.edu), by phone (415/723-5866) or by fax (415/723-1687).

Transportation

This is suburban California, where the automobile is king and two people in a car is considered a carpool. There is taxi service in Palo Alto, but service is not as quick as one is used to in an urban environment. You cannot go to a street and wave one down; instead you must call ahead and have one sent to pick you up.

Some of the nicer hotels have shuttles which we can use. However, the capacity of this resouce is limited.

There are buses which run up and down El Camino, the major north-south street next to Stanford University. Note that many of the hotels I listed above are on El Camino. The conference site is about a half-mile (about 1 km) from bus stops on El Camino.

Renting a car is not a bad idea. Conventional cab fares from San Francisco ($60)or San Jose ($40) airports are expensive. Once you do a round trip, you have paid for much of a car. There are airport shuttle services available in the $15-$20 range (I will post that information soon). Also, many of you will want to come in on Saturday and spend Sunday sightseeing, something which I highly recommend.

I hope that some of the conference participants rent cars and then help out with the transportation problems. Cars will also be useful on evenings when you will want to sample the local restaurants. However, if you stay at the Holiday Inn, many fine and reasonable restaurants in downtown Palo Alto are within walking distance.

Parking

Parking on campus for the conference will be FREE upon request.

Local Attractions

The San Francisco area is a lovely part of the U.S. Touring San Francisco is itself highly recommended, but there are many others areas nearby of much interest.

The Napa Valley, the premier wine-growing area in the U.S., is about a two-hour drive from Stanford. Many enjoy a day trip to the Napa Valley wineries where one can spend many hours sampling the wines. Most wineries charge only $2-3 for a wine-tasting session which includes 4-6 wines. Some offer tours of their facilities.

Yosemite Valley is my favorite national park. It is about a four hour drive from Stanford.

The weekend after the conference is the Fourth of July weekend. Some areas, such as Yosemite, will be very busy as a result, but others, such as San Francisco, will be no more busy than a normal summer weekend.

The Monterey Aquarium is one of the biggest aquariums in the U.S. It is two hours south of Stanford.

Also, remember that Stanford is in Northern California. Los Angeles, Hollywood, and Disneyland are all about 500 miles (800 km) to the south.