Travel Information
Main FOCS 2007 page

Local Map

Local information
The conference proper will be held at the Renaissance Providence hotel.  The hotel is .1 mile=160 meters from the Providence train station, served by Amtrak and MBTA.  It's a slightly longer walk (.5 miles=800 meters) from Kennedy Plaza, which is served by the RIPTA, Peter Pan and Greyhound bus lines, and is slightly sketchy at night. The tutorials will be held on Saturday at Brown University, which is 1.2 miles=1.9 kilometers from the hotel.  You can walk it (see route on local map) or take a taxi.

Parking Information
Overnight parking is banned on Providence city streets between the hours of 1am-6am. Expect a $15 ticket/fine for this offense. To park legally overnight, you can park at the hotel for $25/day. If the car is not taken in and out of the parking lot, the Providence place mall (about 1 block=80meters away) will cost $22/day and the train station charges
$20/day.

Traveling by plane
The T F Green so-called-International airport is located 9 miles=15 kilometers from Providence. Driving directions from there to the hotel can be found here. With the RIPTA bus lines, going from the T F Green airport to Kennedy Plaza takes about 15 minutes (for $1.50) on bus number 14 Inbound . With a taxi, the same trip takes as little as 10 minutes (for $30-$35). Just how valuable is your time?

The much larger, truly international Boston Logan airport is located 53 miles=85 kilometers from Providence. Driving directions from there to the hotel can be found here and it takes about 1 hour when there is no traffic (which is rare). With the Peter Pan Bonanza bus lines, going from Logan airport to Kennedy Plaza in Providence takes 1 hour and 40 minutes (for $22) according to the official schedule but is sometimes lengthened by traffic. A much cheaper way to get from Logan to Providence is to take the silver line from the airport to South Station and then take MBTA, Amtrak or bus to Providence. See here.

Traveling by train
The train is a great way to travel to FOCS when coming from the Boston area (in fact some of the Brown faculty live in Boston and routinely commute to Providence.). With MBTA, going from Boston South station to the Providence train station takes about 1 hour and 5 minutes (for about $8). For example, as of August 17, there was a Saturday train leaving South station at 6:45am and arriving in Providence at 7:50am, nice and early.
With Amtrak, the same trip takes as little as 40 minutes (for $12-$35). For example, as of August 17 there was a Saturday morning regional train leaving South station at 9:45am and arriving in Providence at 10:25am, thus leading one to miss the first half of Tao's tutorial talk (for that reason, that train is not recommended by the local organizers.)

Taking the train can also be a good choice when coming from other cities in the Northeast. The Providence train station is between Boston and New York on the Boston-New York-Philadephia-Washington DC line. The Southbound trains are usually on time when they go through Providence; not so for the Northbound trains. With Amtrak, going from New York city (for example) to Providence takes about 3 hours (for $60 and up) using Acela express (as of August 17, there was a daily evening train leaving NYC at 7pm and arriving in Providence at 9:49pm on Fridays and at 10:27pm on Saturdays). Note that Amtrak also has trains from Newark international airport to Providence in about 4 hours (for $57 and up).

Traveling by bus
With the Greyhound bus lines, going from New York city (for example) to Providence takes about 5-6 hours (for $25), surely one of the cheapest possibilities! Some regional service to Providence is also provided by the Peter Pan Bonanza bus lines.