Information for SLAC Visitors

Travel to/from San Francisco International Airport

The San Francisco Airport (SFO) web page is at: http://www.flysfo.com/. The rental car companies are all located at 780 North McDonnell Road, San Francisco (actually next to city of  Millbrae), which you can reach by following the signs for the air train and take the Blue line. The rental car page has some directions and local maps. The relevant direction for going to/from SLAC is the 380 route.    

From SFO to SLAC:  Follow the best route from MapQuest going from 380-west then 280 south. You can check the sub-maps at each junction. Note: once got on 380 west, move to the left lane and go to the exit at end of 380 for San Jose. When getting close to the Sand Hill road exit, you should also see the sign for SLAC. ~100 meters into the Sand Hill Road exit road, there is a branch. Continue on the left branch for Sand Hill East moving to the right lane just under the bridge to make a 270 degree turn to Sand Hill Road east. After two sets of traffic lights in quick succession once off the I280 bridge, the road starts to go down hill. SLAC is at the next set of lights on the right.

From SLAC to SFO:  This is simply the reverse route of above. I280 traffic is normally quite good so that the 25min time estimate is OK for off peak hours. For rush hours you may need at least 45min to1 hour. Also leave some time for rental car return and air-train to terminal. If you are refilling the rental car gas on the way to airport, one convenient way may be to slip off I380 half way to go on the San Bruno Avenue for gas stations then continue East to rental return.

More information on transportation, including direction to San Jose airport, are available from the SLAC Summer Institute travel and directions page. For international travelers, visa information are also available from the SLAC Summer Institute visa page.

Arrival and Orientation at SLAC     

SLAC Main Gate  (it was at least once mistaken by passing driver on the Sand Hill Road as a drive-through fast food outlet)

If you don't have a SLAC badge, you need to go on the left lane (only left lane is open during evenings and weekends) and show  a photo ID (passport, driver's license etc). You will be asked where you are going: e.g. Guest house (building 49), most of ATLAS people have offices in Central Lab Annex (building 84) or Central Lab (building 40) etc. To find out exactly where your SLAC host might be at and phone numbers, check the SLAC ATLAS personnel page. Parking at SLAC is in general free for all, except the disabled space and space labelled Government cars only. In case you are locked out from any building you need to access during the off hours, you can always ask the guards at the Maingate (x2551) to open the doors (they will need to record your ID).

You can find variety of SLAC/Stanford area maps at http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/maps/. Some of the key building locations are tabulated below for the map. There is also a map of the meeting rooms.

The areas inside the radiation fence require regular SLAC badge to enter. For short term visitors, SLAC escort is needed to go in the fenced area (for visiting the accelerator and experiments).

Computing Access

For ATLAS users, please see the US Western Tier-2 web page, in particular the SLAC UNIX users link as a starting point for various SLAC local computing access issues (not limited to UNIX). The SLAC visitor wireless network with DHCP are described at the SLAC wireless network page.

Telephone

Emergency: 9-911  (more detailed emergency instructions)
Internal calls: 4 digit extensions directly 
Local 650 area:  7 digit local code without area code. 
Long distance calls within US: 9-1-aaa-nnnnnnn (area code aaa). 
International calls: 9-011-cc-nnnnnnnnn (country code cc). Most phones do not have international access so that you most likely need to find a SLAC host to dial out.       

Use the phone search to lookup SLAC phone extensions.

Staying at SLAC (Lodging, dining etc.) 

The new SLAC (Stanford) Guest House is immediately to the left (building 49) when you entered the main gate. It has wireless internet access. It is recommended to reserve rooms early as it can get full quickly around major meeting times. In case you cannot reserve a room in the Guest house, the local hotels/motels are mostly located on the El Camino Real.   

The SLAC Cafeteria (Linear Cafe) opens only for breakfast and lunch during week days. In particular, lunch service is only until 1:30pm. For guests in the guest house there is complimentary pastry breakfast during the weekend. There are not many dining places very close by to SLAC. The Quadrus Cafe in the Quadrus complex just opposite to SLAC also only opens for lunch during week days. There is a small Sharon Height shopping center (SLAC is just below the map opposite to Saga Ln.) just diagonally across Sand Hill Road towards the Guest House corner (during working hours you can walk there through a more direct small path behind the Guest house), which is a<10min walk. There is a gas station, banks, an open 24 hours Safeways supermarket (may be useful if you are desperately late for dinner), Deli, bakery and a couple of restaurant (I never tried). There are a few other places for food on Alameda at around 1 mile away. However, if you have a car, there are hundreds of restaurants in downtown Palo Alto, downtown Menlo Park (who shows up in the first page is probably only determined by paying, needs to go over the left side pages to see all restaurants) and along the El Camino Real at ~5 miles away from SLAC.    

There is an ATM cash machine (Stanford Credit Union) in the auditorium lobby (building 43). Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank are at the corner of the Sharon Heights shopping center nearest to SLAC. 

The Stanford campus is worth a visit. There is a free Marguerite shuttle system  at Stanford which has a direct line between SLAC and Stanford campus, and additional lines form Stanford campus to Palo Alto, Stanford shopping center etc. in the full system. There is a page of schedules of individual lines including the SLAC line. Parking is restricted on campus, but it's free after 4pm.   

There are also variety of information (weather/tourism/dining etc.) on the SLAC Summer Institute Local Information page.