SC08 Education Program Hotel Logistics
From SC Education
The hotel that the Education Program participants will be staying is the Austin Omni Southpark. Participants that are accepted in the SC08 Education Program will have their reservations and billing taken care of through the Education Program organization. Some additional aspects about getting to and from various locations are listed here.
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Getting around Austin
Hotel Shuttle
The most cost-effective way to get from the Austin Airport to the Omni SouthPark hotel will be to take the Onmi Airport shuttle. The shuttle is a free service provided by the hotel. Some tips to help you make the most of this option:
- You need to call the hotel once you land to let them know that you would like a pickup. There is a hotel phone bank right next to the baggage claim area that dials the hotel directly.
- When you call the hotel, please make sure that they connect you with guest services where they will take your name and have you specifically on their pickup list.
- When Paul Gray stayed at the hotel in June, the shuttle service left the hotel only on the hour. Road conditions (construction) made the trip approximately 20 minutes for the shuttle to arrive at the airport. This may change by November, so it would be a good idea to simply ask for a pickup ETA when you call.
- The hotel shuttle does not run before 7:00 AM (for your safe travels back home). So if you have an early flight out, you will want to coordinate a cab with the Omni concierge.
Public Transportation
Austin has a great public transportation system. So let me start by offering up the CAPMETRO web site. There is a trip planner feature on the side that is very useful for finding your way around town using public transit. Getting from the Omni to downtown is pretty easy to do. The lowest-friction way to get from the Omni to downtown is to take the Route-27 bus.
To get to the bus stop from the Omni, walk straight out of the front door, cross the street, and continue through the parking lot. You'll come up to a curved street. This is "Freidrich Lane." There is a bus stop for Route 27 on Freidrich Lane on the South side of the road. There are two bus stops located across from each other, make sure that you are on the bus stop on the South side of the road.
Get off of the bus at CONGRESS & 2ND. From there it's a .4-mile over to the Austin Convention Center.
If you "just missed" the bus on Freidrich Lane, there's another bus stop just North around the corner of Woodward street. At the time of this writing, the fare was $1, and the time to get downtown was about 20 minutes.
For a look at the streets in the area, click on the Googl Map of the Omni Southpark region
Catch a Cab
Catching a cab from the Omni to/from Downtown will run you about $25 for a single fare. Catching a cab from the Omni to the Airport (at the time of this writing) was a flat $20 contract fee if you arrange for a pickup from the concierge/front desk. This might increase depending upon gas prices and other influencing factors.
