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Directions To/From AIM

AIM is located near Palo Alto's California Avenue district. AIM is in the same building as the Palo Alto Fry's Electronics store, offering plentiful parking. Additionally, AIM is within walking distance of the California Avenue Train station, allowing for public transportation. See below for specific directions for getting to and from AIM and popular destinations.

Directions and Suggestions
of Workshop Participants

  • From California Ave. Caltrain: Walk 4 blocks south along Park Ave. The Fry's parking lot is on your right. The AIM entrance is 50 yards west of the Fry's main entrance.
  • Freeway:AIM is accessible from two major freeways, 101 and 280.
    • From 101:Take the Oregon Expressway exit in Palo Alto. (This exit is south of the University Avenue exit and north of the San Antonio Rd. exit. It is the same exit as Embarcadero, but opt for Oregon Expressway.) Follow the Oregon Expressway (west is the only direction it runs from 101) to El Camino. Turn left (south) on El Camino. Two blocks later turn left on Portage Avenue. (There is a light at Portage and El Camino.) After 1 block park or else proceed into the the parking lot for Fry's Electronics. Our entrance is located about 50 yards west (towards El Camino) of the main entrance to Fry's. The number over AIM's door is 360; the door has a sign on it for American Institute of Mathematics.
    • From 280:Take the Page Mill exit. Follow Page Mill to El Camino. Turn right on El Camino. After 2 blocks, turn left on Portage Avenue. The rest of the directions are as above.
  • Airports: Both the San Francisco (SFO) and San José (SJC) airports are easily accessible from AIM. For those needing timely transport, airport shuttles are recommended. For arrival at SFO, we recommend VIP Shuttle, 800-235-8847 (call at least 24 hours in advance and you can make reservation for the return at the same time). A reservation with credit card is required. VIP also serves SJC. There are a variety of other shuttles at SJC and SFO that are usually available on arrival, but reserving in advance reduces the rate (and saves time at SFO).

    Additionally, both private car and public transit are viable alternate methods for travel between the airport and AIM. See below for specific airline details.

    • SFO (San Francisco) to AIM:
      • Car: Take 101 South, follow highway directions.
      • Train: There is a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station at the International terminal. Take the BART from train from SFO to the Milbrae station. These trains run every 20 minutes. At the Milbrae station transfer to Caltrain southbound, and get off at the California Avenue station. See the information above detailing how to get to AIM from this station.
      • Shuttle: 
        Upon Arrival: 
Claim your luggage on the lower level. If you have reserved with VIP, call them at 800-235-8847 
and they will direct you to your shuttle.  
Otherwise, proceed to the upper level and outside to the outer curb. 
Follow the blue SuperShuttle signs to the uniformed Airport Guest Coordinators in blue jackets.
They will arrange SuperShuttle transportation to your destination.


Whichever shuttle you decide to go with, you should give the driver the following information to
get to the hotel. 

From: San Francisco International         To: Creekside Inn
                                          3400 El Camino Real
                                          Palo Alto, CA 94306
Distance: 22.52 miles
Total Estimated Time: 25 minutes

Driving Directions Distance
1. Start out going East on DOMESTIC TERMINAL toward AIRPORT EXIT. 0.09 Miles
2. Turn LEFT onto AIRPORT EXIT. 0.19 Miles
3. Merge onto US-101 S toward SAN JOSE. 19.38 Miles
4. Take the EMBARCADERO RD/OREGON EXPWY exit. 0.16 Miles
5. Take the EMBARCADERO RD EAST/OREGON EXPWY ramp. 0.17 Miles
6. Take the OREGON EXPWY ramp toward SAN JOSE. 0.07 Miles
7. Take the OREGON EXPWY ramp. 0.11 Miles
8. Merge onto CR-G3. 1.92 Miles
9. Turn LEFT onto EL CAMINO REAL/CA-82. 0.42 Miles
    • SJC (San José) to AIM:
      • Car: Take 101 North, follow highway directions.
      • Train: Take the Airport Flyer (Route 10) bus to the Santa Clara CalTrain station. Take Caltrain North to the California Avenue station, and get off. Follow the directions found above to see how to reach AIM from this station. Also, check the Caltrain schedule ahead of time to see if there are available trains for your time of travel.
      • Shuttle: 
        Upon Arrival: 
If you have reserved with VIP, call them at 800-235-8847 and they will direct you to your shuttle.  
Otherwise, follow direction to the shuttles.

Whichever shuttle you decide to go with, you should give the driver the following information to
get to the hotel. 

From: San José     To: Creekside Inn
                                          3400 El Camino Real
                                          Palo Alto, CA 94306

Total Estimated Time:			  Total Distance: 15.36 miles
              17 minutes

Driving Directions:
1:   Turn LEFT onto GUADALUPE PKWY/ CA-87 N.   0.40 miles
2:  Merge onto US-101 N toward SAN FRANCISCO. 11.83 miles
3:  Take the EMBARCADERO RD/ OREGON EXPWY exit. 0.14 miles
4:  Take the OREGON EXPWY ramp. 0.19 miles
5:  Merge onto OREGON EXPWY. 2.10 miles
6:  Turn LEFT onto EL CAMINO REAL/ CA-82. 0.24 miles
7:  Turn LEFT onto PORTAGE AVE. 0.12 miles
  • MSRI:

    Directions from AIM to MSRI

    Note: these directions are somewhat out-of-date. Look at the `MSRI to AIM' directions below and consider following them in reverse. Let us know if you are successful.

    Catch the Caltrain from the California Ave station. There are two directions, and you want the one heading for San Francisco. Tickets can be bought from machines on the platform (cash or credit card) and as of April 2003 the cost is $9 round-trip. Get a ticket to the zone marked SF. For maps and schedules, see http://www.caltrain.com.

    Take the train to the San Francisco station (last one on the line). Outside the station is a MUNI platform (tickets from the machine outside the Caltrain station, or the driver of the metro (exact change neeed), cost one dollar for one way as of April 2003). Take route N, also called the Judah line. The final destination for this train is Ocean Beach. For a map of the metro system see http://www.transitinfo.org/cgi-bin/zoom/MU/metro.

    Take this metro to Embarcadero. (Note that the two stations before Embarcadero also have Embarcadero in their names, but these are not the ones you want!).

    At Embarcadero station follow signs to BART trains. (For information on BART see http://www.bart.gov/index.asp). Buy a BART ticket to the Downtown Berkeley stop ($2.75 one way as of April 2003, again exact change is needed at the machines). Descend to the Bart lines. At certain times of the day trains run on the Richmond-Daly City line. If this is the case, take a train bound for Richmond and it will stop at Downtown Berkeley.

    If the Richmond train is not running, take the train bound for Pittsburg/Bay Point and get off at MacArthur. Change to a train bound for Richmond and it will take you to Downtown Berkeley.

    On exiting the BART station in Berkeley head towards the Berkeley campus on Center Street. Once on campus, check a campus map or ask directions to the Hearst Mining Circle (about a 10 minute walk).

    From the Mining Circle, take the Hill Shuttle (H Line) (50 cents as of April 2003; runs between about 7am and 7pm, every 15 minutes or half an hour, depending on the time of day) For schedule check http://public-safety.berkeley.edu/p&t/hline.html. MSRI is at the very top of the hill and is the last stop before the bus turns round to come back down.

    Directions from MSRI to AIM

    Follow the directions above in reverse, with the additional notes: From MSRI take the Hill Shuttle down to the Hearst Mining Circle. Walk towards downtown Berkeley. The BART station is at Shattuck and Center Street.

    If the direct BART train to San Francisco is running, you'll find a train headed for Millbrae.

    Get off the train and you're right beside the Caltrain station.

    Take the Caltrain to the California Ave stop.