Hotel Information
The conference will be held at the Fess Parker DoubleTree Resort in downtown Santa Barbara. The mission-style resort is located right on the beach front and within walking distance of the vibrant Santa Barbara downtown.
The negotiated CoNEXT room rate is $179/night (for doubles/singles) plus taxes. When booking the hotel use group code CNX. The cutoff date for making hotel reservations is November 9, 2013 (same as early conference registration). After the cutoff date the negotiated rate cannot be guaranteed. The hotel has a 72 hour cancellation policy.
Transportation
There are a number of ways to get to Santa Barbara. This section lists a few of them.
One of the easiest ways to get to Santa Barbara is fly into the local airport (SBA). The airport is approximately 12 miles from the conference hotel. And while the SBA airport is fairly small, it does have good connections to a number of major hubs including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Phoenix.
From the airport to the conference hotel, there are a number of options. The best option is likely to arrange transportation on Fess Parker's free shuttle. You can call the hotel before your arrival and provide them with your flight information. The shuttle will be waiting outside the terminal.
Taxis will cost approximately $40-45.
Another option is to fly to Los Angeles (LAX) (map) or Burbank Airport (map) and reach Santa Barbara by ground transportation. It is approximately 90 miles between LAX/Burbank and Santa Barbara. The drive takes between 1.5 to 3 hours depending on traffic conditions (which can be some of the worst in the US). In addition to renting a car and making the drive yourself, you can use the Santa Barbara Airbus, a bus that goes between LAX and several locations in Santa Barbara. It takes approximately 2.5-3 hours, and is $88 round-trip. The "Santa Barbara" stop is just a couple of blocks (map) from the conference venue.
For those interested in a longer and more scenic drive, Santa Barbara is roughly 340 miles from San Francisco (SFO) along the historic US Route-1 (map).
For additional local information and recommendations, email Kevin Almeroth.