Welcome to Columbia, South Carolina
!!!
Photo by Matt Tischler, Skyline photos, Columbia, SC.
This site contains local information on the campus, downtown,
and areas near the conference center.
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Site
Travel and Lodging
Information
- Location: The conference will be held in the Callcott
Building, home of the Geography Department of USC. The Callcott Building
is located next to the student union on campus, in the downtown area.
Regional
Map Map2
Downtown
Map Callcott
Parking Map
- Air travel: The Columbia Metropolitan airport
(CAE) is ~ 20 minutes away from campus and should serve you well.
Charlotte, the nearest major airline hub, is a 1.5 hour drive from Columbia.
Air transportation details
- Parking at Conference: The easiest parking solution
is to use the hourly visitor's lot across Devine Street from
the conference location (map).
This lot will be open for free parking during the day and evenings on Saturday
and Sunday, but cars should not be left there after 1:00 a.m. Parking
on Thursday and Friday in this lot could cost $0.50 per hour.
The entrance to the hourly visitor's lot is on the upper levels, not
from Bull Street (consult map).
- The conference is during Fall break so congestion should
not be bad, but allow an extra 10 minutes for parking. This
is an urban campus so parking can be a challenge.
- Alternatively, numerous metered parking spaces are located
around Callcott Building that are monitored by the City. Technically,
meters need to be fed on Saturday but not on Sunday. In our experience,
the meters are rarely monitored on Saturday, but we cannot gaurantee that
this will be the practice.
- Lodging:
- This section updates and augments the detailed list of
hotels provided elsewhere: Detailed
List
- Don't wait too long to make reservations.
It's fall break in Columbia, so we thought lodging
would be easy, but some of the hotels have filled already and others are
full on Thursday night which turns out to be a busy night in Cola.
See the map to help interprete locations, but know that Cola is hilly so
terrain (not shown) is a factor. The availability described here refers
to conditions at the time of writing (Sept. 12).
- Hotel List Update (see Map)
- The Inn at USC is the most centrally located
of the hotels and has been recently refurbished. We recommend
it highly, if the price is appropriate for your budget ($116/night).
It is full on Thursday night but had abundant openings for Friday
through Sunday nights. If you are arriving Thursday,
you can book for the weekend and request being added to their waiting list
for Thursday night. If so, you may want to reserve a backup room
elsewhere for Thursday night.
The Clarion Town House is also
close by and provides a somewhat cheaper alternative ($89/night).
The Clarion is largely full Thursday and Friday nights (sorry).
The Holiday Inn The
Holiday Inn is full on Thursday and almost full
on Friday (probably full by the time you read this).
- We have added Claussen's Inn to the list
to provide flexibility; especially for those arriving Thursday. Quality
is very good; plenty of rooms are availability for
the entire period, and the location is excellent. Rooms start at $94
or $109 for doubles. No shuttle service (cabs are easy to find).
Web: Claussensinn.com
Note that Clausen's regular rates are
substantially higher than the corporate rate given above. To get
the corporate rate, call them at 1 800-622-3382 and specify
that this is with the USC geomorphology conference in the Geography Building.
- The Governors House (now a Rodeway
Inn) has plenty of rooms available. They lowered their rates
to $60 plus tax.
- The Hampton Inn has many rooms available
($149). It's a bit further away in the Vista district.
- Columbia Marriott - Full if booking for
Friday and Sat only. Rooms avail only if booking for three nights;
$119 rate may not last.
- Riverside Inn - plenty of rooms available;
Tell them you're part of the Binghamton geomorphology symp for $52 rate.
Otherwise $57. toll-free: 1 866 988-3335
- Local Transportation and Visitors' Information -
General information about the Columbia area can be accessed through the
conference registration web site:
http://ced.sc.edu/geo/
Select 'Columbia Information' at the top of the menu.
If you are driving in regionally, driving directions can be found there.
If you are flying into Columbia (CAE) you have several options
for transportation to the hotels and conference location downtown, including
hotel shuttles, car rental, taxi cab, or (possibly) our student-operated
vans. Hotels that offer an airport shuttle service are noted on
the list of hotels (see above). We will be running vans to and from
the airport during peak periods such as Friday afternoon and Sunday noon
to 1:30 after the conference. Let us know if you want us to try
to coordinate a pickup with your arrival. There could be some delay, but
we will not leave you stranded at the airport during standard
hours if we know ahead of time you will be waiting for
us.
Tentative
Conference Schedule Overview
Friday, October 20
- 12:30 - 5:00 River-walk
field trip
- 7:00 - 8:00 pm Registration: Top of Carolina,
a revolving lounge, Capstone Building.
- 7:00 - 10:00 pm Welcoming ice breaker
, Top of Carolina, Capstone Building.
Saturday, October 21
- 7:00 - 8:30 Continental breakfast,
Callcott Building lower level
- 7:00 - 9:00 Registration,
Callcott Building, main floor lobby
- 8:30 - 5:30 Paper and poster sessions
- details TBA
- 5:30 - 6:45 Wine and
Cheese Reception; Posters
- 7:00 - 10:00 Banquet, Capstone Building downstairs
- 7:45 Keynote Address by Andrew Goudie: Global
warming and f luvial geomorphology
Sunday, October 22
- 8:00 - 8:30 Continental breakfast
- 8:30 - 12:30 Paper sessions - details
TBA
- 12:30 - 2:30 Vans to airport
