Association for Biology Laboratory Education

ABLE 2010 Housing

Accommodations are separate from conference registration, and may be booked as soon as you wish!

Risley Hall

Photo courtesy of The Garden South Park Inn

On Campus

We had a block of rooms reserved in the Risley Hall residence on LeMarchant Street. Risley is the newest residence on campus, but it has only single rooms. Rates are $44 CAD per night, $265 CAD per week. Contact Dalhousie’s Conference Services Summer Accommodations office to book your room. Use the “Individual Accommodations” number, and tell them you’re with the ABLE conference.

June is a popular travel month for the Halifax area. Please book by May 21st to guarantee a room in residence (you can cancel without penalty on 24 hours’ notice). After May 21st, any remaining rooms will be released into the general pool and will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Off Campus – The Garden South Park Inn

We also reserved the Garden South Park Inn for off-campus accommodation. The Inn is about 1.4 km (8/10 mile) walking distance from the Life Sciences Centre (site of the major workshops), and 1 km (3/4 mile) from the Marion McCain Arts and Social Sciences Building (site of the AGM and mini workshops; on the corner of Lemarchant St. and University Ave.). There is regular public transit service between the Inn and campus via Spring Garden Rd./Coburg St. and South Park St./Inglis St./Beaufort Ave. Attendees staying at the Inn will be provided with bus tickets.

The Garden South Park Inn is offering an ABLE conference rate of $103.20 CAD plus taxes (13% HST) per night for any room during the week of the conference, and will extend this rate to ABLE conference attendees who wish to arrive early or stay longer (subject to room availability). Please book directly with the Inn.

Off Campus – Elsewhere

If you prefer to stay somewhere other than Risley Hall or the Garden South Park Inn, there are a number of options on the Halifax peninsula and further afield (select ‘Halifax Metro’ under Search Accommodations –> Region). The four hotels closest to Dalhousie are The Lord Nelson, Cambridge SuitesAtlantica Hotel Halifax, and Best Western Chocolate Lake (sorry, the lake’s not really filled with chocolate – but it’s a nice lake anyway!). The Lord Nelson, Cambridge Suites, and Atlantica Hotel Halifax are all within walking distance (<30 minutes) of campus; The Lord Nelson and Cambridge Suites are also located on convenient bus routes (but the Atlantica isn’t really). The Best Western Chocolate Lake is about 3.2 km (2 mi) from campus; travel by bus is possible but not as fast or convenient as by car or taxi. Any location on or near Spring Garden Rd., Barrington St., or Oxford St. will have easy bus access to campus; other locations may require a car.

Accommodations in Dartmouth may or may not be a reasonably short distance by car to campus, depending on the location (the closer to the harbour, the better). Bedford and Lower Sackville accommodations are probably and definitely, respectively, too far from Dalhousie for convenience.

If you are considering alternate accommodations, contact the conference hosts to give you the inside scoop on the location and relative ease of travel between your prospective hotel and Dalhousie University.