Simple Guide

Travel

You can find details of how to travel to Canterbury at https://www.kent.ac.uk/directions/. There are a number of options if you are flying and I'm not convinced the university's page has capture them all.

Rail from London

[For some lines to buy return ticket comes out much cheaper than buying two singles]
By far the nicest, quickest is the high-speed route from London St Pancras to Canterbury West: Trains depart on an hourly basis, journey time 55 minutes.
London Victoria to Canterbury East: journey time approximately 85 minutes.
London (Charing Cross, Waterloo East or London Bridge) to Canterbury West: journey time approximately 90 minutes.

Rail from Paris, Lille or Brussels

From France, take the Eurostar to Ashford International rail station and then the train to Canterbury West, 20 minutes.
From Brussels, take the Eurostar to Ashford International rail station and then the train to Canterbury West, 20 minutes.
If the train doesn’t stop at Ashford, you have to take the Eurostar to Ebbsfleet (so annoying as it passes through Ashford) - or alternatively just go to London, and then take the high-speed train to Canterbury West.

London Heathrow. There are two options:

London Underground to either London Victoria or St Pancras rail station. This route is cheap and almost as fast as the Heathrow Express. It takes one hour from Heathrow to Kings
Cross/St Pancras on the Piccadilly line, with no changes.
Heathrow Express to Paddington rail station, then London Underground (Hammersmith & City line) to St Pancras rail Station. More expensive and not much faster overall. Trains are every 15 minutes, and the journey takes 15 minutes to Paddington, but afterwards there is the underground to St Pancras.

London Gatwick. There are two options:

Train to Victoria (30 mins, Gatwick Express) or St Pancras rail station (48 mins).
You can avoid London, and go via Redhill, Tonbridge and Ashford (cheaper option, but there are some waiting times on some stations).

London Stansted. There are two options:

Train to Tottenham Hale station (30mins), then London Underground to Stratford, walk to Stratford International, and then the train to Canterbury West.
Train to Tottenham Hale station (30mins), then London Underground to St Pancras / Kings Cross (same complex) or Victoria rail station, and then the train to Canterbury.

London Luton (I've not done this by public transport) Train to London St Pancras or London Bridge rail stations (~40 mins).

You can find train times at http://www.nationalrail.co.uk.
You can find bus times at http://www.nationalexpress.com.

Taxi

If you want to avoid public transport, an alternative is to book a taxi (this needs to be done 3/4 days before your travelling). AllPorts Cars is a taxi company based in Canterbury that picks up and drops passengers at airports. The prices are: Gatwick £75, Heathrow £95, Stansted £95, and City £78. This is a good solution if several of you are sharing a taxi. You should contact office@allportcars.net with your needs, or phone them on +44 1227 370370.

Hotels

There are many hotels and more basic bed-and-breakfasts in Canterbury. Almost all are within walking distance or a short and frequent bus ride to the University.

The Canterbury Cathedral Lodge
The Abode Hotel is the best hotel in town.
The Falstaff Hotel is a nice hotel recently refurbished.

There are other cheaper options:

The Chaucer Hotel (appr. £72)
Premier Inn Canterbury City Centre (appr. £48)
There several Bed & Breakfasts. The one that we usually use the Acacia Lodge and Tanglewood (£75).

From City Centre to University

To reach the university from the Canterbury City centre, you can either take a taxi or walk. The general directions and maps can be found here.

Just a reminder for those coming from London, you should take the fast trains from St Pancras.

If you walk just follow the directions under the tab “By foot” on the URL above. From the city centre it takes 20 to 30 minutes (up hill). It’s a nice walk you come across Canterbury neighbourhoods (full of students). The root indicated on that URL above is a short cut, don’t follow the main roads (these were build for cars, and not for people, bicycles or horses).

If you take a taxi, ask the driver to drop you at The Gulbenkian car park. From there is a 2/3 minutes walk to the meeting place.

You can also reach the University by bus, and this app might be helpful.

Conference Centre

ECSA 2017 will take place in the Grimond Building at the University of Kent.