01 — Travel to San Francisco
Flights, hotels and entry requirements.
- Recommended arrival & departure
- Arrive Saturday Oct 3 or early Sunday Oct 4 to adjust to the time difference. Departures are easiest late on Oct 7 or on the morning of Oct 8. Direct SAS and United services from Stockholm via Copenhagen land in the early afternoon.
- Airport: SFO
- San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is the default arrival point — roughly 30–45 minutes to downtown by car.
- Hotel recommendations
- Hotel Zeppelin, Axiom Hotel, Hotel Kabuki and Hotel King George. Everyone covers their own travel and accommodation costs.
- Recommended areas to stay
- Union Square, Hayes Valley, Nob Hill and SoMa are all within easy reach of the program venues. The Tenderloin, immediately west of Union Square, is best avoided at night.
- ESTA & entry requirements
- Nordic passport holders travel on ESTA. Make sure to apply at least 72 hours before departure at esta.cbp.dhs.gov — the fee is USD 21. Your passport must be valid for the whole stay. Bring hotel address and return ticket for the border officer.
- Local transport overview
- For some activities there will be a chartered shuttle. Outside that, Uber and Lyft are the practical default; BART and Muni cover downtown and the airport well.
02 — Getting Around
Shuttles, public transport, and meeting points.
- Delegation transport
- Chartered shuttles run for the Oct 5 site visits, departing the host hotel at 08:00 and returning around 17:30. Seats are allocated on RSVP. Receptions on Oct 6 and 7 are walking distance or a short ride from the hotel.
- Public transport (BART & Muni)
- BART connects SFO to downtown in about 30 minutes for roughly USD 10. Muni buses and the metro cover the rest of the city. Use a contactless card or Apple Pay directly at the gate — no separate ticket needed.
- Uber & Lyft
- Both work reliably day and night. Downtown rides typically run USD 10–25. At SFO, rideshare pickup is on the departures level, not arrivals. Expect surge pricing around reception start and end times.
- SF ↔ Palo Alto
- Around 45 minutes by car without traffic, 75+ minutes at peak. Caltrain from 4th & King to Palo Alto takes roughly an hour and is often faster in the afternoon rush.
- Meeting points
- Hotel lobby, 123 Placeholder St, San Francisco — all shuttle departures. Oct 6 reception: 456 Placeholder Ave, SoMa. Oct 7 reception: 789 Placeholder Blvd, Financial District. Exact addresses are confirmed by email one week before.