Location, Accommodation, and Dining

Location

PoreCamp Vancouver is taking place at the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia. For a map to the campus and the location of the MSL building, click here. The building is unlocked and accessible during PoreCamp hours. Sessions will take place in Room 102, the MSL Theatre, and the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory (AMBL).

Lunchtime lectures, which are open to the public, will take place in Lecture Theatre 101 in the Centre for Brain Health building, a short walk from MSL. A map shows CBH’s location; once you enter the building, head downstairs to the lecture theatre.

If you are taking transit to campus, check UBC’s Transit Tips page for a list of buses serving the campus. You can purchase a stored-value Compass Card and use it to pay for your trips – for more information, visit https://www.compasscard.ca. The main bus loop is a short walk from the MSL building. If you are driving, daily parking is available at multiple parkades around campus; the closest one to MSL is the Health Sciences Parkade. Parking is first-come first-served at that parkade, and costs $16.00 for the day (valid through midnight). You will need the HonkMobile app or a credit card to pay for parking.

Although there is no direct transit route from YVR airport to campus, you can take the Canada Line train from the airport and switch to one of the many buses that run from various Canada Line stations to campus - use GoogleMaps to select your preferred route. Taxi fares from YVR to anywhere in the city are fixed - the current rate from YVR to the UBC campus is $35.

Accommodation

Participants are responsible for their own accommodation. UBC has multiple on-campus accommodation options at various price points, from hostel-style accommodation in student dormitories ($39CAD/night and up) to hotel-style accommodation ($145CAD/night and up). You can review and price all of the available options at http://suitesatubc.com, but ensure you book early, as summer is a busy time on campus, with many external groups using the campus for their conferences. If you are coming from out of town, we recommend arriving on Sunday, May 6 and departing Saturday, May 12.

If you are staying off-campus, look for a hotel on one of the bus routes into UBC. Kitsilano (particularly the area north of Broadway to the beach, from Burrard St. west to Alma St.) is a popular area with many restaurants and shops, and is very convenient to several UBC-bound bus routes. Downtown, including the Yaletown neighbourhood, is another popular destination, although the commute to campus is somewhat long (35-45min by bus). Airbnbs are available but note that due to recent restrictions placed on short-term rentals by the city, it is increasingly tricky to find an entire home/apartment for rent.

Dining

Meals, with the exception of the opening drinks reception and the closing dinner, are on your own – this helps us keep meeting registration as affordable as possible (this may change, if we’re able to secure some additional funding). Fortunately, there are plenty of options on campus, many within a two-minute walk of MSL. Our favourites include:

• Loafe Cafe (in the Robert E. Lee Alumni Centre): great coffee, nice breakfast pastries, and very good sandwiches and salads at lunch. Plus beer and wine on tap!
• The Gallery 2.0 (top floor of the Nest Student Union Building): one of the campus pubs, with a pretty good menu and good craft beer selection. Amazing views from this rooftop patio!
• The Delly (basement of the Nest): they’ve been feeding UBC students excellent sandwiches and other fare quickly and cheaply since 1976, so clearly they’re doing something right. The made-to-order sandwich bar is excellent.
• Mahony & Sons (University Boulevard): a great spot if you want to sit down and have a proper lunch, with waitstaff and everything.
• Central (University Boulevard): this new apartment building right at the entrance to campus has a bunch of really awesome restaurants in it - Jamjar, Joe Pizza, TacoMio, a noodle place, JJ Bean coffee, and Rain or Shine ice cream.
• University Village (further out University Blvd.): there are two villages - the “old village” (which is technically the new village as the original burnt down in the early 1990s), which has an underground food court with some delicious and cheap options, and the “new village” (technically the new-new village), which has a few more options, including a good sushi restaurant - One More Sushi - on the second floor.