Directions to Berkeley

Driving directions to UCB: Visit mapquest.com for detailed maps

Berkeley Lab Directions: This applies to UC Berkeley as well. Has a map of the San Francisco, Berkeley area for a perspective.

UC Berkeley Campus Map: Rule of thumb – Uphill is East, and water flows toward the bay, which is West. More maps including parking areas

Public Transportation

Trip Planner: NEW - Tells what bus/subway to take and when to go from one address to the other. (Enter UC Berkeley as school address )

Caltrain  : Connects San Francisco - Stanford Univ - San Jose - Gilroy

Taxis in Berkeley: List of phone numbers.

BART: Subway system covering the bay area. "Downtown Berkeley" station is closest to campus.

AC Transit: Bus routes cover Alameda county (includes Oakland, Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville) and Contra Costa county(includes El Cerrito, Richmond and Walnut Creek)

Housing

UCB Parents network recommendations : Highly recommended site for students with families. Note the househunting tips.

UC Berkeley Housing Office: Residence halls (or dormitory), meal plans (UC Berkeley is not known for great dorm food by the way), family student housing, rental listings

Haasweek : Housing guide with testimonials written by MBA volunteers

Craigslist.org: Non-commercial online community started in the bay area includes housing postings and classifieds. Very cool site.

International House: I think this is the BEST place to live your first year if you are new to this country. Small rooms. Mandatory meal plans, but very close to school and it’s a wonderful place to meet new friends. Start applying as early as possible, like in April or May. You need to be a junior and above to apply.

East Bay Real Estate directory: Contains useful links related to crime stats, school reports and earthquake information

Homefinders Rentals: Fee based rental listings. Has office near campus. Probably has the largest number of listings. Lots of people recommend this place. NEW Receive $20 OFF when you sign up online with coupon code: W2B or in person by mentioning this site.

Calrentals: Fee based rental listing service on campus.

Ehousing and Metrorent: Other fee based rental listings.

ucb.market.housing: Newsgroup. Free housing info

Rent stabilization board : Berkeley has rent control, unlike other neighboring cities.

Rental Solutions: These people find housing for you for a pretty big fee. (Under new ownership)

LBL Currents: Has a Flea Market section with rentals. Targeted for visiting scholars

Hotels and Motels

Hotel & Motels near campus with rates

priceline.com: With a credit card, you are able to reserve hotel rooms and rental cars in the US including Berkeley on the web. Cheap too.

Accommodations near campus compiled by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

More accommodations from visitberkeley.com

Summer visitor housing at Stern hall: Operates during the summer only and it’s close to campus, safe and pretty cheap.

Local guides: Entertainment and Restaurants

bestofberkeley.com : Lists the best places to do whatever based on votes

LBL Restaurant guide: List and map of restaurants in the Berkeley area

Citysearch.com Restaurant guide: My favorite list and map of restaurants in the bay area

UC Berkeley

SISS: Services for International Students and Scholars

Schedule of Classes

Bearfacts: Check your grades, registration and schedule

UC Berkeley Search engines

The Daily Californian : Independent student-run newspaper since 1871

Useful sites

Weather near Berkeley: Temperature in Fahrenheit and Celcius

Onelook.com: Online English dictionary search engine

World Time Zone: Look up the time of any place in the world.

qixo.com: Searches several travel sites for the cheapest airplane ticket

babelfish.altavista.com: Offers free translation to and from English

dialpad.com: Free internet calling( PC to phone) service from anywhere to US, Korea and Japan.

google.com : Web search engine - Gives the most relevant results from simple keyword searches

Unit Conversions: Units commonly used in the US are different from the rest of the world. Useful to remember your shoe size, waist, height and weight.