Conference Venue and Travel Information
City of Turku (Åbo)
Turku is located in the South-West corner of Finland and it is surrounded by the beautiful Turku archipelago, comprised of thousands of islands and small rocky islets. The oldest and fifth-largest city in Finland has 180,000 inhabitants in the city proper. Turku will be the European Capital of Culture in the year 2011.
For tourist information, see the Turku Touring sites.
Conference venue: the ICT building
The ICT building (map) is the largest center of information and communications technology research and education in Turku. The building is located in the heart of the Turku Science Park, an area that is host to three universities, the Turku university hospital, and hundreds of companies. The modern 34,000 square meter ICT building, completed in 2006, offers excellent facilities for scientific gatherings with its several large lecture halls, open, spacious lobby, and cafeteria. See also our conference venue map.
You may be interested in participating Third International Symposium on Semantic Mining in Biomedicine (SMBM 2008) organized in the ICT building directly before Louhi'08.
Travelling to Turku
Turku is easy to reach!
Turku has an international airport. Many airlines offer connections to Turku through Helsinki, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. The airport is situated about 10 km from the city centre and local bus number 1 leaves from the airport to the city centre approximately every 20-30 minutes. Bus tickets (2.5 € - 3.5 €) can be bought from the driver.
As an alternative, you can fly to Helsinki which is about 170km from Turku. From the airport, you can take a direct bus connection the centre of Turku. The bus takes about 2h30m, costs 26 euro, and the timetable can be found here.
Turku can also be reached from Stockholm by large cruise ships that sail twice a day between Turku and Stockholm. The cruisers are operated by Silja Line and Viking Line. If you prefer travelling through Helsinki, you can take one of the numerous ferries from Tallinn, Estonia.
Accommodation in Turku
The conference venue can be easily reached from all hotels and hostels in the city centre either by walk or local bus (e.g., numbers 32, 42, 110). Bus tickets (2.5 € - 3.5 €) can be bought from the driver. The Turku Touring sites provide help in selecting the perfect accommodation, whether your preference is a large hotel or an idyllic hostel.
Photos: City of Turku, City of Helsinki