DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel St Paul Downtown

411 Minnesota St
St Paul, MN 55101

Getting Around

Find ground transportation options to/from the airport, local transportation to get around town and learn about the walkability of the area.

Looking for a potential ride-share? Check out our form below.

Visit St. Paul

Lodging

We encourage guests to take advantage of the hotel room block procured. All conference sessions will be held in the hotel meeting space.

Looking for a potential roommate? Check out the room-share forum link below.

Food and Beverages

2025 conference registration will include morning coffee/tea service plus lunch and access to fresh water daily. Evening receptions will have small bites. Breakfast buffet is included with the hotel room + breakfast rate. Guests will have the option to purchase meals in/around the hotel. A list of local eateries is posted below.

For Families

For guests traveling with family members, please review the family info section below.

Conference Contacts

Carolyn Anthon
AESS Managing Director
canthon@aessonline.org
for questions related to sponsorship, exhibiting, or AESS membership

General Inquiries
events@aessonline.org
for questions related to venue, lodging, and local transportation

André Butler & Naciba Chassagnon
AESS Program Chairs

events@aessonline.org
for questions related to proposals and sessions

Sustainability at AESS

AESS strives to meet benchmark standards for sustainability at our events. However, we are often limited by the capabilities of our site hosts and financial constraints. We welcome feedback and suggestions on our events and hope you appreciate efforts that go into making our event as sustainable as possible. We look forward to improving our environmental footprint year-to-year. For 2025, we plan to address sustainability through our food choices, proximity to public transit, invited guests and field trip experiences.

Lodging and Travel Details

Hotel Room Block

An event room block has been arranged at our event venue, the DoubleTree Hilton Downtown St. Paul. We know you have many choices and appreciate your considering our room block.

  • $129/night + tax (double or king)
  • $139/night + tax (double + breakfast)
  • plus applicable state and local taxes in effect at time of check-in, currently 15.875%

Reservations are the responsibility of individuals. All reservations must be accompanied by a deposit or guaranteed with a major credit card individually. Hotel will not hold any reservations unless secured by one of the above methods. Reservations must be received on or before May 23, 2025.

Book your group rate for AESS 2025

Individual reservations are made by clicking the link above or calling the hotel directly at +1 651-291-8800. To receive the established group rate, individuals must identify themselves as members of the AESS-online conference group initially when making the reservation. All reservations must be received by the cut-off date and guaranteed with a credit card.

Once the room block fills or the cut-off date passes, the hotel will release held rooms and determine whether it can accept reservations requests based on room type and rate-available basis.

See Hilton website for full list of hotel amenities and policies.

Want to try and find a roommate? Check out our forum padlet.

Disclosure: the date we signed our event booking made AESS eligible for a cash incentive sponsored by the Visit St. Paul Official Convention and Visitors Bureau. Groups with 25-99 room nights will receive $500; groups with 100-199 room nights will receive $1,000 and so on. These funds, if awarded, will be used to offset the cost of the event.

Campus Housing is unavailable for this event.

Want to try and find a roommate? Check out our forum padlet.

The Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) is only eight miles from downtown Saint Paul. The airport is a Delta Air Lines hub, operates an average of 1,250 flights daily and serves 163 markets (136 domestic, 27 international).

Metro Transit offers a network of bus routes for easy travel around Saint Paul and throughout the Twin Cities.

To reach downtown Saint Paul from the airport, take Metro Transit Route 54. Board the bus outside Terminal 1 Transit Station, on Level 1 of the Blue and Red parking ramps. From Terminal 1, passengers can access the Transit Station via the tram on the Tram Level or via the Concourse Connector between concourses C and G.

There is no Metro Transit bus service at Terminal 2 Terminal. Airline passengers arriving at Terminal 2 must take the METRO Blue Line (or another means of transportation) to Terminal 1 to access city buses. Trains operate 24 hours a day between airport terminals. Travel between airport terminal stations is free and no ticket is needed.
For bus fare and route information, speak to a transit representative at 612-373-3333 or visit Metro Transit’s website.

Want to try and find a rideshare? Check out our forum padlet.

Walkability of Conference

More information coming soon!

Venue

For more information or special services relating to a specific disability not highlighted here, please call the DoubleTree Hilton Downtown 651-291-8800 | https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/mspmsdt-doubletree-st-paul-downtown/hotel-info/.

Meals Information

  • Coffee and tea service provided in the morning Monday-Wednesday.
  • Breakfast buffet is available at the hotel with their “breakfast included” nightly rate or at local nearby eateries.
  • Lunch will be provided daily. A boxed lunch option will be provided on Tuesday to accommodate field trips and meet-ups. You may opt-out of this during registration.
  • Receptions will have drinks and small plates.
  • Fresh water will be available throughout the event. Please bring your preferred refillable drinking bottle.
  • Cafe and eateries are within walking distance.
  • The area is also serviced by various meal-delivery services like Instantcart, GrubHub and Door Dash.

Local Restaurants in and around St. Paul – Visit St. Paul

Options for Visitor Parking:

Self parking adjacent to hotel $22/overnight

EV Charging: website

From the Visit St. Paul website:

Saint Paul is Minnesota’s capital city and the older “twin” of Minneapolis by 13 years. As far as twins go, these cities are like Schwarzenegger and DeVito—some have said Minneapolis is an Appletini and Saint Paul is a fine Scotch. Speaking of scotch, Saint Paul is home to 3M, makers of Scotch Tape™, a gangster history that includes police shootouts with John Dillinger and a flourishing craft beer scene. We’re especially fond of our architecture, including the longest stretch of preserved Victorian architecture in the United States on Summit Avenue and the Cass Gilbert-designed Minnesota State Capitol (which touts the second largest unsupported marble dome in the world). Along with the 100-plus historic buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, we also have nine historic districts in Como, Dayton’s Bluff, Cathedral Hill, Irvine Park, Jackson Street, West Seventh, Lowertown, Summit West and University-Raymond.

St. Paul Visitor’s Guide in print or digital copy. https://www.visitsaintpaul.com/plan-your-trip/visitors-guide/

Rideshares, roommates, ISO padlet below. Use the website LINK if you cannot view it here.

 

Made with Padlet

 

AESS is committed to expanding inclusivity and that includes attendees traveling with their child(ren). We recognize that finding suitable childcare can be quite a challenge and barrier to attendance. To that end, we hope all attendees feel welcome to bring their child to the event as they are comfortable.

Please note that we are unable to sponsor any on-site care due to lots of legalities, but we acknowledge and support how difficult it can be to be a single-parent academic, parent of a young child or infant, or one of many other complex family situations that are part of our attendees lived experience.

We will update the lists here as we find more local resources. Plus, consider connecting with other attendees by using the padlet forum or reaching out to a local chapter for any national groups you belong to, e.g. sorority, society, etc. Please note: AESS is not directly affiliated or contracted with any of these services, we are providing information only.

Do you know of another resource? Please tell us by emailing event organizers or posting to the padlet.

Jovie - formerly College Nannies and Sitters

Jovie.com (formerly College Nannies and Sitters) can offer individual care on an as-needed basis for conference attendees. Families are responsible for paying the company directly.

Location Single Page

Visa and Letters of Invitation

Thank you for your interest in attending AESS+ASLE 2023 in Portland, OR. We hope your travel and visa process goes smoothly and have created this page as a source of information.

Conference attendees who reside outside the United States may need to apply for a visa at the American Embassy, consulate, or other visa-issuing office in their country of origin. Please begin your visa application process as soon as possible, as applications may take several months to process. For information on obtaining your visa, go to: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en.html

Understand that presenters are responsible for their own travel and visas. We are happy to provide a letter of acceptance as documentation, once you have been notified that your proposal has been accepted. Please see directions below to obtain this document.

Many visa issuing offices require that you present a letter of invitation to the conference, proof of conference registration, and airline ticket confirmation, along with your visa application. If you need a letter of invitation to the conference, please email events@aessonline.org the following information:

  1. Your full name as it appears on your passport
  2. Your professional or academic title
  3. The name of your school, department, institution, lab, or business
  4. Your full mailing address
  5. Are you the author of a paper that has been accepted for AESS 2023?
  6. If you are an author, please provide the title of the paper.

Important Venue Information

All AESS sessions will be held in conference rooms at the Downtown DoubleTree hotel. The is located in the business district of St. Paul and has an overall quieter atmosphere. There are food choices nearby and evening entertainment options throughout the Twin Cities. There are walking options and parks in the neighborhood. Public transportation is robust to make exploring the city easy. We are reserving one hotel block. There was negligible cost savings plus an added cost of public transit and transportation time to/from any potential dormitory spaces. Thus, our official lodging rooms are all associated with the hotel.

Please review the lodging websites specific to your reservation to review all amenities and transportation options to/from the event space and in/around St. Paul.

AESS has committed to the following Green Initiatives for in-person events.

Please note that 2025 might require modifications due to state/local policies and protocols.

  • Providing only vegetarian meals, with an emphasis on local sourcing.
  • Reducing waste through:
    • Use of digital program
    • Eliminating use of single-serve, pre-packaged food items whenever possible
    • Collaborating with host site sustainability office
  • Reducing food waste by collaborating with catering.
  • Reducing plastic waste by:
    • Asking all participants to bring their own reusable water bottles.
    • Not offering plastic bottles.
    • Requesting that caterers reduce plastic packaging, when possible.
    • Sourcing event badges from recycled or reusable materials
    • Collecting and reusing lanyards from previous AESS conferences.
  • Encouraging environmental education through:
    • Including a sustainability tour in our field trip options.