Travel Information
Murray is easiest driven to if you are not coming from too far away.
If you are flying in, here are suggestions for airports.
| Airport (code) |
Distance |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| Nashville (BNA) |
2:00hrs |
likely lowest airfare, best bet |
|
| Paducah (PAH) |
1:00hr |
close |
serviced only by regional carriers, seating limited, higher airfares |
| Evansville (EVV) |
2:15hrs |
worth considering |
regional airport (but bigger than Paducah) |
| Memphis (MEM) |
2:30hrs |
many flights |
dominating presence by one airline, higher airfares |
| St. Louis (STL) |
3:30hrs |
competitive fares |
far |
| To get directions to Murray from any of these airports, type the airport code and "msu murray ky" into the directions on Google Maps. These directions take you past all the hotels listed on the Hotels page. (Why Google Maps? See tips below.) |
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The conference will organize a shuttle (there will be a fee) to and from Nashville and Paducah airports with the following tentative schedule. Deadline to sign up for shuttle transportation: October 1st.
| Pickups in Nashville: | Pickup in Paducah (demand permitting) | Departures to Nashville | Departure to Paducah (demand permitting) |
| Thursday evening (9:00 tentative) Friday morning (10:00 tentative) |
(9:00 tentative) canceled - no demand |
Saturday evening (6:30 tentative)
Sunday morning (8:00 tentative) |
(8:00 tentative) canceled - no demand |
| Tips concerning direction-providing websites (most relevant to drivers from Nashville):
many of these do not display or label correctly the relatively new
(2004) four-lane highway 80 that runs from Kentucky Lake bridge to US
641. Some sites label with 80 the old route, currently renamed
402. Some sites direct you to go on highway 94, a slower
alternative. Furthermore, many paper maps prior to 2006 do not
show the new 80. We have found that Google Maps is the only one accurate in this respect, and directs Nashville travelers to Murray via the new highway 80, which, in our experience, is the fastest route. We also agree with the routes provided by Google Maps from other airports (other websites probably give the correct routes for these as well).  Less traffic this way
|
 You will find the four-lane highway 80 missing on many other maps. This is from the newest Kentucky official map
An alternative to Google's directions through Nashville: take Briley Parkway (155) instead of going through Nashville on I-40, as you may encounter less traffic there. |
Here are some maps:
| Map | From | Comments |
| Partial Murray (329KB) |
SEARCDE 2007 organizers | prints full-size on letter sheet, shows hotels, restaurants, relevant campus buildings |
| Campus map |
Murray State University |
Flash-based map, print by right-clicking on map |
| Murray map (290KB) |
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet website | intended for a large sheet of paper |
| Murray map (1.01MB) |
City of Murray website | intended for a large sheet of paper, perhaps too many details |
| Official Kentucky map (54.7MB) |
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet website | intended for a large sheet of paper, huge file |
The last three maps can be reduced to print on a letter-size sheet, but then smaller items, such as street names, become invisible. An alternative is to zoom in on an area in Acrobat Reader, and print just the zoomed in area, which Acrobat Reader allows.