[Click here to see photographs of the conference taken by Helmut Simonis]
( on 7 October 2003)

CP 2003 Ninth International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming 29 September - 3 October, 2003 Actons Hotel Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland Rest your mouse on each picture above to get an explanation of the scene -- this facility may not be supported by all browsers.

[Programme] [Schedule of Events] [List of Papers] [List of Posters] [Registration] [Conference Site] [Travel] [Organization] [Sponsors]

[Click here for photographs of the conference taken by Helmut Simonis] ( on 7 October 2003)

Arranged by Cork Constraint Computation Centre and run in co-operation with AAAI, CP-2003 was the ninth of the annual CP conference series. The CP conference is the annual international conference on constraint programming. It is concerned with all aspects of computing with constraints, including: algorithms, applications, environments, languages, models and systems. CP 2003 included a technical programme, where presentations of theoretical and application papers, as well as invited papers and advanced tutorials, aim at describing the best results and techniques in the state of the art of constraint programming. Moreover, CP 2003 continued the tradition of the CP doctoral programme, in which a group of Ph.D. students present their work, listen to tutorials on career and ethical issues, and discuss their work with senior researchers via a mentoring scheme. Finally, there was also a number of workshops, where researchers are able to meet in an informal setting and discuss their most recent ideas with their peers.

Conference Site, Accommodation and Food

Conference Site

The conference was held in the conference centre at Actons Hotel in Kinsale, a small resort town in County Cork, on the south coast of Ireland. A sense of the cosy feel of the town can be seen by looking at the following three-dimensional map of the town centre. Actons Hotel is a few hundred metres from the centre of the town -- its location is marked with the letter "A" in the map of the southern part of the town -- it can be seen than the hotel's lawn is just across the road from the harbour and one of the several marinas.

For conference attendees who wished to combine a holiday with CP 2003, Kinsale formed a great base from which to visit the hills, bays and islands of West Cork and the similar attractions of County Kerry. Any attendee wishing to improve his/her fluency of presentation could get "the gift of the gab", by kissing the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle.

Accommodation

Accommodation was available in the main conference hotel (marked by the letter "A" on this map) and in a second hotel where some of the conference activities took place (marked by the letter "H" on this map). Accommodation was also available in other hotels and B&Bs within a few minutes walk of the conference hotel.

Hotels

Bed and Breakfast (B&B) establishments

Food

Kinsale has a wide variety of restaurants within a few minutes walking distance of the conference hotels. (Here is a partial list of places to eat in Kinsale. Besides this list, there are, at the time this is being written, Thai, Vietnamese and Indian restaurants -- beware, though, restaurants come and go.)

Travelling to Kinsale

Kinsale is on the south coast of Ireland, about 20 miles by road to the south of Cork city, the capital of County Cork and the second city in the Republic of Ireland. It is possible to reach Cork by air or sea.

Travelling by Air

Cork International Airport has direct flights from Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Cardiff, Dublin, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Jersey, Leeds, London (City, Heathrow, Stanstead amd Gatwick), Malaga, Malta, Manchester, Milan, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Prague, Plymouth, Southampton, Swansea and Rome.
Buses from the airport to Kinsale
Scheduled buses, run by Bus Eireann, travel between Kinsale and the airport, which is about 15 minutes drive from the town. On Monday through Saturday, the Kinsale bus leaves the airport at the following times: 09:00, 10:00, 12:00, 13:30, 15:00, 15:45, 17:00, 18:15, 19:15. On Sunday, the Kinsale bus leaves the airport at 09:45, 12:45, 14:45, 18:15. The one-way fare in 3 euro.
Taxis from the airport to Kinsale
It is also possible to take a taxi from the airport to Kinsale -- from the rank at the door of the passenger terminal. The fare is usually in the range of 32 to 35 euro.

Travelling by Ship

Ferry routes to Cork Ferryport

Cork Ferryport provides connections to Swansea in Britain and to Roscoff in France. For those bringing their own car by ferry, Cork Ferryport is about 30 minutes drive from Kinsale. For those coming as foot passengers on a ferry to Cork Ferryport, the cheapest way to reach Kinsale is to take a public bus, to Cork Bus Station in the city centre and then transfer onto a bus to Kinsale.

Other car-ferry routes to Ireland

If you are thinking of bringing your car, you will probably be interested in touring, so you may not be concerned to arrive at the ferry port closest to the conference site. Some other ferry routes to Ireland include those operated by Irish Ferries between Rosslare in Ireland and Roscoff and Cherbourg in France and between Rosslare and Dublin in Ireland and Holyhead and Pembroke in Wales. Stena Line offer several other ferry routes between Ireland (north and south) and Scotland and Wales.

International Travel by Bus or Train

For those who prefer to travel by surface transport but do not wish to bring their own car, it is possible to come by train or long-distance coach. For long-distance coach travel to Cork from a wide range of UK and European destinations -- see Bus Eireann/Eurolines. Given the recent splitting up of the rail network in the UK, it is not so easy as it used to be to buy train tickets to Cork from abroad. See the UK Public Transport Information website for information about trains across the UK; see Irish Rail for information about train travel within Ireland, including information about rambler tickets which allow unlimited travel over the whole island, north and south.

Organization

Sponsors

Thanks to very generous sponsorship from Science Foundation Ireland, we were able to reduce the registration fee -- it was about 100 euros less than for recent years. Thanks to generous support from our other sponsors, we were able to offer travel scholarships to people accepted into the doctoral programme.