PAUL SMITH'S COLLEGE
Kettle Pond remains grateful to call Paul Smith’s College home. Paul Smith's campus is located within the Adirondack Park in Upstate New York and the conference is a few hours drive from most locations in the northeastern United States (as well as much of southern Ontario & Québec).
Kettle Pond is also accessible by air, bus, and train. Conference staff will be available to pickup (and return) attending writers to all major transit points listed below on June 19 & 26th (check-in & departure dates for 2027).
BY TRAIN to PLATTSBURGH, NY (PLB)
Train service between Plattsburgh & NYC Penn Station is available once daily via Amtrak, including stops along the route in the Hudson Valley and Albany, NY (or to/from Montréal, CAN for writers originating in/headed toward points north). Resident Writers travelling to Kettle Pond from other locations are advised to check the Amtrak website for connections, and to plan their journeys accordingly.
Writers arriving by train in Plattsburgh will be met by Kettle Pond staff, who will transport them and their belongings to campus, assist with checking into conference housing, and ensure they are oriented and/or guided to evening events on Saturday, June 19 (2027).
BY BUS to PAUL SMITHS, NY
Bus service directly to Paul Smith's College is available daily via Adirondack Trailways.
Kettle Pond staff will be ready to receive all writers travelling by bus when they arrive on campus, assist with transporting them and their belongings to conference housing, and ensure they are oriented and/or guided to evening events on Saturday, June 19 (2027).
BY AIR to PLATTSBURGH (PBG) & SARANAC LAKE (SLK)
Writers arriving by air to either Adirondack Regional Airport (SLK) in Saranac Lake, NY or Plattsburgh International Airport (PBG) in Plattsburgh, NY will be met by conference staff at their destination airport and transported along with their belongings directly to conference housing on campus on Saturday, June 19 (2027).
While many more options for commercial flights to greater region (Albany, Burlington, etc) are available, Kettle Pond is unable to serve airports other than those listed above. Writers who do not wish to rent a car or transfer to train or bus service from their point of arrival are advised to either book flights into one of the airports listed above, or to chose one of the other travel options listed on this page.
(A friendly reminder that, as of May 2025, a REAL ID or equivalent is required to fly in the US.)
BY CAR
For many writers, the most direct means of travel to Kettle Pond will be by car. The campus is located inside the Adirondack Park in upstate New York (~30 minutes' drive from Lake Placid; ~15 minutes from Saranac Lake) and is within several hours drive of most locations in the northeastern United States (as well as much of southern Ontario & Québec).
CARPOOLING?
Writers who wish to carpool to campus will be offered the opportunity to note this in their registration forms, following formal offers of admission. Kettle Pond staff will make every effort to connect writers interested in sharing rides to campus (based on their points of origin and/or planned routes of travel).
We have found this typically works out quite well, though it is worth emphasizing the conference merely facilitates these connections; Kettle Pond does not currently have the resources or staffing to provide transportation to writers arriving at locations other than those listed above for air, bus & train travel.
ARRIVAL OUTSIDE OF FORMAL CHECK-IN & DEPARTURE DATES
When any of the scheduled transit options detailed above experience delays or schedule changes, believe us, we won't lose you. We will be tracking your mode of transit and will happily bring you to campus; we understand and plan for this possibility, and will work with any writers experiencing travel delays to ensure they make it to the conference.
However, writers planning in advance to arrive outside of official open and close dates of conference week should contact Kettle Pond staff directly for additional information. We will highly discourage this, if not outright refuse the option. That said, even when necessary & totally understandable on the writer's part, we have a very limited staff and can rarely afford to send them on shuttle runs outside of check-in and departure hours. Writers who need to arrive late or depart early, and will not be driving themselves, should assume that finding their own way to campus is likely to be the difficult, expensive, and best-case scenario available.
For writers who will be driving to campus, there are certainly situations (academic commitments, urgent personal circumstances, weather or mechanical issues, etc.) where requests/plans to arrive late or depart early will be happily granted. If it is merely a writer's preference we're being queried about adapting to, though... well, trust us, we do get it, but revocation of admission isn't off the table if you make this a whole thing for us. In essence: sincerely, feel free to ask, we will entertain the idea and get you an answer. But first, please ask yourself, Why?
OTHER TRAVEL QUESTIONS?
Writers with additional travel questions are encouraged to contact conference staff directly. We are here to help!