In the last post, I shared what I took to San Francisco in my effort to pack light. This post covers some of the highlights of the trip.
With a backpack only weighing 12.5 lbs, navigating the airport and the long walk on my layover was a breeze. I opted to take the airport shuttle recommended by the hostel where I had reservations, but I was the fifth stop and an Uber for $5 more would have been better. However, I did get a good tour of the city.
For the first three nights, I stayed at Hostels International (HI) – Fisherman’s Wharf in Fort Mason National Park. Fort Mason is the port where soldiers shipping 
out during WWII for the Pacific (including my father) started their journey and is now a national park. The hostel is up on a hill overlooking the bay, with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. The San Francisco Bay Walking/Bike Trail goes right by the hostel and runs along the bay for miles. It was a 15-minute walk to Fisherman’s Wharf, 20 minutes to Pier 39, and 40 minutes to the Ferry Building. Walking the other way was the Marina area, where hundreds of people were out walking, running, and riding bikes right along the water and once a week they have a Food Truck (and Booth) event called Off the Grid.
Every morning while at Fort Mason I ate breakfast at a picnic table overlooking the bay and every evening watched the sun set over the bay. Although crowded, there are lots of things to do. I went to the Aquarium, some Maritime Museums, and the Exploratorium, which is an amazing place with hundreds of hands on activities for both children and adults. At Pier 39, which is a large commercial area, seals hang out on the docks. I spent hours walking by the bay and roaming around the area. I was amazed at the access people have to the bay.
There is a free swimming area and one evening I watched the large area triathlon group practice their swimming. For people who want to take a boat out onto the bay, there are options both large and small. It seemed like every corner had a bike rental place, and there was tons of public transportation. In the evenings, I hung around the common room, talking with other travelers (many international) or participating in activities such as a Tai Chi class. I decided to decline the Bar Crawl Tour led by one of the hostel employees.
For the fourth through seventh night, I hopped a bus to HI-Downtown. Located in the old Hotel Gloster built in 1907 on Mason Street, the hostel was two blocks from Union Square. This hostel has a totally different vibe – much more urban with fun décor. The Powell Street trolley line ran down the hill on the next street over and of course, Union Square is the big shopping area. In addition, most of the hop on/hop off tour busses stop at Union Square. The hostel was also a couple of blocks from Market Street (and the big public transportation center) and the Ferry Building on the bay is an easy 25-minute walk. It’s a great location to use as a base.
I decided to buy a two day hop on/hop off bus ticket, which offered unlimited rides on four different tours of the city in open air busses. On the first day, I took three of the tours (1-2 hours each), including one that went over the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito. The tour guides did a great job talking about the history of the area, the impact of the earthquakes, pointing out good places to eat and visit, and interesting stories.
On the second day, I got off the bus in the Golden Gate Park and visited the Japanese Tea Garden 
and the Botanical Gardens. The Botanical Gardens was having an exhibit called Flower Pianos, where twelve pianos were placed around the gardens and people were encouraged to play them. It was beautiful to walk around the gardens and listen to a 
variety of piano music. A short walk away was Haight-Ashbury, which was fun to wander through. When I was done, I just hopped back on the bus, and went off to the next place to explore. For my remaining days, I headed back to the bay area, stopping to watch the street performers, reading in the gardens by the water, people watching, eating ice cream, going for long walks, etc.
The highlight of my food finds was the gluten free bakery in the Ferry Building called Mariposa. They had great bread and baked goods, but also savory items like grilled vegetable and feta pockets and an amazing artisan salami sandwich with arugula and sun-dried tomato spread. Having to eat gluten free due to Celiac disease, I get very excited when I find a good gluten free restaurant. With a focus on fried seafood and sourdough bread, San Francisco is not the most gluten free friendly city. Mariposa was within walking distance from both locations (also on the trolley line) and come dinner time, I often found myself heading towards Mariposa.
Staying at the hostels cost me a rate (before hotel tax in the downtown location) of $47 – $65 per night. A light continental breakfast was included. The Fort Mason hostel had eight women in a room and the downtown room had four. I prefer the smaller rooms, but because you are primarily using the room to sleep, it really doesn’t matter that much. Both locations had great common rooms and good communal kitchens.
My advice if you want to try hosteling is to try it for 2 nights. That’s enough time to get a taste of what hosteling travel is like without the risk of ruining your entire vacation if it doesn’t work out. Hosteling isn’t for everyone, but I found that as a single female traveling alone, it provides me with great people to talk to and a sense of community I don’t get when staying by myself in a hotel. Considering the hostels in both locations were full, a lot of people seem to agree.
beach community – genius!).
My first roommates were women (aged 25-35) from Great Britain, Belgium, and Finland. The second night, the woman from Great Britain remained and we were joined by two college aged women from South Korea. For the most part, people did not hang out in their rooms, but either were out and about, or spent the evening in the common lounge. There was no shortage of people to talk with in the lounge and I soon realized that likely 25% of the people there were not what I would consider traditional users of hostels.
There were families (a private family room was cheaper than many hotels and provided access to the communal kitchen), others my age, one gentleman in his 80’s with another family member, and everything in between. People were sharing meals, information about things to do, and insights about life in their country and community. The second night I had a 3-hour conversation with my roommate from Great Britain and it was fascinating to hear her take on our recent presidential election, government sponsored health care, the EU, as well as some of the other places she had traveled on a shoestring.
Fortunately, I had read enough blogs to heed some suggestions on how to be a courteous roommate. Among them are 1) keep a flashlight in your bed so you can get into your locker without turning on the light, 2) lay out your clothes for the next day along with your toiletries so you can shower and get ready quietly in the bathroom, 3) keep the items in your locker organized so you don’t need to rummage, and 4) make sure your flip flops are handy because even though the bathroom was spotless, you want some protection for your feet.