I've lost count of how many times I have staid at this wonderful hostel. If I'm in San Francisco, I'm at the Fort Mason YHA, simple as that.

The location is superb, up on the headland with postcard views to the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and the whole central Bay area. Islands and parks and villages and ferries, the blue sky above and the City behind, quiet forest and paths and lawns all around. It's perfect.

The building is an old Army medical facility, and has been skilfully converted to budget accommodation without losing the character. But for comfort, it is hard to beat. I love lazing around in the big common room with free WiFi and a well-stocked swap shelf for books. Maps, guidebooks and free walking tours are plentiful.

The beds are basic, but that's hostel living. Secure lockers, an unusual eclectic mix for a hostel, large kitchen and dining room, other amenities. Free breakfast in Franco's Café, which can be a bit of a squeeze, but if you don't mind standing, take your waffle and coffee outside to the steps and drink in the surroundings.

Fort Mason itself is a gem. Old Victorian military buildings and the sweetest row of married quarter cottages you ever saw. Parking can be a bit tight, but if you are late, there is always space available within a hundred metres or so.

The fort has plenty of open space, the park as a whole is a great place for strolling or romping on the lawns, inspecting the old fortifications, or just sitting under a tree and reading.

The best supermarket in the universe - the Marina Safeway - is a short walk to the west, with Palace of Fine Arts and Golden Gate Bridge beyond. In the other direction is Aquatic Park and Fisherman's Wharf, with a cable car line directly downtown.

Oh yeah. Bay Books, an outpost of the San Francisco Public Library, is in one of the old wharves, complete with its own cafe and a vast shelvage of well-priced second hand books and DVDs and CDs. I could lose myself there for months amongst the books.

San Francisco is fantastic, and this hostel is a gem. I love it, simple as that.

After a great night in the Downtown Hostel, we were looking forward to a night in Fishermans Wharf. Sadly it didn't quite live up to the Downtown expectations. The room was average at best. When we tried to move the chest of drawers so we could lay out our luggage, it was so dirty behind the chest of drawers, we moved it back again, pretty quickly. The linen on the bed was horrid. I'm sure it was clean, but I'm not good with those really old flowery sheets. I'd have rather they told us to bring our own. There was also a waterproof mattress cover on the bed which just gives me the creeps. I didn't sleep very well.

Breakfast in the morning was interesting. First of all the cafe opened about 40 minutes late, which was quite annoying, with no apology that I heard. We then ended up at the end of a very long queue, so I sat down while my husband stood in the queue. A lady sat near me, took a sip of her coffee and exclaimed that it was stone cold. The guy behind the cafe bar said that there wasn't any hot water, so if we wanted hot coffee, we'd have to go down to the communal kitchen downstairs to make it ourselves. Evidently, his legs couldn't take him down there himself to provide the service we were promised. The lady then said the bagel was chewey, so we decided to go into SF for breakfast, which was a great success, so we were quite glad they got breakfast so wrong.

My husband didn't mind the hostel overall. I will never go back there. So if he really wants to, he can go by himself next time!

Despite all that, the hostel is in a great setting, so if it's the location you're looking for, it does very well.

It's not that the Fisherman's Wharf hostel isn't a nice place, or that they don't have good facilities. We enjoyed the location, within walking distance of Pier 39 and the prime tourist areas. I guess for us, traveling with pre-teen kids, the experience wasn't quite as good as we've had in other places, including other hostels.

The old army building has character, and it's been done up quite well as a hostel. Huge kitchen downstairs, lots of activities going on; it's a real bustling, hostel atmosphere. We stayed in a room with four bunks which was spartan but fine for our family. I do miss not having your own bathroom, but the public washroom facilities were fine and clean. The free breakfast in the morning was juice/coffee and a bagel -- better than nothing but not quite a full buffet.

When we stayed in San Francisco, we had one night out of town at a nice hotel in Emmeryville, and two nights here at the Fisherman's Wharf hostel. The prices were comparable -- at FW you are close to the action and the price compared to other nearby accommodation is great. But you can also stay out of the city for a similar price and get much newer, cleaner accommodation, the downside being that it takes some time and money to get into the city via the local shuttles & BART train.

So it really comes down to what kind of accommodation you like. I would recommend the hostel if you're on your own or if you really want to be close to the tourist hot spots.

The hostel is nicely located and the free parking (four blocks away) is a plus if you're coming by car.

Also the theater and kitchen downstairs are well-appointed

Now the complaints:

The internet is a joke. Sub dial-up speeds. Get another connection or better bandwidth on your existing connection. Travelers need internet, but they end up sitting around in your nice lounge waiting five minutes for a page to load. Watching video is out of the question. Surely

The male bathroom is disgusting. I know the hostel faces Alcatraz, but let's not take this too far. Keep the toilets clean. Put brushes in the stalls. Put up some signs about bathroom etiquette for careless teenagers. Something. Anything.

The mattresses are like cellophane wrapped toys of some kind. Finding one on the street, a hobo would inspect it and move on. Is it really so hard to get your hands on half-way decent mattresses?

The very young, dark haired British kid at the front desk. I walk in and say "hi" and he just stares at me with this sort of sophomoric contempt. Ship that kid back to England and hire people who know something about society and human interaction. The last thing people need after a long trip is a little twit with a bad haircut/attitude. You have a job because my credit card is getting swiped. And you're supposed to make people feel welcomed when they come in the door.

All of this said, you still can't beat twenty eight bucks for a bed and a shower in this location. Sadly, it can't be beat.