Marin Headlands Hostel

A hidden gem just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.
I found this place last minute and they were available (lucky for me!). A large common room, fully stocked kitchen, all you need is the food and you are ready to cook up a storm. Don’t be surprised if wildlife sneaks in though, we had an adventure with a bird. Fret not, she got out safe.
I stayed in a women’s only dorm with 8 beds (the same is available for men). A large coed dorm is available, as well as a couple private rooms for a bit more in price.
Great area to walk around in nature or enjoy the patio area! Although it is about a 10 minute drive to Sausilito.

We came here WITHOUT a car by catching the 76X from San Francisco which runs on the weekend. Yes, it was a slight hassle trying to bring in all your food plus your regular overnight gear but it wasn’t as painful as I was expecting. Coffee and a basic ‘make it yourself’ breakfast of oatmeal or pancakes is provided.
The hostel is right near the visitor’s center and also a bunch of different trails. We were able to spend the day hiking and be back before dark, in time for an early dinner. The trails can be quite hilly and steep so plan carefully! We ended up in Mill Valley because we could not stomach the steep climb to get back to the hostel and ended up taking an über back!
The hostel is clean and quiet with beautiful hardwood floors. We stayed in the Annexe which is smaller and quieter than the main building. You could imagine what it must have been like as a large family home. There is also a nice front porch with chairs to relax in if the weather is nice enough to sit outside.
Everyone was friendly and chatty. Guests spanned a wide range of ages so it’s not just a ‘youth’ hostel.
Wifi is available but there is a weak connection in the bedrooms if you are far from the router. We were hoping to watch a film on Netflix in the evening but could not get a strong enough connection. Not a massive deal but just something to be aware of!
Overall, a great getaway from the city!

Never had stayed at a hostel before and my only reference to a hostel was the Hostel movies, imagine my response when my daughter told me that she wanted to have her wedding at a hostel. Well it was this hostel and I was in for a pleasant surprise.
Our entire wedding party and guests booked rooms and beds here to attend the event. We were all impressed with the cleanliness and upkeep of the buildings and facilities. The kitchens had all the utensils needed, comercial grade stoves, ovens and refrigerators. The restrooms were all shared but that seemed to add to the family atmosphere. It was like being at someone’s house for a family gathering.
The wedding facilities at the main building was outstanding. There was at least one coed public restroom at the facility that gave some guests something to talk about but no really had any issues with it. It actuality turned out to be a good conversation starter. Staff was very friendly and helpful — helped us look for a lost cell phone and even mailed it to us when they found it.

Nice hostel that because of it’s location nestled in the hills by the ocean, feels worlds away from the city of San Francisco (about a 20 mins. drive). Does not have at all the big city feel of the 2 downtown S.F. hostels but feels more like a hostel where people want to talk and get to know you including the friendly staff. Definitely a great place to relax and enjoy nature while being close to the city.
There is free wifi (thank goodness) but cell phone service is truly non-​existent. The kitchen is open 7:30am-10:30pm but since it is only roped off you can still pop in there when no one is looking if you forgot something and the refrigerators where you store your food aren’t roped off at all if you can’t live without your midnight snack. Pancakes are available 8−11am.
Things of note: The large 22 mixed bed room (the Grand Canyon) on the second floor because it’s also the path to the fire escape, does not have a door that locks. However, there are banks of small lockers in the room to lock up your valuables. Also on the second floor, because the shower area is right up against a bedroom and the fan is extremely loud, showers are not allowed between 10:30pm-6:30am. One small but really welcome thing was the thoughtful touch of free tampons in the ladies rest room. Front door is locked at 11:00 p.m., so make sure you check in between 3:30 — 10:30 p.m. Check-​out time is 11:00 a.m.
Definitely would NOT stay here without a car. Also, they have signs everywhere about not leaving a single bit of food in your car due to racoons. I didn’t leave any food in my car but one of my car windows was left down a few inches and in the morning I had little dusty raccoon prints all over my seats!!!

Decent enough hostel. Big open room. A lot of Americans staying there, mostly arrive on bike, hiking, or you have to drive in. The place is pretty far out in the headlands. No food options, so stock up before you come. big open living room area. The night I was there there wasn’t a lot of social interaction. Overall nice quiet place. Staff was very friendly. I’d say average compared to other hostels I’ve been at in the US.

Cute hostel nestled in the Marin headlands. A 15 minute drive to Sausalito, 20 minute drive to San Fran, but out of the way enough that you’ll never see or hear other people.
As far as lodging near San Fran goes, the $ 60 single room price is very cheap; however, it seems on the pricier end as far as hostels go.
The staff is very nice and accommodating. Free pancake mix and coffee in the mornings with some dinner goods (Amy’s lentils, Mac n cheese, spaghetti, etc) available for purchass.
Apparently a lot of school/​youth groups often rent out a large part of the hostel so be careful when renting a dorm bed. There’s also no cellular reception near the hostel, but they do offer free wifi.

Pros: Great historic building, plenty of free parking, beautiful location with lots of nature trails, quiet, friendly staff
Cons: I didn’t find this hostel sooner and therefore stayed at the Adelaide Hostel even 1 night.

Staying at the Marin Headlands Hostel was my first hostel experience. my friend and I stayed in a large «ward» of a room with a bout 18 plus beds. It was comfortable, and since there were only a total of six people in the large room, it was quiet. Since it was upstairs and the men’s bathroom was downstairs, I got a lot of exercise, which I did not mind. The place is isolated, peaceful, beautifully located for those who want to hike and bike. I plan to return. Though I did not interact to any great extend with staff, they seem cordial and organized. Very clean and comfortable. I should let you know that I am over 70 years old and l live an active lifestyle.

We love this quiet little get-​away! It’s a special place, 100 year old military hospital. The staff is great! The location is perfect, hiking trails galore!
Large spacious communal living room and kitchen. It’s a nice way to meet others from all over the world!
Coming back soon!

Amazing Hostel! The staff was incredibly friendly, the bedrooms and bathrooms were very clean, and the coffee was delicious. The headlands are majestic and the hiking was breathtakingly beautiful. I would absolutely suggest this to anyone looking to stay in the bay!
Ps — Their game selection was excellent! RISK 2210 FTW! :)

You can’t beat $ 28/​bed in San Francisco. You just can’t! Even with a Lyft ride out here for about $ 35 w/​tip we still saved compared to a hotel. The scenery is BEAUTIFUL! It’s so peaceful out there. I would much rather stay there than in one of the way overpriced hotels crammed into the busy streets with hundreds of cars and people passing by.
It really wasn’t too hard to find the place, but we did give our driver the GPS cordinates like the website recommends. We took the 76 muni back and let me say, it wasn’t the most pleasant ride. It had nothing to do with the driver, passengers, or the driver’s capabilities (he actually seemed to be a pretty skilled driver) it’s just a SUPER wind-​y trip. It felt a bit like being on a rollercoaster. Personally I would just take a Lyft there and a cab back (you will have to use their phone to call since there is no cell service).
This place really is super remote so be prepared for that. There’s zero phone signal, wifi, or data signal so make sure you are completely ok with that. Have everything you want to do planned out before you go. Print out maps and directions ahead of time. Bring food with you (and bring it in, since it seems like racoons are popular).
Just makes sure you know what you’re in for before you go. This place is like camping, but in old houses/​buildings. We stayed in the annex. The bathrooms were clean and spacious. The living room was comfty and had board games available to play. There was a computer but the internet didn’t work. Our room seemed a bit chilly to me, but I was sick. The beds were actually pretty decently comfortable. They are bunk bed style, though.
I felt completely safe out there too!

We spent 3 nights here on our honeymoon in 2011. We had a business trip to SF 3 years later and we made sure we extended our trip a few extra nights to stay in the same room we honeymooned in… the staff made some very gracious changes to make sure we got the same room… YEAH STAFF!!!
We LOVE staying here. It’s so quiet and out in the middle of nowhere but just a 10 minute drive to Golden Gate Bridge. I feel sorry for the people that come to SF and never make it to the Marin Headlands.
You can’t go wrong at this hostel as long as you can book your room far enough in advance. Prices are very reasonable for the area as well… and now breakfast is included (oatmeal and pancakes as long as you make them yourself).

Booked a private room in the annex… our family stayed two nights, but wished we’d booked more. The views are amazing… the area is a great place to explore, unwind, learn, meditate… forest, hills, trails, beaches, cliffs… all walking distance. Nearby (also walking distance), visitors center, marine mammal center, Wendell battery (explore old command posts/bunkers)…make for fun outings. OR stay in and read (this hostel does not close mid-​day like many others) on the comfy couches or sip tea on the porch overlooking the beautiful grounds… maybe you’ll spot owls, deer (we counted 14 in one day, but I’m pretty sure many were re-sightings…except for the buck!!!). Hang in the gameroom of the main house for fooseball, ping pong and pool. Clean, not so modern (the buildings are 107yrs old), but super friendly atmosphere and overall peaceful place… already booked our return trip.

I made a reservation online and booked 2 private rooms, even called to confirm that. Then a week before our reservation I called again to reconfirm and they had messed up the reservation and we were down to just 1 private room. Luckily they were able to find spots for everyone even if they got shuffled to the dorm rooms instead. And they were able to give us the same price for the new configuration (which I should hope so!). Good thing I found out before we all showed up!
The hostel is okay. The kitchen is well stocked and spacious as are the common areas. Rooms are okay. Bathrooms are kinda old and cramped.
The hostel is super popular so make reservations and also be sure to time your meals so the kitchen isn’t so crowded. Breakfast is included — which means oatmeal mix or pancake mix DIY breakfast.
Also note that like all HI Hostels in the US there’s a no alcohol policy.

In my opinion, this hostel needs to decide if their priority is to fill all the rooms randomly around larger parties, or to provide an environment that feels safe for all of their guests, including their female guests. Below is a long post since I obviously have to spell it out for them.
Because most women experience misogyny and sexual violence/​harassment from men on a daily basis– many times a day, and exclusively from men– there is a need to create intimate spaces women know will be free of men, so they know they can be safe. It is a necessity for any organization that claims to respect women. We can’t pretend that the perceived gender difference and associations people have with the female sex isn’t part of this violence. Someone socialized as male and regarded as male is not going to have the same awareness of the prevalence or severity of this violence.
I don’t think it’s a good choice to provide a co-​ed dorm as an only option for weary female travelers, not considering the difficulty I had with appropriateness in the common spaces. I was basically encouraged to book a room despite my discomfort. I didn’t expect to have to worry about rooming with more than one or two men because I was assured it could be unlikely that the room would be booked further, or by men instead of women. I was informed it was mainly women who booked at the hostel.
The male staff was actually irritated by the opinion that maintaining an exclusively female dorm was of higher priority than housing male travelers– when everyone theoretically has the option equally of calling ahead and making a reservation. I did not agree to a potential co-​ed situation in the absence of inappropriate reassurances from the staff: implications that it would be okay and would feel okay for me individually. A specific male staff member was problematic, he had long blond curly hair and obviously needs to be talked to by management.
It might be hard to understand how traumatizing it is to be regarded almost solely as a sexual object from a vulnerable age onward into adulthood, and then to experience repeated acts of sexual violation relationally and physically, from romantic partners and strangers, and even friends alike. It is worth respecting these social issues by creating equal access to space for women, which actually means maintaining boundaries around space.
The point is: there is a dire need for maintaining exclusively female dorms in a hostel, if that hostel is to be regarded as safe. Two women actually booked a private room the night before the foreseen overbooking emergency that necessitated a co-​ed dorm. They thought this situation was happening the night before and were out the next day, but still went through the trouble to change their accommodations because of the situation. No one felt safe or respected. To refuse to maintain a female-​only sleeping space is to refuse to be an ally to women as a minority group. There is a dire need for education of the male staff, especially not to try and make a sales pitch to desperate female travelers who are uncomfortable with co-​ed spaces and seriously questioning booking there.
In summary, weird and unprofessional booking policies are putting unneeded pressure and stress on female travelers. I wish I were refused accommodation upfront instead of sold on being there.
There needs to be a maximum accommodation number for large events (like weddings) that displace female and male travelers alike, if the hostel is going to compensate so poorly for those events, so that the hostel can still feel like a safe place for an entire subset of people who are systemically oppressed– the symptom of which is often sexual intrusion and violence, which in my opinion is much more frequently experienced and much more profoundly experienced by women than by men as a general statistical group, and much more frequently along the lines of gender-​based violence from a socially privileged group of people.
It is a privilege not to be on the receiving end of obviously unwanted over-​the-​top and perverted obnoxiously and assaultively communicative, very obvious, horrifically graphic sexual attention daily. It happened at THIS hostel multiple times in the space of a few hours.
It would be nice if there were an understanding that many men have the privilege of experiencing many other men as genuine people, where many women may not have the same access to that experience. Women are often seen as commodities before they’re seen as people, regardless of sexual attraction– by many «Nice Men» and also they experience the bestial and rapacious side of many people, namely men; for me only men, on a daily basis, completely unwanted and unasked for. It would happen constantly if I hadn’t worked on strategies to deal with it, and it has. It’s shocking and humorous to me that people who work as establishments like these don’t know this.
My experience was that this hostel was money-​grubbing and impersonal and ignorant.

Nice place, friendly staff, older structure, but a nice big communal area. PS Address is 941 Rosenstock Rd, a mile distant from the location posted on Unilocal

I spent two nights here on my first hostel trip, on my way back from Pt. Reyes. If you’re ok with the hostel experience this is a great way to stay right inside the headlands, where there’s so much to see and do.
Since I’m a grumpy old hermit, I got a private room. Since it’s a large hostel so they get groups frequently — my first night there, a school group of 7^th graders was staying there, so things were a little boisterous. They were being fairly well wrangled, so it wasn’t a problem. This is definitely a lively hostel, with musical instruments in the common room inviting everyone to get that jug band back together for just one night, and a downstairs game room with foosball, ping pong and pool tables. Kitchen is well appointed with all the basics you’ll need to cook your meals and lots of refrigerator space. The building itself is creaky and historic, just the way I like ‘em. One of my favorite things was the staff-​brewed coffee every morning — they ask for a donation of a dollar for a bottomless cup. Wifi is available (though I think that contributed to people being slightly less outgoing). I loved the wild turkeys roaming the parade grounds in front of the building in the mornings and the fresh smell of eucalyptus in the air.

Great Hostel!!! The church that I attend does a yearly retreat here, and I went last year. It’s in a great spot and has a common area, bathrooms, showers. I must admit the bathroom+shower situation, is somewhat, should I use the word, funky? Sure, why not. You’ll see what I mean when you go stay here. The guys, we had the bottom floor staying at this hostel. It’s a great place to go stay for a night or two if your local and want to get away from it all.

I had a good experience at this hostel. This was my first experience in the U.S. doing a hostel, and I am glad I went to this one first. The staff was very friendly, and the overall vibe was relaxed. The surroundings are beautiful with deer in the meadow, but watch out for those damn raccoons! I had to beat one off with a stick while I was trying to pack my backpack for camping the next day.
I was in an all-​female dorm with six beds and stayed two nights. People ranged from very nice to a little cranky. Fun to meet people from all around the world. Took a neat hike with a woman I met the first day down to Rodeo Beach which is an easy walk from the hostel. Gorgeous place!
The mattress on the bed felt very comfortable and the bathrooms were clean though old and rustic. I was plenty warm with the one sheet and wool blanket. You can ask for more blankets and pillows if needed, however you are not allowed to use your own bedding at all. The kitchen was well organized and it was easy to cook meals there.
My room was in the Annex building which was about 200 yards from the main one. I would recommend that. The main building seemed more noisy and not as nice. However, one BIG downfall of the Annex is that the Wi-​Fi did not work at all there. They kept saying they would «reset» it, but that never happened. I had to go to the main lobby to use my computer internet. Phone service is very sketchy in that area also, be aware of that. It’s just a remote area that’s all.
Overall, I would say this hostel is a great value for the money and you should give it a try for a nice woodlands/​beachy setting.

You know how some people who have never been to a hostel say, «Oh my GOD you couldn’t pay me to go to a hostel: Too many wild youngsters and noise!»
Well, this must be the exact hostel they’re thinking about.
Granted, I went as a solo traveler (and there were quite a few of us). And it’s true that I am a curmudgeon. Guilty as charged.
But gimme a break: the various Scout/​YMCA etc. groups took over the whole goddamn place. I knew that was a possibility going in, and that’s fine. However, the girl at the front desk told me that 10 p.m. was quiet time and that she strictly enforced it.
HAH just HAH. The teenagers prattled on at full volume till almost 11. I had to go and tell them to be quiet!
Some assorted FYIs:
They now have free wifi.
Checkout time is 11:30 not 10:30 as stated on the site.
Bottom line: I will happily return to the Pt. Reyes hostel (see my review) but never to this one.