Marin Headlands, a comfortable hostel in a rustic setting, sits on a hillside in the Marin Headlands section of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.

The hostel itself is nice and spacious with a large kitchen, large reading room with couches, and a downstairs game room with vending machines, pool table, and a ping-pong table.

In the park just outside the door, you can hike the open meadows, bike the coastal mountainside, check out the operating Point Bonita lighthouse, tour military barracks and batteries from both world wars, see the nation's only officially restored Nike missile site, or head to one of many local beaches. Several other popular destinations, including Mount Tamalpais State Park and Muir Woods, where you can stand or hike among the majestic coastal redwoods are also nearby.