Pacific Tradewinds' Heart is the Common Room with Free Tea, Coffee and Travel Information

At Home in Hostel Territory: A Guide to Friendly Lodgings from Seward to Santa Cruz by Janet Thomas # 78. Pacific Tradewinds Hostel     This hostel opened in May 1992 and quickly established itself as a refuge right in the heart of San Francisco. The "home away from home" philosophy of owners/managers Kim Dahowski and Darren Overby reflects their longtime hosteling experience. Darren managed hostels in Scotland and New York; Kim has traveled the international hostel trail. If you're here for Christmas, expect a stocking; for Thanksgiving you'll get a session in preparing traditional turkey and pumpkin pie.     Pacific Tradewinds is in a 5-story building, Dahowski and Overby live in the top-floor penthouse. The hostel is on the third and fourth floors. Just buzz yourself in. There's no curfew, so you can do San Francisco to your heart's content - and sleep in the next morning.     The 12-foot-long table in the common room is the heart of this hostel. There's free tea and coffee, caseloads of travel information, a display of the manager's international travel photography, and free planned group activities for exploring the city. And its location couldn't be better - one block from the landmark Pyramid Building, one block from Chinatown, a 10-minute walk from Greyhound, and a 5-minute walk from the Amtrak bus and the ferry to Sausalito and Tiburon across the bay.