How was your hotel/hostel?

I'd like to put together a mini-guide for my Wrimos in the USA :: PA :: Lehigh Valley region for next year. Could anyone who has the time just drop a line here with what hotel or hostel or bed & breakfast you stayed in so I could put something together? The reviews on Hotels.com and similar sites are great, but nothing compared to reviews from real folks I met that night.

Thanks!

And I'll start:

We stayed at the Galleria Park Hotel which averages rooms at $119/night - not exactly cheap. But it was amazing. It's pet friendly, there was a wine tasting in the lobby every evening from 5:30-6:30, and the service was stupendous. They recognized us when we left and returned, there was a fireplace and ample seating in the lobby. There's a walking track on the roof along with a garden to enjoy when it's not raining.

They are ninjas with the bedding, tucking it in so nothing will fall out of that bed (I slept with my Alphasmart). The Double Double room (2 double beds) we had was tight, the bathroom tighter, but the shower head was tall enough for a 6'2" person to not have to duck. (IMPORTANT!) You couldn't sit at the desk and let the person on the far side of the room get to the bathroom, but that was a minor inconvenience. The mini-fridge was stocked, but PRICEY - which was fine because there was a 7-11 just a block away.

Don't open the $5 bottles of water - they aren't worth it! (Unless you need a water bottle to travel with, and then they're great.)

I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone. It was a grand total of 4.5 blocks from the event, and my dad who has some mobility issues (his cane is a weapon AND a beacon!) had no problem, even after an evening of wine, sugar, coffee and writing.

Thanks all for your help!

The Pacific Tradewinds Hostel was super close to everything, the people very friendly, less than $30 a night, and they no longer charge a service fee for using a debit/credit card. They do charge $20 deposit but you get it back as cash when you check out regardless of what you paid with at check in. Major helpful so that I didn't have to make an extra stop for cash before my flight back home!

I would definitely consider going back there anytime I am in the San Fran area if I am alone again. I never once felt unsafe and they try to help with all questions and requests you might have. For example, when I made my reservation online, I wrote that I'd prefer an all female room, and they managed to accommodate me during my entire stay!

I stayed in the Dakota Hostel. It was $20 a night and I was on the top bunk in a mixed dorm room, which was fine, though I've never done that before so I was constantly worried about waking people up when I got in late at night. Which was every night. This is normal for hostels, though, I am told, and whenever I woke people up they were very nice about it.

The staff were helpful and friendly, especially considering that I only dealt with them late at night and early in the morning. The hostel has a nice lounge where I spent Sunday afternoon writing and listening to the rain. The wi-fi was pretty fast, for being shared between so many people. There was a kitchen and I had a bagel with Nutella for breakfast one morning, yum. I took the BART to get there from the airport and walked from Powell Station, but on the way back to the airport I took the shuttle, which only cost a couple dollars more and took half as much time. I definitely recommend that. The walk to the ballroom was not as long as I was expecting it to be. It only took about twenty minutes, and I was moving slowly because I'd hurt my knee the day before. But if I go to NOWD again I may try to find somewhere a little closer.

Anyway, if they have single rooms and I'm not worried about the walk to the ballroom, I would stay there again. The dorm hostel experience is not really for me, but the hostel itself was good.

My guest and I also shared a room at the Galleria Park Hotel, so I don't have a whole lot to add to your review, Nicki. We also thought it was great, convenient for walking to the BART station as well as the JMB (very nice when your flight out in the morning requires you to leave the hotel at ten of five) and the staff was great--one gentleman in particular set us up with maps, directions, and a recommendation for an excellent dim sum place where we got lunch before the event. Free wifi also, which was a huge plus, especially given that we were completely unable to get online at the ballroom, so updating wordcounts and blogging and so forth had to happen when we returned. The hotel room also had a nice sort of homey feel, a little different in style from traditional chain hotels--something about the paint and paneling and exceptionally high ceilings. Lighting for doing our 40s hair and makeup was all right in the bathroom but not so hot in the rest of the room, though there was a mirror on the back of the closet door so it was doable--I just had to run into the bathroom a few times to better see what I was actually doing to my face. We didn't eat from the fridge but it was convenient for storing our breakfast bagels and cream cheese that we bought from a nearby shop the night before (in preparation for that 5am departure)--not a lot of room since it's mostly taken up by overpriced drinks, but we were able to shove a brown sandwich bag in there without trouble.

...There, that's quite a mishmash of thoughts, but I think it covers most of our comments on the place.

I stayed with saucebox at Hosteling International's SF Downtown Hostel on 312 Mason St. It's a bit further from the ballroom, so we took a cab. If f you share a cab with another person it's about $5 a person.

The Hostel is very clean, the staff are very nice. I only saw the early morning and late night staff which was the same person, and he was extremely nice and helpful. Our room had the two twin beds and a private bath. The beds were comfortable. Room, bathroom, and sheets were clean and the place was quiet inside. The noise outside... that can't be helped.

However, for those living in dorms, their dorm bathrooms do have several individual toilet/bathrooms on each floor, so it's not like the "dorm experience" of college. You still get some privacy.

There was free wifi with great signal.

Problem was there wasn't many mirrors, only one small mirror in the bathroom, which would be problem for two girls getting ready for a fancy event. Half of the time I had to run outside into the hallway use the full length mirror. It felt odd standing in the hallway all dressed up and doing my hair. I did get a few looks and compliments.

Another problem was the bathroom window was nailed opened, so during November it's COLD! But with the bathroom door close the room itself was still warm.

Union square is literally a block away, and there is a Lulu's Diner opened 24 hours right next door.

It was about $110 a night, pretty much same price as a hotel. I'd recommend this hostel if you're looking for a clean hostel with nice people to stay. I would stay here again, but maybe next time I'd look for something closer to the ballroom too.

I stayed at Club Quarters, on Clay street. It was fairly inexpensive - I actually got a package deal with expedia - four nights at the hotel, flights on Delta from Buffalo with a layover at JFK, and traveller's insurance for $800

The room was fairly spacious, the wi-fi was good, the front desk staff were friendly, and the housekeeping was professional. I arrived just as a fire drill was ending, I think, and the lobby was busy - the clerk seemed to think that I didn't know how to use the auto-check-in computers and walked me through using one, though I just hadn't noticed them on the other side of the lobby.

The door to the higher floors was behind the front desk and usually locked, though they'd let you through after seeing your key, and it would open from the stairway side. The elevators had a slot that you needed to run your keycard through before they would take you to your floor.

I figured that I'd get to know a slightly different neighborhood, being to the northeast of the ballroom building, but mostly I got a lot of exercise, walking back towards Union square every day for breakfast and such. But that was good too. :)

I picked the hotel partly because it had an Elephant and Castle tavern as the hotel restaurant and room service provider, but I didn't actually eat there. (I've been to E&C franchises in Toronto, mostly with the Toronto Browncoats or Toronto Buffy group.)

A friend and I shared a room at the Hotel Mark Twain. I think it came out to about $80/night for a room with two double beds. It was cheaper than getting a private room at the hostels we checked. We thought it was kind of charming for the price, although they didn't seem to do a whole lot with the Mark Twain theme.

The hotel had free wi-fi, and it was in walking distance from the ballroom, but we ended up taking a cab there and back. There were a couple coffee shops close by, and it was really close to the BART station and other main streets.

The only downsides, really, were the thin walls (you could hear your neighbors), and it wasn't in the best neighborhood. There was a soup kitchen literally right around the corner so there were a lot of unsavory looking characters hanging about, but no one really bothered us.

If you're putting together a visitor's guide, it might be worthwhile to include a list of interesting coffee shops where it's okay to sit, set up your laptop, and write for a length of time. We had a lot of trouble finding places that were okay with that!

There were a couple not far from our hotel:

Philz Coffee 3101 24th Street at Folsom
Sugar Cafe 679 Sutter Street
La Boulange 685 Market Street (It was warm enough to sit at on the sidewalk patio writing for a while)

Our favorite place was Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe in North Beach/Telegraph Hill. We went there two days in a row, just before lunch. There's a great corner table by the window with outlets. Their coffee is fantastic, and we always stayed for lunch. They served pizza and sandwiches...
It would always get really crowded around lunch time, and if we'd arrived during the rush, we probably wouldn't have been comfortable setting up our laptops. Just before lunchtime it would be pretty empty and quiet.

I stayed at The Castle Inn. I booked a package (air/car/hotel) through Expedia and the package averaged out to about $100 a day.

http://castleinnsf.com/

It was clean and in a safe neighborhood, the staff was extremely polite and helpful. Here are the amenities listed on their site.

FREE PARKING
Elevator Access to All Levels
Free Tour Pickup
Central & Safe Location
Continental Breakfast
Cable TV with HBO
Voicemail / Dataports
Free Hi-Speed Wireless Internet Access
In-room Coffee
Microwave / Mini-Fridge
Iron & Ironing Board
Hair Dryer
Full bathtub / Shower
Massage Showerhead

It was noisy in the morning, so it is more of a hotel for morning larks than night owls. The decor hasn't been updated since the 1980s. And the water pipes banged as other guests took showers.

That said, it had free parking and Wi-fi, and for me, that was worth its weight in gold. The bed was comfortable. It was a perfectly serviceable hotel. And it was equidistant to the ballroom and Ghirardelli Square. I wouldn't stay at The Castle if you wanted to walk to the Ballroom (there are a lot of hills), but if you are renting a car, it was great.