I want to do a trip to SF to sightsee and network.<p>But I want to keep costs down.<p>Hotel / AirBnB are the easiest options, but what about co-living spaces and hacker houses?<p>Ideally want to network with people working on llms / ml ops, so the community of a hacker house is appealing.<p>But never stayed in one before, so not sure what to expect!<p>Any help would be appreciated.
Muni (the bus, streetcar, and lightrail system) is great for getting around the city. Some routes are crowded and occasionally get some unpleasant people, but most of them are chill. Especially if you just avoid the commute hours. Tickets are valid for like 2-3 hours, no need to buy a ticket every time you get on. The 1 route is very fun, takes you through Chinatown and the hills. The 28 takes you from Fisherman's Wharf to the Golden Gate Bridge to Golden Gate Park.<p>Our ballpark is beautiful, catch a game there on a sunny day even if you don't care about baseball. Just go on a ticket site or the ticket window right before the game and you should be able to get in cheap.<p>Put up a "couch wanted" post on Craigslist. It's still active here.<p>Our meetup scene is still very active. Most events are free and sometimes even have free beer and pizza. I for sure have seen a few AI groups.<p>Check out <a href="https://noisebridge.net" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://noisebridge.net</a><p>Take the Caltrain down to Mountain view and make the pilgrimage to the computer history museum<p>The only neighborhoods where you should prepare yourself for SF looking like a dystopia is dead-center of the city, ironically right next to City Hall. You can visualize SF like an apple with a rotten core. No offense to the people living there, it's just a fact that it looks rough. All the neighborhoods on the outside are chill and pretty. It's only a small part of the core (Tenderloin, and the northern edge of SoMA near Tenderoin) where things look super rough. Even there, you'll be fine. I lived at Hyde & Ellis for a year. Treat people with respect and you'll be treated with respect.<p>Beware The Great Wall Of Fog in the west. You'll be at the Ferry Building and it's beautiful and sunny. And then you head to the ocean and you are practically swimming in fog.<p>You've got to ride a cable car once. Just pay the $8 and do it. Get on near the Ferry Building, then get off at the Fairmont and grab a beer at The Top Of The Mark (on a sunny day).<p>Find my email (or some other way to contact me) and I can buy you a beer<p>I have endless suggestions on where to go and what to see, just give me more pointers on what you like / don't like.<p>Welcome!
The super boring answer?<p>Get a hotel in like Concord somewhere reasonably walkable from the BART, and take public transportation into the city. If you're going to sightsee, despite what people say, you need a car. I would recommend driving down CA 1, see Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, etc. Take another day to see Napa and the North Bay.<p>I can't speak for hacker houses but I think you might be disappointed. You'll end up networking with a bunch of college students, and the risk of getting taken advantage of is super high. A better option might be finding specific framework or tool you are interested in on meetup.com. You can also meet a surprising number of people in tech by going to any random bar. You won't be able to throw a stone very far without running into a bunch of tech people.
Try if you can get to stay at HI San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf Hostel - <a href="https://www.hiusa.org/find-hostels/california/san-francisco-building240-fortmason" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.hiusa.org/find-hostels/california/san-francisco-...</a><p>The other idea is to ask around and get a room, with existing roommates that has already setup the likes of Kitchen, Washer, etc. and piggyback your grocery purchase with a friend that has a COSTCO membership.<p>Best of Luck.
If you're going back and forth everyday, I would ignore every suggestion to stay outside SF, except for maybe stays in the Daly City-adjacent areas since more trains run through there. I travel to the Bay Area on occasion for work (and used to live there for a few years), the travel time + BART costs wouldn't be worth it IMO.<p>In terms of "Hacker houses", I've only known one person (a coworker) who stayed in one long-term, but he was pretty eccentric. He complained about his living situation a good amount, but, attempting to reduce some of his biases, they seem to be in a "you pay for what you get" type of situation.<p>Last suggestion: book an initial stay through a hotel/Airbnb with a short duration -- with the intent of finding a co-living space if you're really that intent on living in one. This will give you time to scope locations out _in person_ and potentially toss out options that only look good in advertisements.
For a great, cheap day of sightseeing:<p>Pack a picnic lunch from items from a grocery store.<p>Rent or borrow a bicycle at the wharf. Ride it across the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito.<p>Read up on and take reasonable precautions when locking up the bike.<p>Bum around Sausalito and take the ferry back. Good times.
I stayed as a guest student in San Francisco Zen center for $20/night (currently it's $25/night). But you will have assigned work to do during the day (I cut onions in the kitchen) but you will be free in the evenings and on weekends to explore the city. The city center of the Zen center is right in the city. Details here [1]<p>I stayed mostly to learn about Zen meditation (I had heard that Steve Jobs practiced Zen meditation). This was when I was brand new to San Francisco just before joining my first job after finishing up my Masters as an International student.<p>Post my one week stay here, I stayed in a hacker house (Startup Embassy) for one whole year, staying in a bunk bed and having some of the best days of my life chatting and exploring with other founders and wannabe-entrepreneurs. Then started own own hacker house (community living with airbnb beds for founders) with friends I made there for the next year, near Mountain View California. My friends made it into YC and I returned to India to startup (due to H1B visa considerations among other things). I'm not sure if these are accepting guests anymore.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.sfzc.org/locations/city-center/visits-stays-city-center/guest-student-stays-city-center" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.sfzc.org/locations/city-center/visits-stays-city...</a>
Don’t forget to check out the parks in between networking - Of course golden gate is worth a day or two but also recommend alamo square or hiking to the top of buena vista.
I recommend the bus system and Uber/Lyft - driving in the city isn’t fun and you’re likely to get your window broken if you don’t have a dedicated garage to park in.
San Francisco is amazing and I hope you do make the trip.
My gmail is matthewlewisnewton - email me if you don’t already have events planned.
How long are you staying?<p>I don't know of any co-living spaces / hacker-houses that have short term opportunities, most are commitments on the order of a few months to a year at a time. Personally I would try to find a few roommates (in your network or through some common forums) who are collectively interested in the ML space and go from there.<p>To your broader question about keeping costs low, I'd recommend some general strategies that are probably true anywhere:<p>- Host dinner at your house instead of eating out. Raw ingredients to cook at home in SF are no more expensive than other places in the country but eating out can get really pricy really quickly.<p>- Get a bike, Clipper card, or sign up for Revel. People love to hate on Muni but if you're willing to wait a bit for the bus they typically get you where you need to go. You also feel more connected to the city versus looking out of an Uber window. Or even cheaper just walk the hills are not that bad.<p>- If you end up not going the hacker home route, there are a lot of SF Housing facebook groups where people try to find people to fill temporary sublets. They're usually a bit cheaper than rent prices and way cheaper than AirBnBs.<p>- If you already have an apartment back home I also know companies like Kindred let you swap housing 1:1 so you might have some luck this way.<p>Welcome to the city! See you around.
Staying outside of SF itself is probably the easiest way to save money. Somewhere that's either close to a CalTrain or BART station. It may be a hassle getting in and out out the city depending on where you find a place, but much more affordable. Start there, then look into co-living in the city while you're here—that's usually a longer-term commitment.<p>This makes me feel a bit old and out of touch—when I came to the city ~10 years ago, I remember knowing a few larger houses (e.g. Negev). But haven't heard of any since then—beyond private houses set up by friends with a smaller number of people. Are the larger houses still a thing?
When I was first out of college I stayed at Green Tortoise Hostel for a week on about $250. Definitely not glamorous - the rooms are pretty packed and stuffy. But it was a lot of fun hanging out with a bunch of poor young travelers from around the world. Lots of wandering the city in the day and staying out late in North Beach.<p>Hacker Houses can be kind of intense - people are usually in grind mode. And also they aren’t as good of a deal as you’d think, because anything “tech” in SF gets a markup. You can find short term HH sublets on Craigslist sometimes but they’re usually meh.<p>Meetup and Eventbrite would be my go-tos for finding networking events.
I've been invited out to SF to 'network' by founders and VC's a total of 3 times over the past decade+. 10+ years ago the hostels were $11 a night, and Airbnb room could be $45 - $65. The last time I convinced myself maybe sleeping in Delores Park during the day and wandering around at night could work, but luckily because of tech connections I didn't have to do that. Now days I just stay in Chicago and when VCs and founders tell me to go out to SF I tell them to buy me a ticket and a hotel room, and often I do not receive a response to that.
Research the neighborhood you're staying in. It's not uncommon for people to find a hotel that's TL-adjacent, think it's a great location because it's close to Union Square, then find themselves horrified when they step out in the morning.
If you’d like great and reasonably priced coffee check out The Coffee Movement near China Town. They do a $3.50 Cappuccino and it’s where barista’s go after work. They’re also on the same street as the free Cable Car museum.
Others have posted good advice, so I'll just add that if you need any human poop or hypodermic needles, you can find plenty of both all over the ground. And it's all free!
A lot of people appear to be camping and enjoying the outdoors
at various streets and locations in SF.<p>That is probably the cheapest option.<p>Not sure about the networking