Romantic couples, travelers on weekend getaways and other visitors to the City by the Bay couldn't find a better location than the downtown Palace Hotel near the financial district, Chinatown, Union Square's high-end shopping and Fisherman's Wharf. The Palace is about five miles from the Golden Gate Bridge and Park and 15 miles from San Francisco International Airport.
The Palace Hotel, housed in an 125-year-old landmark building, is fully restored right down to the shiny doorknobs and mosaic tiles in the restaurants. Crowned by a dome of stained glass and shimmering chandeliers, the Garden Court is popular for afternoon high tea. The hotel's Kyo-ya, one of the city's premier Japanese restaurants, serves sushi, sashimi and traditional Japanese cuisine. Guests can also enjoy innovative California cuisine in Maxfield's Restaurant, with such delectables as Parish Pot Roast, Roasted Muscovy Duck Breast and Seared Monkfish Medallions. Guests can visit the hotel's Pied Piper for after-dinner drinks and live jazz underneath the famous Maxfield Parrish mural, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin."
The Palace also features a fitness center, health spa, sky-lit pool, personalized fitness and yoga sessions, and massages. Other amenities include airport transportation, ballroom, banquet facilities and event catering, limousine and Town Car service, and a 53,000-square-feet conference center with business center.
The eight-story San Francisco hotel's 552 guestrooms and 34 suites feature 14-foot ceilings, mahogany furnishings, executive-style desks, 24-hour room service, high-speed Internet access, safes, refrigerators, premium bedding, bathrobes, and windows that open to let in the cool breezes.
This historic hotel, whose famous denizens range from Oscar Wilde to Enrico Caruso, was one of the country's first luxury hotels. Painstaking restoration returned the grand dame to white-gloved glamour, where high society hobnobs with business travelers, local power players and vacationers over high tea and jazz.
