Land Of Plenty

San Francisco’s cosmopolitan pleasures and Napa Valley’s bucolic diversions both beckon the sophisticated traveler

- Jeremy Tredinnick

San Francisco has many reputations: its pea-soup fog is renowned, its Gold Rush history exciting, its hills and clanking trolley cars iconic, while infamous Alcatraz and the towering Golden Gate Bridge stand prominently apart, but famously part of the whole.

It’s also one of the most urbane, progressive cities in the US – a magnet for international tourists and tech entrepreneurs (as well as down-on-their-luck Americans), all attracted to its benign climate and a diverse, cosmopolitan population that has given rise to a thriving arts and culture scene.

The morning I arrive the sun is blazing and there’s not a wisp of fog in the air. My accommodation is lofty both in geographic terms – standing near the top of the steep but stylish Nob Hill district – and in its position within the upper echelons of the hospitality sector. The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco is the city’s only AAA Five Diamond-rated hotel, housed in a gorgeous neoclassical edifice built in 1909. Looking down California Street, a sliver of glittering water and a slice of the Bay Bridge can be seen between the skyscrapers.

The Ritz-Carlton’s interior was renovated a couple of years ago, refurbished with a palette of steel blues and grays representing a weather theme for this city with its own unique microclimate. Lunch at the hotel’s Parallel 37 restaurant is a stomach bulging affair in the private dining room – Chef Michael Rotondo knows how to craft contemporary American dishes with a dash of panache.

As the jet lag hits, we retire to the hotel’s Spa L’Occitane by the Bay, opened late last year and the brand’s very first in America. A soothing traditional massage is the perfect antidote to a long and tiring, 16-hour transpacific flight.

The Streets of San Francisco