Heads of state choose the Fairmont for its grand hotel swagger – magnificent marble lobby, opulent mosaic penthouse suite, bacchanalian brunches – plus San Francisco eccentricity, including tiki Tonga Room and deco circus-mural Cirque bar. Guest rooms offer business-class comfort, but comparatively less character and luxury than public spaces. For historic appeal, reserve in the original 1906 building; for jaw-dropping views, go for the tower.
Fairmont San Francisco
Top choice in San Francisco
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
4.16 MILES
When Frederick Law Olmsted, architect of New York's Central Park, gazed in 1865 upon the plot of land San Francisco Mayor Frank McCoppin wanted to turn…
2.54 MILES
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0.28 MILES
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0.45 MILES
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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
0.69 MILES
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0.77 MILES
If you want to really see San Francisco, head to Coit Tower, a 1933 art deco beaut designed by Arthur Brown, Jr. and Henry Howard that sits high up on…
3.92 MILES
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2.4 MILES
Welcome to San Francisco's sunny side, the land of street ball and Mayan-pyramid playgrounds, semiprofessional tanning and taco picnics. Although the…
Nearby San Francisco attractions
0.04 MILES
The only Nob Hill mansion to survive the 1906 earthquake and fire is this neoclassical brownstone. Today it's a private men's-only club with an exclusive…
0.08 MILES
The crowning jewel of Nob Hill is this posh park – once the exclusive stomping ground of billionaires, now a park enjoyed by all, from gleeful toddlers at…
3. Masonic Auditorium & Temple
0.12 MILES
Rock stars and conspiracy theorists alike are mysteriously drawn to the Masonic – a major concert venue and the Masons' main temple for California…
0.14 MILES
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5. Chinese Historical Society of America
0.16 MILES
Picture what it was like to be Chinese in America during the gold rush, transcontinental railroad construction, and Beat heyday in this 1932 landmark,…
0.19 MILES
That clamor you hear riding cable cars is the sound of San Francisco's peak technology at work. Gears click and wire-hemp ropes whir as these vintage…
0.24 MILES
A 26-story deco dental building fit for the gods, this 1929 Mayan-revival stone skyscraper has a lobby covered floor to ceiling with cast-bronze snakes…
0.26 MILES
Sun Yat-sen once plotted the overthrow of China’s last dynasty here at number 36, and during Prohibition, this was the site of turf battles over local…