Best Hotel View in San Francisco? – Fairmont San Francisco’s Fairmont Suite

The iconic Fairmont San Francisco sits high atop one of the city’s largest hills, Nob Hill. This high-altitude vantage point (already 376 feet above sea level) is unequaled by any of the city’s other luxury hotels. The Fairmont adds more height with a 29-floor, 325-foot-tall tower making its rooms and suites the highest you can get in the city.

Here’s a tour of one of the hotel’s signature accommodations, the Fairmont Suite. The spectacular suite feels more like a luxurious apartment in the sky as it’s atop the hotel’s tower and almost wrap-around windows with amazing views in every direction.

The Fairmont San Francisco

The Grande Dame hotel of the city was almost finished construction and about to open when the city was rocked by the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. Its sturdy, concrete construction meant the structure itself survived and was rebuilt in time to open in 1907. The hotel, with its stately rooms and suites, has been the epicenter (sorry) of the city’s luxury and social scene since opening. It continues to set the standard for service and for luxury accommodations while the city around it has changed much in the 113 years since its opening.

The Fairmont Suite

The modern 1,450 square-foot suite is on the 23rd floor of the Tower building. It gives its lucky guests truly epic 270-degree views of the city and the Bay. You get views of all the city’s icons: the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, Coit Tower, Downtown San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the East Bay Hills and Twin Peaks, and you get a telescope to view them. 

You also get a spa-inspired master bathroom with an amazing infinity bathtub overlooking the city. There’s a big living room, perfect for entertaining, with a big dining table. The suite is great for parties and is especially popular with wedding groups. It can be combined with adjoining suites and rooms to create accommodations for up to 20 people.

The Penthouse

While the Fairmont San Francisco’s Fairmont Suite is a spectacular accommodation, it’s not their most spectacular. That honor belongs to the hotel’s mind-blowing Penthouse, a 6,000 square-foot mansion built on top of the hotel for a rich guest who wanted to live there. You can read more and see a tour of the Penthouse here.

While You’re There

Aside from the luxurious accommodations and Fairmont service, guests need to make a trip to the Tonga Room, the Fairmont’s famous tiki-themed supper club. The club has tables placed around the hotel’s former olympic-sized swimming pool where a tiki band plays on a boat that crosses back and forth across the pool. All this is occasionally interupted by indoor rainshowers with lightning and falling rain.

History buffs should visit the hotel’s Garden Room conference area to see the plaque commemorating the founding of the United Nations, as the charter was signed in the room in 1945. Music fans should pay a visit to the Venetian Room lounge, where Tony Bennett first performed “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in 1961.

Read more of Freddy Sherman’s take on travel on his Go World Travel Blog. You can also follow more of his adventures at luxuryfred.com, on his luxuryfred Instagram feed and on his YouTube channel.