Westin St. Francis

On our first visit to San Francisco I think we gave very little thought to which hotel we would stay at. Not that we didn't care, you understand, but we always considered the Westin St Francis THE place to stay, and so we never gave the Fairmont or the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental (being the two main competitors in my mind now) a second thought. We booked our stay through Kuoni as part of a tailor made itinerary, and paid approximately £170 for the room per night (we were there 7 nights). After an eventful taxi ride from the airport we arrived rather dishevelled at the hotel (I didn't realise the San Francisco taxi drivers re-enacted scenes ...

If you have heard the expression "Meet me by the clock" spoken by an American, it derives from the famous St Francis hotel in San Francisco with the huge Magenta grandfather clock in the foyer. It was built in 1904 and opened to much fan fare. It originally had just 2 tower blocks, providing luxorious accomodation to the rich and famous. It has since been extended with an extra front tower that matches the building as well as an ugly high rise tower block to the rear that does not fit in. Several famous guests have stayed there over the years and led to some controversy. During the 1920's Fatty Arbuckle stayed there. Friends with ...