The Scarlet Huntington

Large rooms with fantastic views from the top of Nob Hill. Lobby and rooms were decorated in a very California eclectic style. Great balcony off of the hotel spa and great location with cable car outside the front door of hotel.

Placed just opposite Grace Cathedral, this large boutique hotel is an ideal city break. Greeted quickly by porters and even an early check in thanks to the concierge getting my email in the morning. The room we had was a deluxe and its was a large suite. Comfortable beds, modern attire and clean. There is a small pool (don't expect to do any laps in this one) and a small outside balcony. Be prepared to fight for a sun lounger! Sun is there until 4pm. Let's face it, we don't go to the city for sun bathing. My only gripe is the price. Breakfast set up back a rather crazy $85 odd. This is two cooked breakfasts, orange juice and a coffee. It was nice of course but beyond sensible. Advice, just look up breakfast places near the hotel. There are plenty close by and will save you at least $50. It's also worth noting, a small glass of white wine with tax and service charge to the pool will be another $20. In a nutshell: Expect a great hotel in a really good location. Easy to get to all aspects of the city. Lovely rooms and quiet too. Avoid eating and drinking in the hotel unless your wallet is feeling very heavy.

On one of its highest hills, the Scarlet Huntington is a magestic building located in Nob Hill, one of San Francisco's prime locations. From the moment we pulled up in front of the hotel, we were made to feel very welcome by the staff, who went out of their way help us. We were allocated a room on floor eleven, which was huge, beautifully decorated and immaculately clean. There are not many restaurants in close proximity to the hotel and we found ghe hotel restaurant rather expensive. So this does mean a short walk or taxi to eat. Only negative with this hotel is it's location on top of the hill. Everything is downhill and uphill on the way back. Some streets are ridiculously steep.

Staff is friendly, helpful and very attentive. Furnishings are fun and functionality of suite is good. Driver service is limited, but a nice touch. Piano bar/restaurant is a nice touch as well. Doormen very welcoming and attentive.

We have visited San Francisco many times, staying in hotels that look like all the hotels in every major city across the US. Recently, we set ourselves the goal of staying at least once at each of the famous, historic, and unique hotels that now stand at the top of Nob Hill. This May we booked a room at the Scarlet Huntington Hotel and we loved our stay. History provides the Inspiration: At the top of Nob Hill once stood the mansions of the four biggest movers and shakers of San Francisco in the Gilded Age: Collis P. Huntington, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and Charles Crocker. The mansions of each of these "Big Four" met their end in the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906. Famous luxury hotels have risen from the ashes of those Robber Barons' Nob Hill "palaces" and each, in their own way, helps us to remember that period in The City's history and the men who defined it. The Nob Hill location of the Huntington Hotel is also special, because it sits across the street from Grace Cathedral. Grace Cathedral is also built on the ashes of one of those mansions, and for me, it is important to our more recent history. The mere mention of Grace Cathedral conjures up memories of the many famous sermons, speeches, musical performances, and funerals relating to significant social movements of our recent national past that occurred there. Service Please: Before going further, I must say that something we had not especially counted on was the down-to-earth friendliness of the staff. The word "luxury" hotel just brings something else to mind. To a person, the staff were kind, caring, helpful, and unpretentious in their service. They made us feel welcomed and comfortable, during in our stay, and we were genuinely glad to have met and spoken with each of them. Art and Architecture Evolving: Built 1922 as the Huntington Apartments, this structure was soon converted to the Huntington Hotel (1924). This landmark hotel and restaurant was in business, up until it was sold, closed briefly, and remodeled at a huge expense, to be re-opened in May 2014. The historic architecture of the hotel is well-preserved. Inside, you can still see the antique glass-fronted mail chute with brass mail slots running down each floor, between the elevator doors. You can imagine how once-busy residents and visitors of the last century merely dropped in their post in and watched it swoosh down to the ground floor, where it would be whisked off to the post office by the efficient staff. The stair cases have elegant old-fashioned iron and brass balusters and rails. Our room was characteristic of older hotels, not huge, but more than adequate. The windows open to let in real fresh air and--if you like to hear them--the sounds of the Grace Cathedral chimes, so unlike modern hermetically sealed skyscraper hotels. (But, when closed, no street noises disturbed our sleep!) What was unexpected was the lively, colorful, and imaginative new interior design that overtook the lobby, shop, and guest rooms as part of the big remodel in 2014. The bathrooms are stunningly modern, perfectly functioning and lovely. But, the furnishings and carpets in the guest rooms, were like the lobby, were a real surprise! They show imagination and cheekiness reminiscent of the castle in Disney's Beauty and Beast or Dr. Seuss picture books: colorful, dramatic, and a bit fantastical! Had there been a candlestick on the desk, I might have expected it to suddenly lean over and start speaking to me in sotto voce, when no one was looking! One desk literally was half ultra-modern, and half silvered Rococo, in its shape and wood finishes. Location, location, location: Our room was on the street, and so its windows overlooked Huntington Park with its formal fountain and well-kept landscape plants. It turned out to be a well-used park, where locals take their young kids in the mornings and their dogs in the afternoon, to chat and enjoy the fresh air. One weekday morning, we looked outside to see a slender middle-aged woman leading a handful of other women in what looked like a traditional Chinese dance/exercise routine. (It looked like they were doing Tai Chi with to lively and distinctively-Chinese instrumental tunes!) A reminder that just a few blocks down the hill is the city's famous China Town. Across Taylor Street (the adjacent side street)--and also in view from our room--sits the San Francisco landmark: Grace Cathedral. For me, it was a real plus that we could simply walk across the street on a weekday morning to enter and view this wonderful edifice. Our spirits rose inspired by its beautiful stained glass windows, but our hearts were touched by its Aids Interfaith Memorial chapel. A large segment of the Aids Quilt was hanging in that chapel, whose center of attention was a gilded alter piece titled “The Life of Christ� (1990) by New York pop artist Keith Haring--described as "his last work before his own death from AIDS". Across Taylor on the same side of California Avenue as the Scarlet Huntington Hotel--mere steps from the entrance to the Huntington--is the Masons Grand Lodge of California, which we were thrilled to discover provides the best public parking garage we have yet found in SF. It was clean, manned, very safe feeling, had public loos, smoothly working elevators, and even provided electric car charging bays. All this for $38 a day--with in-and-out privileges. Once parked, we never took our car out for the next three days. Instead we walked the city or took the ubiquitous public transit. To Food and Drink: We also had a drinks and breakfast in the Huntington Hotel's long famous "Big 4" restaurant. Its interior is a monument in photography, memorabilia, and period-piece decor to that era and these wealthy men who defined it. There is a dashing portrait of the actor Walter Pidgeon, painted we were told by an itinerant hotel resident who left it as payment. The appetizer menu was interesting, the breakfast menu fine. But, the interior decor was fascinating, if you are interested in SF history. I would advise you take the time to wander about in a quiet moment and look at all the historic photos and items scattered throughout the entry, bar, dining room, and don't miss the functions rooms along the back hallway. BTW-- It is good to know that you can take the expensive cable car up and down California street directly to the hotel, but we also learned you could get $2 bus ride back up the hill from Market Street, by simply walking one block over from the cable car end of line, to the bus stop at the bottom of Sacramento Street. (I read once that the reason the cable cars traversed California Street was precisely because Leland Stanford and his buddies through lavish parties, and their guests needed a pain-free way to get up and down from their commanding location on Nob Hill. I would believe it!) While we didn't take a ride on the famed cable cars this visit, we did go to the Cable Car Museum, which is actually a working power house and maintenance barn not all that far from Nob Hill. That was an interesting place, but also a very loud environment, a relic of our earlier "industrial age". Take ear protection, if you plan to put this tourist stop on your itinerary!