Palace Hotel, San Francisco

The Palace Hotel, San Francisco presides as a landmark of the Gilded Age in America's Golden Gate city. The 23 function rooms, including three majestic ballrooms, cater to all manner of events, from intimate board meetings to glamorous black-tie galas. Vintage touches—such as a marble ballroom fireplace and gilded orchestra cage—combine with state-of-the-art technology and support to ensure meetings as seamlessly professional as they are memorable.

The hotel rests on the corner of New Montgomery and Market Streets at the very heart of San Francisco's main business and shopping district. Guests can easily explore the surroundings on foot or cable car, or catch BART to reach Berkeley, Oakland, and other Bay Area locations via the subway directly beneath the hotel. For most visitors, however, the Palace itself proves its strongest lure. At every turn the historical ambience blends with the latest modern conveniences, from the high-tech business center to rooms and suites under 14-foot ceilings to a pool and fitness center on the fourth floor.

Downstairs, the hotel's legendary centerpiece, the Garden Court, hosts breakfast, lunch, brunch, and afternoon tea under a soaring stained-glass dome and shimmering chandeliers. For the best in modern Japanese cuisine, diners visit Kyo-ya. For delicious appetizers, American cuisine, cocktails, and coversation, they gather at Pied Piper Bar & Maxfield's, where the Pied Piper of Hamelin appears in an original Maxfield Parrish mural, just a portion of the museum-quality art and architecture held within the Palace walls.