Known as the City by the Bay, San Francisco is arguably the most cosmopolitan and bohemian city in America. It is also one of the most beautiful, with its pretty houses and hilly streets providing beautiful views of the bay and the famous Golden Gate Bridge.

CLIFT
495 Geary Street (00 1 415 775 4700; fax: 931 7417; www.clifthotel.com). Hotelier Ian Schrager's Clift hotel is located in the heart of San Francisco's theatre district. A fantastical interior has been designed by Philippe Starck with oversized floor lamps in the lobby and sleigh beds and Man Ray-inspired decor in the 375 rooms. The restaurant is an outlet of Schrager's trendy Asia de Cuba. Clift was featured in The Hot List 2002. £££

FOUR SEASONS HOTEL
757 Market Street (00 1 415 633 3000; fax: 633 3001; www.fourseasons.com). Space is the thing, here. Kids will love to be let lose in the giant lobby. Adults will love the 6,960sq ft ballroom, the 2,760sq ft Presidential Suite and the 100,000sq ft sports club with lap pool, basketball court and Splash spa. £££££

HOTEL DEL SOL
3100 Webster Street (00 1 415 921 5520). A converted 1950s motor lodge with 57 rooms. Retro-lovers should take one of the 10 themed suites, from The Love Shack (hippy dippy) to The Dream Factory (Zsa Zsa glamour). ££

HOTEL DIVA
440 Geary Street (00 1 415 885 0200; www.hoteldiva.com). Hotel Diva occupies a prime spot opposite the American Conservatory Theater and Philippe Starck's swanky Redwood Room. An oversized TV screen in the glitzy lobby shows film clips of famous divas. There are 116 smallish rooms with DVD players, flat-screen TVs, sleek Artemide lamps, cool blue carpets and stainless-steel bathrooms. This hotel is great value, with Wi-Fi, daily papers, business and fitness centres included in the price. Morning muffins and apples are available, Colibrí restaurant serves Mexican food. The price and location mean that the Diva is sometimes too popular, especially at check-in and check-out times. £

HOTEL MONACO
501 Geary Street (00 1 415 292 0100; fax: 292 0111; www.monaco-sf.com). Directly across the road from The Clift, the Monaco boasts a rich and dramatic decor: red-lacquer wall coverings and canopied beds in 201 rooms, including 34 suites, some with two-person Jacuzzi tubs. £££

HOTEL REX
562 Sutter Street (00 1 415 433 4434; fax: 433 3695; www.thehotelrex.com). Just off Union Square, this hotel has 94 rooms and is themed around literature and the arts of the jazz age. Style: literary artistic salon of the 1920s and 1930s, with old books and portraits of local authors, including Dashiel Hammett. ££

HOTEL VITALE
8 Mission Street (00 1 415 278 3700; www.hotelvitale.com). A new, $53-million eco-inspired hotel across from the Ferry Building and food market and close to the Embarcadero's shops. There are 199 rooms, with free Wi-Fi access, limestone showers and custom-designed, glass-topped tables filled with illuminated river stones. The 125-seat Americano restaurant (Italian-influenced Californian dishes) spills out onto a terrace with a groovy lounge-bar scene. There is free yoga for those so inclined and a Vitality Concierge to put you in touch with 'wellness' experts. ££

MANDARIN ORIENTAL SAN FRANCISCO
222 Sansome Street (00 1 415 276 9888; www.mandarinoriental.com). In the financial district, close to the Transamerica Pyramid, Bank of America tower and Market Street. There is an Asian-style welcome, with jasmine tea and cookies in the rooms. There are 158 rooms located on the top 11 floors of San Francisco's third highest office tower, with jaw-dropping views of Alcatraz and Coit Tower. New chef Joel Huff embraces local ingredients at Silks, the hotel's acclaimed Pacific Rim-influenced restaurant. Bathrooms have oversized tubs and walls of windows for bay views. On weekends though, the Financial District can feel like a skyscraper ghost town. £££

PHOENIX HOTEL
601 Eddy Street (00 1 415 776 1380). A former 1950s caravan lodge, now transformed into an urban oasis. The elliptical pool has references to Warhol in the shallow end and Duchamp in the deep, while hanging poolside are the stars and rock 'n' rollers who favour this no-tell motel. ££

ST REGIS SAN FRANCISCO
125 3RD Street (00 1 415 284 4000; www.starwoodhotels.com). Situated in a new, 40-floor tower next to the Museum of Modern Art and across from the bustling Yerba Buena cultural complex. Sexy floors and marble fountains create a grown-up party vibe. Michelle Pfeiffer and Gwyneth Paltrow have stayed here. There are 260 techno-savvy rooms and suites finished in warm leather and dark wood; stylish bathrooms are stocked with luxury Remède body products. Celebrity chefs Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani rule in signature restaurant Ame; less formal fare can be found in Vitrine, which has an open-air terrace. The Remède spa has nine treatment rooms and a 50ft pool in the fitness centre. £££

W SAN FRANCISCO
181 Third Street (00 1 415 777 5300; fax: 415 817 7823; www.whotels.com). This 30-storey hotel offers impeccable style and an unbeatable location adjacent to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and directly across from the Moscone Center. Service is black-clad and obliging: The company motto, 'whatever/whenever'. £££

With over 3,000 eating and drinking establishments, more per capita than anywhere in the world, it is no wonder San Francisco is renowned for its food.

THE SLANTED DOOR
584 Valencia Street (00 1 415 861 8032). Vietnamese restaurant located in the Mission - one of San Francisco's more multi-ethnic neighbourhoods. Dishes, produced from local organic fare, have a mixture of flavours from Vietnam, France and California.

JACK’S
615 Sacramento Street (00 1 415 421 7355). This famous 1864 restaurant, once popular with major-leaguers such as Ingrid Bergman and Ernest Hemingway, has reopened after a two-year overhaul.

GREENS
Building A, Fort Mason Center, Marina Boulevard (00 1 415 771 6222). Romantic waterside restaurant serving excellent vegetarian food.

THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY
Top of Macy’s department store, Union Square (00 1 415 397 3333). Restaurant specialising in cheesecakes. Also serves great main courses and has with excellent views of Union Square.

VIVANDE PORTA VIA
2125 Fillmore Street (00 1 415 346 4430). Sells nearly 40 different kinds of Italian olive oil, fresh handmade pasta and sausages, and a myriad of cooking books. Styled like a Milanese kitchen, it also offers tasty lunchboxes to take away, containing items such as goat cheese and roasted garlic torte. There is also a full sit-down lunch and dinner menu. Open daily: take out, 10am-7pm; restaurant, 11.30am-10pm.

MEE MEE BAKERY
1328 Stockton Street (00 1 415 362 3204). Rich and luscious egg tarts, crunchy almond cookies and buttery sesame biscuits are the specialities at this Chinatown pastry-maker’s. The shop will arrange tours of its nearby factory, and will also create personalised fortune cookies. Open daily, 8am-6pm.

With the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Bay on the other, San Francisco is enclosed (like Manhattan) within a relatively small area, making it a great place to explore on foot. The city has many amazing sights to offer the visitor, including Alcatraz Island. Accessible by boat from Pier 41, this former prison, which housed the likes of Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly, is the city’s single biggest attraction.

With its dramatic architecture and excellent collections of art, photography and music, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, in the Yerba Buena Gardens, also draws huge crowds. Other places to explore include Lombard Street, the city’s most crooked with nine hairpin bends, and Union Square for shopping. As well as being a landmark in its own right, the Golden Gate Bridge offers great views, too, while Alamo Square is another great vantage point.

NB If the streets become too steep, you can jump on a bus, tram or cable car.

BOOKS
City Lights, 261 Columbus Avenue (00 1 415 362 8193; www.citylights.com). Made famous in Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City as the place Mrs Madrigal supposedly kept shop before she made the change, City Lights remains San Francisco's pre-eminent bookshop. With everything from bestsellers to Beat literature via Dadaism and Surrealism, the shop also hosts regular poetry readings. Definitely a San Francisco experience. Open daily, 10am-midnight.

FASHION
Jeremy's, 2 South Park (00 1 415 882 4929). This warehouse-like space on the edge of tech-trendy South Park is essentially a glorified designer discount shop, with men's and womenswear, plus accessories and fragrances from the likes of Voyage, Chanel, and Santa Maria Novella. Stock changes every six weeks or so, and discounts of 20-40 per cent are typical. Open Mon-Fri 11am-7pm, Sat 11am-6pm, Sun 11am-5pm.

Wilkes Bashford, 375 Sutter Street (00 1 415 986 4380). Wilkes Bashford offers everything the well-dressed globetrotter could hope for. Labels include Marc Jacobs, Helmut Lang and Issey Miyake, plus many of San Francisco's cutting-edge fashion names. Each of its five floors comes with a well-stocked bar, where San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown Jr perhaps freshens up between fittings for his custom-made Brioni, Zegna & Kiton suits. Open Mon-Wed, Fri/Sat, 10am-6pm; Thurs 10am-8pm.

Rolo, 21 & 25 Stockton Street (00 1 415 989 7656). This Union Square branch of the popular four-shop chain (also at 2351 Market Street, 431 4545; 450 Castro Street, 626 7171; and 1301 Howard Street, 861 1999) has separate men's and women's departments. The fashions are uniformly hip and happening and Rolo's regular rave and club events offer instant destinations for those all dressed up with nowhere to go. Open Mon-Sat, 10am-8pm; Sun, 11am-7pm.

Mac, 5 Claude Lane (00 1 415 837 0615). Mac (Modern Appealing Clothing) offers a super-friendly, laid-back approach to men's fashion, with classic casualwear by Paul Smith, Kenzo, Los Angeles-based CV Deluxe and locals HRM, plus retro gear such as vintage Playboy magazines. A women's shop at 1543 Grant Street (837 1604), owned and operated by the same family, has a similar, California-cool vibe. Open Mon-Sat, 11am-6pm; Sun, midday-5pm.

Arik's, 998 Market Street (00 1 415 441 1311). This is the place for Yankee basics: Levi's, Calvin Klein Jeans and Converse footwear, all at low, low prices. Also home to harder-to-find brands such as Dickies and California skate-dude label Ben Davis - again, at affordable prices. If you fancy yourself a West Coast surf-and-ski stud or a turntable titan, go to Arik's, and have all the cool kids back home drooling with envy. Open Mon-Sat, 9am-7pm; Sun, 10am-6pm.

Babette, 361 Sutter Street (00 1 415 837 1442). This European-inspired local design house in the middle of hip South Park stocks its own range of travel-friendly coats, trousers and tops for women. The pleated pieces are made, as company head (and husband of the eponymous designer) Steven Pinsky says, 'for real women at real prices'. Open Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm; Sat, 11am-5pm.

ART DEALERS
Folk Art International, Frank Lloyd Wright Building, 140 Maiden Lane (00 1 415 392 9999). Pieces range from 4,000-year-old Chinese pottery to contemporary Mexican creations. The prices may be high at this repository of predominantly African and Asian art, jewellery, masks, textiles and artefacts, but so is the style quotient. A collection of books on Wright is also for sale. Open Mon-Sat, 10am-6pm.

NEWSAGENTS
Juicy News, 2453 Fillmore Street (00 1 415 441 3051). Finding international newspapers and magazines can be challenging in San Francisco, but media fans of all nationalities will be well served at Juicy News, where most of the European publications are only a day or two late. Open Mon-Fri, 8am-6.30pm; Sat/Sun, 8am-6pm.

HOME FURNISHINGS
Evolution, 271 Ninth Street (00 1 415 861 6665; www.evolutionfurniture.com). This SoMa (South of Market Street) furniture-seller is like IKEA for those with a bigger budget. The solid cherry, maple and walnut pieces come in uniquely updated versions of Shaker and Amish styles. Also features modern, modular designs from Quebec's Cameleon, along with recovered metallic military furniture from Douglas M Metal. Open daily, 10am-6pm.

Winterbranch American Contemporary Craft Gallery, 2119 Fillmore Street (00 1 415 673 2119). Owner Robert De La Rose scours the nation for 'colourful, functional American crafts for the home and to wear', including glasswork, rugs, ceramics, candlesticks, lamps, collages, mini-fountains, tapestries and clothing. There's also a new 'guest artist' area, showcasing crafts from abroad. Open daily, 10.30am-7pm.

Express, 1315 Howard Street (00 1 415 255 1311). Remember Elaine from Seinfeld and all her funky-yet-fashionable furniture? You can get some of it here. Colourful, fanciful beds, paper and metal lamps, swivel chairs and wall canvases are mostly from India, Indonesia and the Philippines and are reasonably priced for those of us who don't have the resources of a Hollywood production team. Open Mon-Sat, 10am-6pm; Sun, 11am-6pm.

Fillamento, 2185 Fillmore Street (00 1 415 931 2224). With 10,000sq ft and more than 4,000 different items, Fillamento is the place to go for serious home furnishers. It is located in the smart Pacific Heights area, so the prices are not cheap, but with a high-end range of lighting, furniture, bedlinen and accessories, few would expect it to be so. Claims one of its bestsellers is the private-label bamboo candle. Open Mon-Sat, 11am-7pm; Sun, midday-6pm.

Mike San Francisco, 2142 Fillmore Street (00 1 415 567 2700). Staying at the hip new W San Francisco hotel and digging the groovy lounge furniture? Then head up to this Fillmore Street showroom to view Los Angeles-based designer Mike Moore's luxuriously low-key approach to furniture. The showroom stocks a complete range of mike designs, including his higher-end mike portfolio and more affordable mike room service lines of chairs, tables, sofas, ottomans, benches, chests and consoles. Open Mon-Sat, 10am-6pm; Sun, midday-5pm.

AIRPORT
San Francisco airport is 20km south of the city. SFO airport buses run every 15 minutes to downtown San Francisco.

AIRLINES FROM THE UK
Virgin Atlantic (01293 747747; www.virgin-atlantic.com), British Airways (0845 7799977; www.britishairways.com), and American Airlines (0345 789789; www.aa.com) all serve San Francisco.

There are two kinds of weather in San Francisco: wet from October to March, and dry from June to September. Temperatures are never very high. September and October are often the warmest months, reaching 23°C. The fog that can hang at the entrance to the bay usually clears by midday.

The local tourist information centres include the San Francisco Visitor’s and Convention Bureau (00 1 415 974 6900) and the International Visitors’ Centre (00 1 415 986 1388).