THE FACTS ABOUT CLIFT

USA San_Francisco

Guests at San Francisco's Clift hotel are ushered in from theatreland's Geary Street by model-handsome doormen in grey, designer school-uniforms. The muted walls of the cavernous lobby offset eclectic furniture, including a 7ft-tall, brocaded Louis XV-style chair by Philippe Starck, and a sculpted bronze hearth by Gerard Garouste that towers above the fire (whixh blazes merrily despite the Californian sunshine outside). The surrealism continues inside the hotel's Art Deco bar, the Redwood Room, opened in 1933 and, legend has it, panelled with the wood of a single giant redwood. Local opposition to a total refurbishment of the bar (Clift has been a city institution since it was built in 1913) meant only subtle additions were made - the illuminated etched mirror-glass bar, for example. Business travellers sip cocktails alongside smart young San Franciscans in this clubby, rust-red velvet and polished-wood space, while waiting for a table in the hotel's buzzing restaurant, Asia de Cuba. By contrast, the bedrooms are all calm, shimmering pastels. Huge mirrors reflect pale English-sycamore sleigh beds, armchairs upholstered in viole tsilk with whimsical rear wheels and floor-to-ceiling curtains faced in pale guaze. The only colour shock comes from the bedside tables: transparent orange Perspex cubes inspired, says Starck, by the colour of San Francisco's sunsets. WHEN TO GO September and october are the sunniest, fog-free months WHICH ROOM TO BOOK Room 1528, a deluxe double suite, has the best views of the Bay Bridge CONTACT Clift, 495 Geary Street, San Francisco, California 94102 (00 1 415 775 4700; fax: 441 4621; www.clifthotel.com). Doubles $285-$445; suites $655-$1,710