One of San Francisco’s most treasured landmarks, the Palace Hotel has stood for over a century as a cultural and architectural icon amid the swirling activity of Union Square. Originally built in 1875 to celebrate the West Coast boom, it was completely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, and proudly reopened in 1909, maintaining and even enhancing its original grandeur. Now after a multi-million dollar renovation, the proud history of this Luxury Collection hotel combines with modern luxury, to welcome guests to one of America’s most magical and beautiful hotels.

The magic begins as you approach along the streets lined with trees and vintage lamp posts, and reach the turn-of-the-century Beaux-Arts building embellished with gold leaf and wrought-iron filigree, a carved angel above every arched doorway. The lobby, with its marble floors, crystal chandeliers and vaulted ceilings with gold accents, is filled wherever you look with huge flower arrangements, and surrounded by soaring archways. Around the reception area with its grained mahogany wood panelling, there is local art inspired by the landscapes of San Francisco, and throughout the interiors there are remnants of past history, like vintage mail boxes, and a spiral staircase with a beautiful wrought-iron banister.

The place where you can really experience the timeless splendour of the Palace Hotel is the breathtaking Garden Court, which is not only unmatched in the city, but has very little equal in the whole of America. Originally designed in 1901 as the hotel’s carriage entrance, it is divided into the Lobby Lounge, where a harpist plays every Sunday, and the restaurant that serves classic California cuisine. Guests sit amid stately marble columns, under a vast atrium of antique stained glass hung with huge Austrian crystal chandeliers, each of which weighs as much as a small car. It’s the place where the Green Goddess salad dressing was invented in 1923 (still available on a special roasted vegetable salad, sourced from a local farmers’ market) and is especially well known for its elegant Afternoon Tea, including the Caviar Tea for Two, and for its Sunday Brunch.

Sophisticated mahogany lounge, that feels like a secret hideaway, is one of the city’s favourite meeting spots. The hotel also has a beautiful heated indoor pool with a hot tub, which is drenched in sunlight that pours through its domed glass ceiling, and has an adjacent glass-enclosed fitness area.