5 Chic Hotels in San Francisco

Of course, if you want a reliable, if uninspiring, room run by one of the global chains, there are plenty of choices close to downtown. But San Francisco specialises in boutique hotels and quirky guesthouses: if you value a more individualistic experience and local feel, try one of the following, all of which are in or close to the city centre.

They include two converted schools (one for wayward boys, the other for convent girls), plus a landmark hotel given a witty, post-modern makeover by Philippe Starck.

Kristina Pentland from travel publishers Rough Guides explores five of the chicest hotels in San Francisco.

Mosser
This hotel has three key advantages: a handy location close to Union Square, rock-bottom rates and a funky Modernist-meets-Victoriana vibe. It's a cool recent conversion that fuses Victorian touches like ornamental moulding with mod leather sofas.

Though the chocolate-and-olive-coloured rooms are tiny, each is artfully crammed with amenities, including multi-disc CD players.

Rooms from $99.
www.victorianhotel.com

Hotel Palomar
A chic, Art Noveau-inspired bolthole on Market Street, its snug rooms are fitted out with a dark and smoky colour scheme, plus ebony and leopard-print accents; the rooms are pleasantly large and packed with amenities, even fax machines.

Rooms from $229.
www.hotel-palomar.com

Archbishop's Mansion
Every room at this luxurious B&B "" actually built in 1904 for the city's new archbishop "" is named after an opera and decorated to match. The last word in camp elegance, this B&B hotel stands on the corner of Alamo Square and is crammed with $1 million worth of antiques, including the chandelier from Gone with the Wind.

Each of the grand rooms is named after a different Italian opera "" the largest (and priciest) is Don Giovanni.

Rooms begin at $110.
www.thearchbishopmansion.com

Cliff hotel
A Theatre District hotel that provides plenty of funky jet-set minimalism, all for a steep price, but well worth it. The rooms at this Ian Schrager outpost are vaguely Asian and vintage Starck, with quirky touches like mirrored Louis XIV-style chairs.

It's pricey, swish, and ultra-cool; just don't expect smiles from the staff. Note also that the walls here are very thin, so bring earplugs.

Rates start at $325.
www.ianschragerhotels.com

Queen Anne Hotel
Once a girls' school, and possibly haunted, there's history to spare in this extravagantly decorated hotel in Pacific Heights.

Gloriously over-done restored Victorian, each room is stuffed with gold-accented Rococo furniture and bunches of silk flowers.

The late Miss Mary Lake, former principle of the school, is said to still make periodic supernatural appearances in room 410.

Rooms from $139.
www.queenanne.com

This information has been adapted from San Francisco DIRECTIONS (1st edition), written by Mark Ellwood, published by Rough Guides, www.roughguides.com.

New from Rough Guides, the DIRECTIONS guides include a mini CD containing the full text of the guide in PDF format, complete with 100s of weblinks.