Mandarin Oriental

Few hotels in the world can boast such extraordinary views, or such decadent means of enjoying them, as the Mandarin Oriental. Its lobby is on the ground floor of the 48-storey First Interstate Building, but all of the rooms and suites are on the top 11 floors, affording breathtaking vistas of the city and the Bay. Rooms contain Asian artwork and plush furnishings in sumptuous, bold red and blue fabrics, courtesy of a recent renovation that also added iPod docking stations and big flat-screen plasma TVs. All have binoculars, and some have glass-walled bathtubs beside the windows. Service is exemplary, while the lobby-level Silks Asian fusion restaurant continues to receive high acclaim.