There's Nothing Like the Big City: San Francisco
Summer 2007 Girlfriend Getaways> Subscribe Now
Brand-New Landmark
The top-floor observatory of the new De Young Museum is free and offers a 360-degree view of Golden Gate Park, the bay, and the colorful, hilly neighborhoods spilling in all directions. The museum takes on a party atmosphere on Friday nights, with artist demos, performances, and a cash bar set up in the lobby. A large-scale retrospective of Vivienne Westwood's innovative fashions is showing until June 10.
Pamper Yourself
Enjoying thecommunal bathhouse at Kabuki Springs and Spa costs just $20 and includes warm towels, chilled cucumber facecloths, sea salts, and tea. Massages and other treatments cost extra.
Where to Kick Up Your Heels
Grown-up drinks: Bourbon and Branch is modeled after a 1920s speakeasy, down to an unmarked front door and an unlisted phone number that changes every two weeks, so online reservations are a must.
Outdoor seating: Part biker bar, part beer garden, Zeitgeist is an institution where regulars drink Bloody Marys and beer at picnic tables on the patio.
Till midnight: Great music, attentive bartenders, creative cocktails, a stylish crowd, and plenty of seating--no wonder Rye has a devoted following.
Till 2 A.M.: Pink grooves late-night, thanks to international DJs and a packed dance floor.
Till dawn: Boogie your brains out with boozy bachelorettes and club kids at the Endup.
We Love Brunch
On a scruffy street in the Mission District, Foreign Cinema screens films on a whitewashed wall in the covered courtyard. On the menu (besides art-house movies): oysters by the dozen, homemade organic fig and nectarine "Pop Tarts," and a killer Dungeness crab croque monsieur.
Home Base
Hotel Palomar is two blocks from Union Square and close to the city's top museums. Rooms come with playful touches like video games, alligator-print carpets, and persimmon-velvet pillows Amid the mansions of chichi Pacific Heights, the refined 104-year-old Hotel Drisco is ideal for a laid-back, live-like-a-local getaway. The hotel serves free Napa wine and French cheese one hour a day in the lounge on the ground floor Hotel Vitale, on the Embarcadero waterfront, has bay views and free morning yoga. Costing just $30 more, the Family Studios sleep four.
What's for dinner?
Chef Michael Tusk's intimate Quince has garnered rave reviews for its Italian-inspired dishes--like the tiny, pillowy agnolotti dal plin--made with local, seasonal, and organic ingredients. To snag a reservation, call a month in advance.
Sleek, high-ceilinged Nopa is always buzzing, from the time the after-work crowd descends on the bar until 1 A.M., when the kitchen stops serving California-Mediterranean cuisine.
Try Something New in San Francisco
Sign up for expert A.J. Ferrari's wine seminars (with samples!) at the VinoVenue tasting room. 686 Mission St., 415/341-1930; vinovenue.net.
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