Family Tradition-Turn Down at St. Regis SF
SAN FRANCISCO (Day 1 of 3) — Everyone likes being treated like VIPS—especially four year olds.
“They left me cookies! Said Anaya Shah, 4, staying at the St. Regis San Francisco with her parents and younger sister. Even better, she held out twin plush bunnies the concierge had given her while Aanika,1, showed off a pink toy.
“Every time we walk by they give them something,” said the girls’ mom Ruhi Shah. The family is visiting San Francisco from Honolulu, she explained, and explained when traveling with the girls, they opt for a luxury hotel—even one like the St. Regis San Francisco in the heart of downtown that is one of the city’s top business hotels, close to the Moscone convention Center and financial district.
“It seems luxury hotels go the extra mile for families,” Ruhi Shah said. Besides, she finds the neighborhood convenient—Yerba Buena Gardens with its carousel and the Children’s Creativity Museum for kids a short walk away, the Metreon shopping plaza and other museums. “The concierges have been great about giving us suggestions of things to do the girls would like.”
In fact, the 260-room hotel has a designated Family Traditions program with amenities from baby shampoo to puzzles with San Francisco scenery, San Francisco postcards, local chocolates and more.
The hotel will make arrangements for families to visit nearby museums (The Museum of the African Diaspora is off the lobby; the Cartoon Art Museum, Contemporary Jewish Museum and Children’s Creativity Museum are nearby and the new Exploratorium on the Embarcadero, not far away. For a fee, the hotel will frame, wrap and send the art works the kids have created home.
There’s also the chance for kids to concoct their own juices from chardonnay, cabernet and merlot grapes led by a St. Regis Butler and create labels for their blends put in a special bottle. It’s pricey–$50 a child–but bound to be memorable.
I like that the kids’ menu at the hotel’s Vitrine features locally sourced food and picnics families can take to Golden Gate Park.
Families—especially if they are coming from different time zone – will also like the indoor pool that is open 24 hours; While one parents watches the kids, the other can slip away to a spa for an hour for a massage at the hotel’s Remede Spa San Francisco or a work out.
Who says parents can’t get a break on a family vacation?