Executive Hotel Vintage Court

Despite the deeply uninspiring name, this elegant, relaxed hotel gives guests a taste of Wine Country within a stroll of both Union Square and Chinatown. Every room is named after a Californian winery, and there are daily tastings beside the grand marble fireplace in the lobby. Rooms have bay windows with venetian blinds, handsome writing desks and green-striped, padded headboards. The penthouse Niebaum-Coppola Suite boasts views of the Bay, a jacuzzi, a wood-burning fireplace and a 1912 stained-glass window. But the best reason to bunk here is that guests get guaranteed reservations at Masa's, the hotel's notoriously hard-to-access French restaurant.