Springtime in San Francisco’s Union Square means you’ll see flowers everywhere as part of the plaza’s annual “in bloom” celebration. It’s an upbeat, joyful time—and while the neighboring Westin St. Francis decorates its lobby with flowers to the degree that it’s worth stepping into for an Instagrammable moment, this year the venerated hotel rolled out something even more intense. It’s an over-the-top, extravagant beyond belief, frothy confection of a springtime suite.
The “Suite in Bloom” is billed as a “luxurious floral escape,” and that captures it exactly.
It’s a dream come true for anyone who ever wanted to retreat to the woods and live with nature’s bountiful color—but without, you know, the actual nature part. The two-bedroom suite is utterly bedecked in “cherry blossoms” and holds three life-sized “trees” (all faux foliage in this case). Ivy twines everywhere, and even the bathroom shower is festooned. I visited with my daughter and her friend, and we all fangirled over the idea that we had always wanted a tree in our childhood bedrooms. We also loved the discreet machine that periodically emitted a floral fragrance into the suite. We walked back and forth between the rooms in a daze. We had never seen a hotel space that was so devoted to fantasy, to surprising and pleasing the guests.
Each room in the suite has a French bistro set to enjoy a glass of rosé in front of an incredible skyline view out the window (the suite’s on the ninth floor). The photos you see here are the main bedroom, and the second bedroom has a Murphy bed, two trees and a sitting room with a sofa. This is the first year the Westin St. Francis has decorated the suite, and it’s only available until July 31 (the lowest rate we could find for the remainder of the run is $894). If you can’t get in this year, it will be offered again next spring.
So how did this incredible suite even get decorated? A team of 20 people helmed by Flowers by Edgar worked all day to set it up. These workers lovingly orchestrated the transformation of a hotel suite into an orchard you’d expect to see a fawn walking around in. There must be hundreds, if not thousands, of individually placed flowers poked into the “frog” of a false wall.
That night, I lay in bed looking at how each individual flower was embedded in the wall. Although the room’s terribly romantic, I was actually glad my husband wasn’t there because I think he might’ve felt a bit of claustrophobia at the amount of pink involved… and like me, he would be tripping on the ivy at the base of the tree.
Our group checked in, swooned, took about a million photos, then went to the hotel’s beautiful wood-paneled Westin Club Lounge for some snacks. Once upon a time, the Westin St. Francis washed coins for its guests, and you can see the machine that performed that duty in the small St. Francis Museum. It wasn’t that long ago that women wore white gloves, and coins could soil them if not cleaned.
We went back to the room for more photos, and then headed out on foot to see the enormous R(Evolution) statue in front of the Ferry Building. Returning in the evening, the three of us ate a great informal meal at the lobby’s Cafe Rito (shrimp scampi, skirt steak and chicken alfredo).
The hotel itself is worthy of a story. It survived San Francisco’s two biggest earthquakes (1906 and 1989) and sits right on the cable car line. If you watched the movie Babylon, this is also the hotel where, during a wild party in 1921, actress Virginia Rappe was assaulted and actor Fatty Arbuckle was charged with her murder. I was told which room it happened in and crept outside it that night to marvel at the darkness of history. It’s just a room now. Anyone can stay without knowing what happened there.
Another astonishing part of the hotel is the fact that a delicate staircase goes all the way up the original 12-story building. It’s terrifying-slash-exciting to walk past enormous windows to the exterior while on a winding staircase. The hotel is honestly a blast to explore at night, with wooden hallways, impressive elevator banks and historical photographs everywhere.
For a special extra, book a room in the 32-story Tower Building (a 1971 addition to the original building) and request one on a high floor. You’ll ride an exterior glass elevator; the views up there are supreme at night.
The next morning, we rose well-rested… but reluctant to leave the room. For breakfast, we got housemade pastries at Cafe Rito and brought them back to the room to eat because we honestly just wanted to savor every last minute in that magical space. It was San Francisco at its finest: history, creativity, spectacle.
RECOMMENDED: Thinking about other great places to stay in the city? Try this hotel in the Presidio, this one at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge or this one with the world’s largest hotel lobby.