HotelChatter

Our first recommendation is our favorite tourist hotel, The Argonaut. You can read the reasons why we send many San Fran virgins to this hotel here.. The room views can be hit or miss but we can't imagine you watching the fireworks from a hotel room. Even we're not that lame!

We would also recommend hitting up another one of our favorites, The Hotel Vitale. The hotel has several rooms open for the 4th, including a superior king that we found on the hotel website for $199 a night. For Vitale, this is an amazing rate.

The front desk recommends booking a floor high up or one with a water view. If you feel like splurging the hotel's deluxe panoramic suite is going for $569 on the 4th. We cannot stress again how good these rates are. But if you don't feel like being that patriotic, then head up onto the 5th floor terrace to catch the show.

Ok, now we have to concede something to the chain hotels here: rooftop bars. The Marriott Downtown has a lounge on top of the building's 39th floor (how un-Marriott of them!) called The View that some say has the best view of SF in SF. The St. Regis Hotel has a 4th floor mezzanine/lounge to hang out at when you're not talking tech-stuff with Silicon Valley peeps.

We've even checked out the itty-bitty courtyard terrace atop the Orchard Garden Hotel and since it's an eco-hotel, you'll feel better staying there while the city smokes up the ozone.

And how could we forget the Top of the Mark at the Mark Hopkins Hotel? All of these would be excellent 4th choices but don't get you heart too set on seeing the fireworks. That fog can be a bitch.

[Photo: SilentDream]

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