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Tags: New Year's Eve 2009 Hotels / New Year's Eve Hotels / San Francisco Hotels / California Hotels / Fairmont Hotels / → All Tags

Luau in San Francisco for New Year's Eve

Where: 950 Mason Street [map], San Francisco, CA, United States, 94108

It's hard to believe, but New Year's Eve is less than two months away, which means a parade of hotel party tickets will soon be—or already are—available to the public. Most of these are highfalutin affairs where you'll find women competing in unofficial "Who has the shortest skirt?" contests, and where bottles of champagne circulate throughout the evening. These swanky soirees are easy enough to find, but for an unusual change of pace, you may want to consider heading to The Fairmont in San Francisco, where an inaugural New Year's luau will be held at the historic Tonga Room.

HotelChatter reader Mark, a long time Tonga Room patron, tipped us off to this unique NYE event and had good things to say about his experiences there:

On ocassion I visit the Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar to have a drink and some appetizers. It's a historic restaurant and bar...and unusually so has a rain storm every half hour or so...right in the bar area! I just heard from the staff last week that for the first time they are [having] a luau for New Year's Eve, and this isn't in Hawaii...it's in San Francisco! Kinda off the wall and should be fun.

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Tags: New Year's Eve 2009 Hotels / Chicago Hotels / Hotel Packages / Four Seasons Hotels / → All Tags

Drink and Detox With the Four Seasons Chicago's NYE Package

Where: 120 E. Delaware Place [map], Chicago, IL, United States, 60611

When Lake Michigan turns into a bowl of Frosted Cheerios and Michigan Avenue is clogged with shoppers from St. Louis, you know it's time to solidify your New Year's Even plans. As usual, all the major hotels will open up their ballrooms for major shindigs, like the annual New Year's extravaganza at The Drake which draws 2,000 revelers at $155 a ticket (and that doesn't include dinner). Instead of grinding up against 1,999 other sweaty people to ring in 2009, we suggest the "Home Away for the Holidays" package at the Four Seasons.

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