The classy and intimate Orchard Hotel in the historic heart of San Francisco's Nob Hill is the city's newest premier hotel - and its location couldn't be better. Guests can step outside the front door of the sleek and discreet hideaway to board cable cars for trips to Fisherman's Wharf, the Museum of Modern Art and other museums, and Chinatown only two blocks away. The shopping and entertainment of Union Square beckons from three blocks away.

Guests can nosh from complimentary European breakfast buffets from the Orchard's Vignette Restaurant. Vignette also dishes up tantalizing modern American cuisine spiced with French and Italian influences. Business types also will enjoy complimentary morning Town Car service, and all guests can use the hotel's fitness room to work up sweats. They also can pick movies from the hotel's complimentary DVD library and from a stack of free newspapers for their rooms or for lobby reading.

Because the Orchard is new, guests enjoy amenities, such as high-speed Internet access throughout the building and DVD surround-sound stereos in the cozy, yet sizable guestrooms. Splashed with palettes of soft colors, the rooms include furnishings crafted from exotic, gold-toned Balinese nyatoh wood. Patrons also will enjoy bathrobes, fancy Aveda toiletries, twice-daily maid service and coffeemakers.

Smokers, listen up: leave the sticks at home. Like many tony hotels here, the Orchard is non-smoking. From the ground up, the Orchard Hotel boasts a residential-like boutique atmosphere catering to both business and pleasure travelers, just not those who smoke on premises.