Spa vista

Nob Hill Spa (Nob Hill)

GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Spa

During a late April stay at the Huntington Hotel on Nob Hill, I was struck by how the hotel’s upgraded lobby and rooms felt newly luxurious in a pleasingly understated way, drawing a comparison in my mind with LA’s Sunset Tower, one of my favorite hotels in the world. The Huntington’s restaurant, The Big Four (intel), reopened over just a month at that point, didn’t have an empty seat in the house the two nights I stopped in.

But what I consider the Huntington’s grandest comeback, I didn’t experience until my final afternoon in town, when I descended a set of stairs from the lobby down into the three-level Nob Hill Spa, which like the hotel and restaurant had been shuttered since the pandemic. I’d last set foot in the spa over a decade ago, but the impact of the stairwell’s intricate mashrabiya screens — slyly revealing the view across the pool atrium to the floor-to-ceiling windows framing the San Francisco skyline — hit me hard: surely, this is one of the great spa settings at any hotel in the country.

Like the rest of the Huntington, the spa’s redesign is the work of ubiquitous interior designer Ken Fulk. I sometimes find Fulk’s work obnoxious, but across this property, he’s shown admirable restraint. The spa, set in brown, beige, and aqua tones, is gorgeous.

I’d booked a 50-minute deep-tissue massage ($257.25 per) the day before, and was led immediately into the treatment room, where my masseuse went right to work. I like a good deep-tissue workup, and received exactly that; massages can be booked for 50, 80, or 110 minutes, depending on the type. Various facials, nail services, and body treatments are also on offer, including the return of the spa’s signature seaweed leaf detox wrap ($367.50 per), not my thing, but perhaps yours?

After the massage, I unwound in the pool atrium, reclining in one of the lounges that flank the room’s small dipping pool, off of which sits an outdoor terrace with another set of lounges grandly overlooking the city. I cycled between the (very pleasingly hot) steam room and sauna in the men’s room several times, returning to my perch in between; at poolside, bites are available from the Big Four along with a menu of tonics and teas. Spa day passes are available Mon-Thu, $125 per.

Shout it from the hilltops: the Nob Hill Spa, like the Huntington Hotel itself, is so very back. –Lockhart Steele

→ Nob Hill Spa (Nob Hill) • 1075 California St • Daily 730a-9p • Book.