WHEN BOOKING A HOTEL, a soon-to-be traveling person will sometimes ask after something that isn't located on the property and has little to do with the place, physically, at least. Quality pillows have much to do with a hotel stay, and nice toiletries, and various amenities, and the on-site bar, too, but buildings that are exist wayyyy off in the distance? And hills and water, too? They're far outside of an inn's ultimate reach. And yet the notion of views, and vistas, and fine distances to gaze upon, do weave into some guests' wish lists when it comes to choosing a stay-over spot.
HOTEL VIA, which opened in the South Beach area of San Francisco in June 2017, takes the far-off buildings and bridges and hills and bodies of water quite seriously, as the views from Rooftop at VIA, the rooftop lounge, are quite spectacular. Described as "the city's first rooftop lounge," Rooftop at VIA has a near neighbor in AT&T Park (as, of course, does the hotel below it), but glorious peeks at San Francisco Bay, and the storied structures that fill the fabulous metropolis, and the picturesque East Bay, are also part of the large, look-upon-it-all cast. As for your actual room?
"MODERN" AND "MINIMALIST"... are the buzzwords, but they're not too spare or blank-slate-y; consider that, on a single floor, no two rooms have been designed to match, giving each its own individual flair. The new boutique hotel was built from the ground up, something that is a rarer occurrence these days, and South Beach? It bustles, flat-out. Whether you're there for work, or a game, or just to soak in some San-Francisco-o-sity, ponder an evening spent at Rooftop at VIA, one of the newest hotel lounges in the city, an open-air spot with stretch-to-the-horizon views.
