Cavallo Point Hotel

601 Murray Circle, Fort Baker, Sausalito, California

Sheltered from the brisk Pacific breezes on the Sausalito side of San Francisco Bay is a curve of graceful white clapboard houses, hidden between the herb and wild flower-carpeted hills of the Golden Gate National Park. Once the residential part of a military fort built in the 1870s to house officers and their families, this is now Cavallo Point, a luxury boutique hotel that skilfully combines old with new. The historic suites – in the sympathetically restored officers’ dwellings – blend state-of-the-art facilities with ornate ceilings, working fireplaces, soft heritage colours and sun porches from which to enjoy magnificent views of the bay (when it’s not blanketed by fog). On the slopes of the surrounding hill are contemporary suites, built with eco-friendly materials such as bamboo and flooded with light from floor-to-ceiling windows. Look up and you’ll see the spans of the Golden Gate Bridge soaring above you – it’s minutes to downtown San Francisco from here but feels a world away withits relaxed, seaside vibe. The hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant, Murray Circle, is a destination in itself, with a creative ‘small plates’ menu that makes the best of northern California’s produce. There’s also an attached cookery school and a wonderfully airy spa with a tea bar serving every kind of herbal brew you could imagine. Doubles from £187.