San Francisco makes you earn your wonder. It withholds, it obfuscates, it tests your patience with fog and hills and sudden cold snaps—then, without warning, hands out nothing short of a cinematic weekend. The Argonaut Hotel understands this transactional romance, occupying the precise point where San Francisco’s landscape begins to tell its story.

The Argonaut occupies 9,000 square footage of a 1907 brick warehouse, once packed with fruit, and that history recalls itself through the interiors. Exposed beams, antique steamer trunks, and porthole mirrors nod to the city’s past, where each hallway recalls the sheer thrill of a vessel setting sail at the harbor. Walking the halls feels a bit like prepping to depart on some grand maritime errand, even if all you’re actually doing is heading to the ice machine.

The rooms (all 252 of them clad in navy and brass accents) do not allow guests to forget that they are on the water’s precipice. And the views—oh, the views—are the kind of thing San Francisco likes to dangle as a reward for its fog-related crimes. Guests can enjoy a pristine view of Alcatraz, or catch a slight glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge as she’s swallowed by the fog.

The Argonaut steps inside your day in a dozen small ways. Yoga mats are neatly tucked into each closet as they wait for our best intentions. For the supernaturally motivated (and jet-lagged), the fitness center downstairs offers in-room yoga and complimentary yoga accessories. And then there’s The Blue Mermaid downstairs, which feels like wandering into the city’s collective memory of what a seafood tavern should be. The whole place simmers—literally—with steam, brine, butter. Among its offerings are sourdough and chowder that could thaw the heart of the coldest fisherman, and cocktails that taste vaguely like they’ve been blessed by Poseidon. It’s warm. It’s steamy. It’s a wharf dinner daydream.

Outside, one finds themselves only steps away from some of SF’s to-do, to-see essentials: Pier 39, cable car stops, sea lion sightings, and the Maritime National Historical Park. Inside, The Argonaut anchors visitors to a place where modern comfort and nautical history converge. A stay at The Argonaut is never anything short of a lively maritime interlude.