San Francisco Sightseeing Articles

It is officially holiday season with tens of thousands of people rushing overseas to cool off from the heat and enjoy an exotic summer.

There is a trend in traveling, too, though everyone has his or her own idea about a good vacation. If you want to know what other people in the world are up to in terms of traveling, one good way is to see where they stay, because hotels often tell the needs and focuses of the travelers.

The Korea Times requested www.hotels.com, one of the largest hotel reservation sites in the world, to sort out the trends of traveling through hotel searching and booking. They may not all be the flashiest or the state-of-the-art hotels but they can surely be ``reasonable'' hotels and tell you where people are visiting this summer to cool off from the heat.

The Web site, which has contracts with more than 100,000 hotels worldwide, has also selected five of the ``world's quirkiest hotels,'' for colorful and exciting days out.

Asia and the U.S.

The hotel that made the most deals through the site in the world was Traders Hotel Singapore, where a third night stay is free, putting it atop the Summer 2009 Block Buster list.

Second place went to Tokyo's Shibuya Excel Hotel Tokyo. Located right next to the Shibuya metro station, the hotel offers 30 percent discount to those who stay for more than two nights. Most of all, high quality but rather low-priced rooms have attracted many people to click and choose the hotel for lodging.

The other three were in the United States. It may due to the fact that many of the Web site users are Americans, but it is quite clear that many people are interested in visiting American cities. The third place went to Millennium Broadway Hotel in Times Square of New York. The fourth and the fifth went to Queen Ann Hotel in San Francisco and Tuscany Suites and Casino in Las Vegas, respectively. These three hotels offered modest prices ― New York offered 30 percent discount, while the other two offered 40 percent each.

If you are specifically looking for a great time in Europe, Spain and Greece may be the places to consider. The abundant sun and easy atmosphere is attracting millions of people every year, especially in the summer.

The most booked hotels in Europe were the Hotel Playa Santa Ponsa, Hotel Santa Ponsa Park and Hotel Borneo in Mallorca; Gran Melia Palacio de Isora, Hotel Gala Tenerif and Vincci La Plantacion in Tenerit of Spain; Avanti Hotel in Paphos and Heliotopos Hotel in Santorini, Greece.

With relatively affordable prices ― from 66 euros to 190 at the maximum ― these hotels provide a cozy and comfy place for everyone.

For those interested in who books which hotel in Seoul for a stay, Hotels.com announced that it is the Koreana Hotel in central Seoul that topped the list alongside the Imperial Palace Hotel in southern Seoul. The two hotels offer 30 percent off for stays over two nights, which may have affected the choice, it said.