With yoga classes taught by international yoga stars, organic juice bars nearly as prevalent as Starbucks, and acoustic music sets by the newest indie band just about every evening, San Francisco has a lot of fun to offer. I made finding fun my mission on my latest visit to the city and settled in to the Hotel Zetta, a chic 116-room gem just across from Union Square in the increasingly trendy neighborhood of SoMa.

Tech darlings have been making their headquarters in some of SoMa's formally dilapidated warehouses, while highly coveted lofts are de rigueur for the entrepreneurially-inspired workforce. Sightglass, a minimalist coffee house just a few blocks from the property was created by Twitter's co-founder and is one of the now plentiful spots where start-ups are born.  In short, Hotel Zetta is in the zenith of hoods in San Francisco. Appropriately, it's got panache that appeals to a hipper set of travelers, an attitude that a hotel stay shouldn't be without play.

Much of the hotel's décor is inspired by a fun reinterpretation of everyday objects. The shiny red chandelier in the lobby is made of eyeglasses for instance, and wall paneling in the Game Lounge is made of sandblasted old doors.

Upstairs in the Game Lounge, pool tables, shuffleboard and video games are available, and a giant Plinko-style wallboard, à la The Price is Right covers an entire two stories. The Plinko tends to get the whole bar involved as players push full-size soccer balls into the top portion of the board and watch which funnel the ball drops down, and bar patrons excitedly look on. Guests may also request Wii game consoles for in-room play.

Upon check-in, the front desk staff member encouraged me to take the stairs rather than the elevator to my room eight floors up. I thought perhaps the elevator was undergoing maintenance, so I propped open the stairwell expecting to see a bland set of ending stairs, instead, a swirling array of urban art filled the entire stairwell. This was just another playful surprise of the hotel. The property commissioned artist Jonathan Matas to adorn its otherwise boring stairwell with his signature free-spirited, neon-infused graffiti art. It's certainly the first stairwell in San Francisco to be a stand-alone attraction. More of Matas work is publicly displayed on street corners in the Mission neighborhood and in non-traditional offices of Facebook.

While the hotel has its own restaurant, an upscale British brasserie, I opted to check out what other surprises I could find in the city. In keeping with the hotel’s playful theme I came across, The Ritz-Carlton's inventive Parallel 37, a place that views plates as culinary canvases. Although further from SoMa, atop the steep hillside of Nob Hill, Chef de Cuisine Michael Rotondo's restaurant is a quiet reprieve from the city's honking taxis and throngs of tourists. San Francisco, as it turns out, falls right on the globe's 37th degree line of latitude, as do cities throughout South Korea, China, and Japan.  Hence, the menu is hyper-local, a San Francisco requirement these days, as well as Asian-driven with ample fresh dishes, such as sashimi and seared octopus. Portions are small, but delicately presented, and the menu changes faster than the fog in the city. This makes Parallel 37 one of my preferred permanent restaurants on my list of spots to visit while in town.

If you're planning on hanging out with the hip and indulging in lighthearted fun, Hotel Zetta in San Francisco's SoMa district has the all the amenities you could ask for, along with being a short taxi ride away from a just-as-fun global cuisine experience at Nob Hill's Parallel 37.