​A virtual reality vacation

If you're staying at the San Francisco Marriott hotel, you could go out sightseeing. Or you could stay in -- and see more than the city could ever show you.

The hotel offers guests a "4D" virtual reality vacation to augment the current, real-life one they're likely already taking. As CNET's Sumi Das reported, visitors can step into a booth and don a virtual reality Oculus Rift headset and a pair of headphones and be whisked away -- via simulated 360-degree 3D vistas -- to far-flung locations such as a black sand beach in Hawaii or the top of a London skyscraper.

What's the 4D, then?

"The fourth dimension is really touch. It's smell, it's wind, it's sea water being blown at you," explained Frank Manchen, director of marketing for San Francisco Marriott.

That's right: a misting of water to simulate an ocean breeze; a vibrating platform that rises as you virtually ascend the tower.

It's still early days for the technology -- the Oculus headsets aren't even available yet -- but the hotel chain hopes expand the virtual content and bring it to other locations.