San Diego Trip Planning Guide

[Guest]

Hi Aims, my family and I (2 adults, 18 & 14 yr old) are visiting San Diego for the last leg of our holiday in mid August for 4 nights. I have reserved Pacific Terrace Hotel at the moment but wonder whether I should be considering other places. We ideally would like a nice hotel (as it's our last stop) that is walking distance to restaurants in an evening and somewhere nice perhaps for an evening stroll. We will have a car for day time use. Nice views would also be great.
Does Pacific terrace fit the bill or are there others that might be a better fit?
Thanks in advance!

[Aims]

Originally Posted by Woodsy

Hi Aims, my family and I (2 adults, 18 & 14 yr old) are visiting San Diego for the last leg of our holiday in mid August for 4 nights. I have reserved Pacific Terrace Hotel at the moment but wonder whether I should be considering other places. We ideally would like a nice hotel (as it's our last stop) that is walking distance to restaurants in an evening and somewhere nice perhaps for an evening stroll. We will have a car for day time use. Nice views would also be great.
Does Pacific terrace fit the bill or are there others that might be a better fit?
Thanks in advance!

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Hi Woodsy Sorry for the delay in answering. I've been up at Disneyland today I think the Pacific Terrace is a great spot to stay. If you wanted a beach front hotel, it's one of the best locations- you are steps from the beach. There is a paved boardwalk between the hotel and the beach, and you can walk to a lot of cafes and restaurants within blocks of the hotel. It's a very active beach, so lots of people out and about most times.

If you don't really care about staying on the beach but still want a scenic location, then another suggestion I could make would be to stay downtown near the bay and the Gaslamp Quarter area. There is a very nice Marriott Marquis hotel downtown that has a lovely swimming pool area. You can walk to a lot of restaurants from the hotel, and you are also right next door to Seaport Village which is a shopping and dining complex on the water. There is a Cheesecake Factory restaurant located next to Seaport Village, as well. If you want to check out this hotel, here is their website: marriott/hotels/trave...-diego-marina/

Downtown will be a lot busier location, as it's the city center...the beach areas will be busy at times too, but more of a laid-back atmosphere- if that makes any difference to you.

Let me know if I can help answer any other questions!

[Guest]

Hi Aims, thanks for the reply, hope you had fun at Disneyland. The Bay Area does sound and look nice but having just looked at the Marquis rates it is a little out of our price range. Are there any other nice hotels worth considering in that area? I will keep hold of my Pacific Terrace reservation too though for now, thanks again :-)

[d1gger]

Hi Aims, we're planning on heading down to San Diego mid/late July possibly for around 3 nights, attending the comic con convention for a night. So was thinking it may be best getting an airbnb, rather than a hotel. There would be 4 of us, 2 teenagers - hence apartment/house may give us a bit more space. I had said in another thread that would like to stay longer, but planning a west coast trip from SF and doing Disney too - so it will be a packed time in only 15 nights, so time is at a premium.
What would you recommend for a shortish time as a base for SD?
BTW - loving your tips so far :-)

thanks

[Guest]

Hi Aims, I have been looking at Best Western Plus Island Palms and Marina - would you consider this to be a reasonable hotel/nice area?
Many thanks

[tocpe321]

Originally Posted by Woodsy

Hi Aims, I have been looking at Best Western Plus Island Palms and Marina - would you consider this to be a reasonable hotel/nice area?
Many thanks

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Hi

We stayed there last year. We liked it there. Initially we were given an awful room, but we got a free upgrade and some breakfast vouchers so they made good.

It’s in a good location with views across the Marina and the bay. It also had 2 nice pools.

The only other very slight negative for us is that for a large place the reception area was literally just that, although there was another small area with a free PC. (Sometimes we like to just chill out around the communal areas of hotels drinking coffee.)

Overall would stay there again.

[Guest]

Originally Posted by tocpe321

Hi

We stayed there last year. We liked it there. Initially we were given an awful room, but we got a free upgrade and some breakfast vouchers so they made good.

It’s in a good location with views across the Marina and the bay. It also had 2 nice pools.

The only other very slight negative for us is that for a large place the reception area was literally just that, although there was another small area with a free PC. (Sometimes we like to just chill out around the communal areas of hotels drinking coffee.)

Overall would stay there again.

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Thanks for this, I do like the sound of the hotel. Does the hotel have seating/bar areas where you can sit in an evening? Thanks again

[tocpe321]

Originally Posted by Woodsy

Thanks for this, I do like the sound of the hotel. Does the hotel have seating/bar areas where you can sit in an evening? Thanks again

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There is a small bar area above the PC location in the main building. To the side of that is the restaurant where we had breakfast some days.

If you look on Google maps I think there are internal views of the hotel, possibly with the 360 degree view.

We used the pool furthest away from the reception.

I believe there is seating facing the Marina as well as on the bay. There is a nice pier opposite the hotel. I enjoyed the hot dog place which served a wide selection of beers.

[UncleLatch]

Originally Posted by Woodsy

Hi Aims, thanks for the reply, hope you had fun at Disneyland. The Bay Area does sound and look nice but having just looked at the Marquis rates it is a little out of our price range. Are there any other nice hotels worth considering in that area? I will keep hold of my Pacific Terrace reservation too though for now, thanks again :-)

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We enjoyed our stay at the Hilton Bayside. Good location near to Seaport Village and just off the entrance arch to the GLQ.

[Aims]

Originally Posted by Woodsy

Hi Aims, thanks for the reply, hope you had fun at Disneyland. The Bay Area does sound and look nice but having just looked at the Marquis rates it is a little out of our price range. Are there any other nice hotels worth considering in that area? I will keep hold of my Pacific Terrace reservation too though for now, thanks again :-)

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Hi Woodsy, had a great day at Disneyland- thanks! It was very busy though and hot- in the high 80's! It's been a record breaking February with weather so far. There are a few other hotels right in the vicinity of the Marquis that I could recommend, but you will probably find them in the same price range as the Marquis. If you still wanted to look at a few, then I would recommend the Manchester Grand Hyatt (which is next to the Marquis), the Hilton Gaslamp Quarter hotel or the Omni (which are both next to the baseball stadium). The Hilton Bayfront Hotel is also a very nice hotel. I have stayed there a few times recently.

You also asked about the Island Palms hotel on Shelter Island- that's a great place, prices get better the further you get away from downtown and the city center. Shelter Island is a lovely location, surrounded by boat marinas with lovely views of the bay and downtown very nearby. Thank you to tocpe321 for giving a personal review of the hotel! (hey TC ) There have also been a few other Dibbers who have stayed at the Island Palms and had nothing but good things to say. The only thing about staying at this hotel that doesn't meet your criteria, is that there isn't a lot of restaurants you can easily walk to from the hotel itself. There are a couple of restaurants on Shelter Island, and few others just beyond, but for the most variety you really do need a car- but there are lots of places in a short drive from the hotel.

Originally Posted by d1gger

Hi Aims, we're planning on heading down to San Diego mid/late July possibly for around 3 nights, attending the comic con convention for a night. So was thinking it may be best getting an airbnb, rather than a hotel. There would be 4 of us, 2 teenagers - hence apartment/house may give us a bit more space. I had said in another thread that would like to stay longer, but planning a west coast trip from SF and doing Disney too - so it will be a packed time in only 15 nights, so time is at a premium.
What would you recommend for a shortish time as a base for SD?
BTW - loving your tips so far :-)

thanks

See more...

Hi d1gger! How exciting- hope you can get your tickets for Comic Con, they can be hard to secure. It's the hottest ticket in town! I would be looking to make your airbnb reservation asap, as everywhere in San Diego will book up quickly for Comic Con weekend. As for places I'd recommend as a base in SD, you will want to be convenient to downtown for Comic Con...look at Mission Bay, Mission Valley or Point Loma for closest bases to downtown. Mission Bay is right near the beach, so if you don't like the idea of that, then you may want to focus on the other areas. There are apartments and condos downtown, so there could be some on airbnb, but those will likely be more costly than places outside downtown. Anywhere close to Comic Con will jack up prices big time for that weekend. If you see any listings on airbnb that interest you and you want to know if it's a good area, feel free to send me a private message with a link to the listing and I will check out the location on the map. I've done this for other Dibbers and will be happy to help you out there too, if you wish.