San Diego hotel near beach

[bex272]

Looking for a family hotel near/on the beach in San Diego, any recommendations?

Thanks

Bex

[landandword17]

Is the Coronado in budget? A bit north of the city there’s lots of beach hotels in Pacific Beach, OceanSide and La Jolla. Two we considered were Bahia Resort and Blue Sea. SD local Aims has a thread in the sticky where she gives hotel help so try posting there too.

[Aims]

Hi Bex! I'm the San Diego local that landandword17 mentioned. Mission Beach and Pacific Beach, which are right next to each other, have the most hotels that are on the beach, but I feel I should give a couple of cautions before you choose any of them.



First...I don't know what your budget allows for, but San Diego beach hotels are usually on the expensive side- some areas more than others, but they are all generally more expensive than in other areas of San Diego, especially if you staying over the busy summer months or during spring break times.


Second...if you choose to go for a beach hotel in Mission or Pacific Beach, be aware that the hotels here are along a beachfront boardwalk that gets a lot of foot traffic. Being on the boardwalk means there will be restaurants and bars in close proximity, but it also means that the area can be noisy because of the amount of people who use the boardwalk all day and into the late evening. Mission and Pacific Beach are very popular with the young adult crowd, so if you are staying over any school holidays a lot of the boardwalk hotels may have a party atmosphere with the amount of young adults that like to hang out at these beaches. I do see a lot of families staying at this beach, but there is a definite party crowd that is always around too- like I said, especially in summer and spring break when universities are out.


A lot of the beachfront hotels in Mission and Pacific Beach are on the 2 star end...and a lot of them are older properties...however I can give you a few names below of some hotels in this area that are a little more on the upper end, and I would recommend thoroughly checking out reviews on Tripadvisor and Yelp.



Tower23: t23hotel/
Pacific Terrace: pacificterrace/
Blue Sea Hotel: blueseabeachhotel/


My personal favorite beach hotel is in the city of La Jolla, which is an upscale coastal city about 20 minutes drive north of downtown San Diego. There is a hotel right on the beach there, no busy boardwalk but there are places you can walk to for food from the hotel...it's called the La Jolla Shores Hotel. ljshoreshotel/ Good restaurant on the property, as well. As a guest, the hotel will set up chairs and umbrellas for you on the beach in front of the hotel. It can be a pricey hotel though, but if it works into your budget you can't get any closer to the beach and the city of La Jolla is so beautiful.



Coronado is a peninsula across the bay from downtown San Diego, accessible by car via the huge Coronado Bay bridge or by ferry from the downtown side of San Diego. It's a small "island" that is half taken up by a naval air base, while the other half is residential and hotels. Coronado is considered a resort island and hotels there are some of the most expensive in town but it's worth looking at if there's a chance you can manage it. There are two beachfront hotels there...the famous, Victorian era resort hotel called the Hotel Del Coronado hoteldel/ This place is a true experience. It has quite a history, but it is the most expensive of the beachfront hotels in San Diego. Also in Coronado is the Loew's loewshotels/coronado-bay-resort It is situated in a more isolated part of Coronado so it's very quiet, and while it's actually on the bay of San Diego you can walk across the road to the Silver Strand beach.



An option in case none of the beach hotels work out for you is looking into a rental villa through Airbnb or VRBO. There are a lot around the beach areas, many within walking distance or a very short drive of the beaches. You could also look into staying at a hotel in Mission Bay, which is a stone's throw from Mission Beach and Pacific Beach. Sea World is located in Mission Bay and there are a few waterfront hotels that have their own bit of shoreline and beach on the bay. I'd suggest looking at the Catamaran Resort catamaranresort/, Paradise Point destinationhotels/paradise-point and the Hilton San Diego Resort sandiegohilton/


I hope this helps give you some idea where to start looking. I hope that you find someplace that works out for you.

[bex272]

Brilliant thank you for this, La Jolla shores is actually the one that I was looking at I’ve found a decent price for a beachfront room. Do you know if there are parking/resort fees, I haven’t been able to find these yet? I was a bit worried it was too far out, is it easy enough to visit attractions from there?

Bex

[Aims]

Originally Posted by bex272

Brilliant thank you for this, La Jolla shores is actually the one that I was looking at I’ve found a decent price for a beachfront room. Do you know if there are parking/resort fees, I haven’t been able to find these yet? I was a bit worried it was too far out, is it easy enough to visit attractions from there?

Bex

See more...

Hi Bex. They don’t have a resort fee...at least they didn’t when I last stayed just over a year ago. They do charge for parking, it was around $28/night. They also have a free shuttle that will take you to local spots around La Jolla. We used it one morning to go to breakfast and left our car at the hotel. The hotel is an older property and some of the design seemed a little dated, but I hear they have been renovating the rooms since I last stayed. I found the rooms to be a nice size and some have kitchenettes, but I didn’t stay in one of those.

La Jolla is a little out of the way, but not in a deal-breaker sort of way if you get my meaning. It’s not central to the main attractions in San Diego, but it’s not terribly far either. Depending on where you are visiting in San Diego, it could be around 20-30 minutes to get there. Sea World is the closest in distance, about 15 min away. If you are driving during weekday rush hours it could take a little extra time though, the main freeway connecting La Jolla to San Diego (the I-5) can get very jammed during rush hours. If you want to avoid the worst of that on weekdays, I would suggest having breakfast in La Jolla and heading out after 9 am, and having dinner in San Diego before driving back to La Jolla.