San Diego

simoncrouch

Can't recommend Pacific Beach (zip code 92109) in San Diego enough. I've been several times and just love the beach on the Ocean and the inland lagoon (Mission Bay). Loads to do in SD, easy trolley system to navigate, downtown is safe and there's a lovely waterside district.

Seaworld and Balboa Park are really worth the effort.

BTW in Pacific Beach there's a little shack opposite Crystal Pier called Kono's, they do without a doubt the best breakfast burritos in the area.

When I was there in October last year we followed up SD with a trip to Vegas, managed to get a real cheap flight on Southwest IIRC about $60 all in each way. Paid something like $120 for 3 nights in the Excalibur through i4vegas.com

Hope you have a great trip

Vikki_74

Not sure whether this will be of any use to the OP or anyone else, but I've just had an email from the Best Western Island Palms where we stayed last year offering 30% off their normal rates for stays up to 26 May 2011:

https://booking.ihotelier.com/istay/istay.jsp?Rooms=1&HotelID=6541&rateplanID=779169

Picked some random dates in May and it comes out at $84 per night for the cheapest room type or $98 for a junior suite which is pretty decent.

tingtong

Vikki_74 wrote: »

Not sure whether this will be of any use to the OP or anyone else, but I've just had an email from the Best Western Island Palms where we stayed last year offering 30% off their normal rates for stays up to 26 May 2011:

https://booking.ihotelier.com/istay/istay.jsp?Rooms=1&HotelID=6541&rateplanID=779169

Picked some random dates in May and it comes out at $84 per night for the cheapest room type or $98 for a junior suite which is pretty decent.

Was just about to post this, just booked a week ourselves and cancelled our booking with booking.com - saved $260 which was nice.

EDIT: This special offer is also refundable as long as you cancel more than 48hrs in advance

Vikki_74

So jealous tingtong, wish we were going back to San Diego this year I stay on all these hotels' mailing lists then they send me deals and I get all depressed!

shinyahashimoto1

I too would recommend San Diego. We were in LA and could only spend 1 night/2 days there, drove down in a convertible. Would definitely say to go. You could chill out at the beaches or have a more active experience. We went to La Jolla in the morning, and then Balboa Park. The next day was spent at the Zoo. For nightlight, the main area was very compact, so lots of bars and restaurants within easy walking distance. As expected, plenty of Seafood and Mexican restaurants.


One thing I'd definitely note, as soon as you start looking online about LA holidays, almost any forum is full of posts praising San Diego instead. Mentioned to people whilst in Vegas we were going to San Diego - said we'd love it - Taxi Driver in Vegas - said we'd love it, leaving McCarren Airport on way to LA, without us mentioning San Diego, the guy checking in the bags said "if your in LA...you really should visit San Diego". This is all for a reason! It looks lovely as well, doesn't appear to have the rough parts LA has and also appears quite rich.

Final point, if you drive, tryin the convertible you can hit the coast, plus we drove over Coronado Bridge with the top down, a thrilling experience, can't find a picture to do it justice, literally breathtaking!

Edit: I can't post links, but if you google images it you can see :-)

Vikki_74

It's weird, we put LA on our itinerary straight away and San Diego was just kind of an afterthought to fit in whilst we were down that way - nearly dropped it altogether when we thought we might have to cut the holiday a couple of days shorter - but I'd probably never bother going back to LA now I've seen it once, whereas San Diego's one of the top places I've visited and I would go back like a shot! I expected to love San Francisco, and did without a doubt, but San Diego kind of caught me by surprise at how nice it was.

whittboy

Me and my girlfriend are visiting San Diego for four or five nights in September and I was just wondering if anybody could recommend any hotels or even just the best area to stay in?

My mates sister lives in SD and she has apparently recommended pacific beach but I cant find much on here about any hotels there. We also looked at the Dana in Mission beach but it seems the only thing near there is Sea World.

Any suggestions would be great

Thanks

tingtong

I presume you will have a car ??

We have only stayed on Shelter Island, at the Best Western Island Palms, which is just a few miles from the centre. A lot will depend on what you want, do you want to be right in the centre (downtown) or more on the outskirts ?

Shelter Island suited us fine, very peaceful but close enough to everywhere we wanted to go.

EDIT: The transport system seems quite good if you don't have a car but you'd probably be better off in the centre if that's the case.

Vikki_74

I've stayed at the same hotel as tingtong and we really liked it, but agree it depends what you want to do. We tried to drive downtown one night but parking ended up being a nightmare (I think there was a baseball game on at the time) which kind of made me wish we'd stayed more in that area...

If you will have a car, there's a weird rule in San Diego that everything seems to be about 20 minutes away from everything else, so no matter where you stay you shouldn't be too far away from anything. If you won't have a car, the public transport system isn't as good as it is in say San Francisco, but most places are accessible if you stay in the right location - somewhere downtown or in the old town area are probably your best bet as they're on the trolley/metro/tram (not sure what they actually call it there!) line.

The San Diego pages on TripAdvisor might be more help in working out where you want to visit and which area would be best to stay in as a starting point, then maybe post back here to see if anyone has specific recommendations &/or ways to save a few $ on whatever you've chosen.

misa.blue

whittboy wrote: »

Me and my girlfriend are visiting San Diego for four or five nights in September and I was just wondering if anybody could recommend any hotels or even just the best area to stay in?

Hi, we are going to SD for 2-3 nights in end of April, will have hire car with us.
After research we decided we want to be in walking distance of restaurants and shops in town so we are looking to book some budget hotel in Little Italy or Old Town..;)