Sunny San Diego (and Coronado, too)

When I was a kid growing up here in the San Fernando Valley, my family's favorite vacation destination was San Diego. It's relatively close (just a two hour drive if traffic is light), it's on the coast, and the weather is almost always perfect (even when it's raining in Los Angeles, as it was this weekend).

So when I received an invitation to attend a blogger event this weekend at Sea World (to try out the park's new Sesame Street themed Bay of Play area), I jumped on it. For the last couple of years, we've been heading down to San Diego purely for gymnastics meets. How nice would it be to go there for fun?

As it turns out, it was very nice indeed.

We managed to cram a lot of the city and its environs into a very short visit (just a day and a half): We left the Valley at 6:00 a.m. (in pouring rain!), got to the park at 8:00 and stayed there until 5:00.

From there, we checked into our downtown hotel: The Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter. I've stayed at this hotel several times, first as a meeting and convention planner (I managed a couple of events there and came away impressed with the efficiency of the staff and the quality of the food)... and later, as a civilian. You see, on weekends (when most of the business travelers have left), it is often possible to get a better room rate at a downtown or airport property than you'll find closer to the beach.

I particularly like the Westin because its parent company, Starwood, has one of the most generous affinity programs in the business. By using a combination of existing Starwood points and transferring some of my American Express points, I was able to obtain a $60 per night room rate for this 4-star hotel (in a town where even the crummiest motor inn will cost you at least twice that much).

We invited my daughter's friend, Maggie, along on this trip. They loved the hotel pool and outdoor shower, but (typical tween girls!) were even more impressed that the building is part of Westfield's Horton Plaza mall complex.  I have to confess that I took advantage of the Westin's proximity to shopping when I stayed on business and forgot to pack a few essentials.

My husband and I like the Westin because it's an easy walk to the lively restaurants and nightlife of San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter. After swimming, we took the girls to dinner at one of our favorite funky dining spots: Mr. Tiki's Mai Tai Lounge, a bastion of kitschy Polynesian decor, lava lamps and pupu platters.

This may not have been the best choice for the kids: The menu did not have a lot of options for them and their dinner consisted of huge bowls of miso soup, edamame and rice. However, they got a kick out of the colorful surroundings and energy of the place. And my husband and I were very happy with our sampler plates of skewered chicken and beef and a nice assortment of sushi.

There was a jazz festival taking place just across the street, so we had the added perk of listening to live music while we ate. Unfortunately, we weren't able to check it out more closely (the presence of bouncers keeping us from entering were a deterrent; I guess the festival wasn't a free event!). We were all pretty tired anyway (that 6:00 a.m. drive did us in), so we retired to our double-double Heavenly Bedded guest room and got to sleep early.

We were wide open the following morning for something to do. My husband had been thinking of revisiting Balboa Park (home of the San Diego Zoo and so much more), but he also wanted to get some time on the beach. I had another idea: As we are going to have to return to San Diego in July (yes, for another gymnastics meet), why not check out some of our hotel choices?

So we headed south for our first destination: The Hotel del Coronado (pictured at the top of this post), one of this country's great old (opened in 1887) luxury resorts. Movie buffs will recognize the place as the backdrop of "Some Like it Hot," the Billy Wilder classic starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. (Not familiar with it? Too bad - AFI listed it as the greatest American comedy film of all time.)

Coronado is actually a separate city from San Diego, on an island and accessible via a very long, tall bridge. The downtown has an upscale village atmosphere, reminiscent of other SoCal beach towns like La Jolla and Laguna. It's a nice destination for a side visit -- or your entire stay, if you've got the money. We didn't actually expect to be able to budget for a Hotel Del stay on our next visit: a non-view room would run us $350 per night. Heck, parking is a whopping $13 for TWO HOURS (we found a spot on the street) and Sunday brunch would have run us $69 per adult (kids are somewhat less).

But the Hotel Del did offer us some nice activities in the form of shopping and beach time. Both my husband and I had fun taking pictures while the girls enjoyed digging holes in the sand (which for some reason, never gets old!)

We left Coronado around lunchtime to take a look at a couple of other hotels: The Hilton in Mission Bay (where my sister and her family will be staying over the time we'll be back down for the meet) and the Town & Country in Mission Valley (one of the properties offering a deeply discounted group rate for meet participants).

I don't think we will be staying at either property. As much fun as it would be to join the family, the Mission Bay Hilton isn't much cheaper than the Hotel Del... and the users of TripAdvisor.com don't have much good to say about the Town & Country. Right now, I'm leaning towards another Mission Valley property that's rated higher on TripAdvisor -- but in order to get the group rate, I need to book it online and pay in full with a Visa or Mastercard (which means I don't get any more of those precious American Express points). I am also having a hard time making the reservation because we don't yet know when Megan's events will occur; that will greatly affect our arrival and departure dates.

I'm kind of leaning towards waiting, to see if some deals emerge at the last minute. With gas prices over $4.00 this weekend, it's possible that some folks will cancel their plans to vacation in San Diego this summer. Will that translate into lower hotel rates? It may be worth the gamble.

Want to see how we spent our day at Sea World? Check out my review - with video!

Comments

[Busy Mom]

I've been to the Del!

[PunditMom]

We'll need to talk. We're headed to the "Del" over the December holidays this year!