Staying at the Hotel Del Coronado has been on my travel bucket list for as long as I can remember, so it goes without saying that this particular review is one that I’ve been itching to make for a very long time. It feels really great to be writing this, and I totally feel like I am a true San Diegian now having had the experience of overnighting at the Del.
A full review of our 1 night stay at the Hotel Del Coronado
For those of you not familiar with this hotel (and San Diego in general), the Hotel Del Coronado is arguably the top hotel in the city. Located on the beautiful western shores of Coronado Island overlooking Point Loma and the Pacific Ocean, this hotel is rich in history, service, and (of course) an amazing Southern California vibe.
- I consider it to be the best hotel in San Diego. It's far from being the most luxurious, but it's the only property that captures the true essence of America's Finest City.
- It's expensive, but very much worth it if you're looking for the ultimate "Southern California" experience.
- Getting to and from the rest of San Diego will require a rental car (or deep pockets to spend on Ubers).
Basically, if you’ve ever seen a San Diego travel poster or tourist website, you’ve likely seen pictures of the Hotel Del Coronado. It’s a landmark of this city, and a beautiful one at that.
It’s also ridiculously expensive. This one-night stay was actually a birthday gift to my wife, who has also been dreaming of staying here for quite some time. Her birthday was back in March, but I couldn’t find a one-night rate for the month of March and all throughout the summer for less than $600 per night.
I may be known to spend a bit freely when it comes to travel, but paying over $600 a night for a hotel room is far beyond my personal comfort zone.
I should point out that it is possible to redeem Hilton Honors points here at the Del (as it’s part of the Curio Collection), but with only 7000 points in my account at the time, that wasn’t even close to cutting it. Our only option was to shell out cash like normal people.
Checking in
We ended up having to wait until the summer season was over in order to get a room under $500 per night. Even then, we still paid $490 for our room on a Saturday night in the middle of September, which was still pushing it in terms of what I’m comfortable paying out of my own pocket for a hotel room.
But hey – this was a special occasion, so we tried not to think about how much it cost. At least I was earning valuable Hilton Honors points with this stay…
We arrived at roughly 4 PM, along with pretty much everyone else who was checking in that night. The line was long, but at least it was moving quickly and we didn’t have to wait for more than 15 minutes. Besides, it was fun to just stand there in the lobby and people-watch. Sometimes I forget that I live in a tourist city, and that I’m lucky to be here full-time. I really do love San Diego!
- Be sure to choose an upper floor room if the sound of people frolicking down on the beach might be annoying to you.
- Not being able to afford an ocean facing room isn't the end of the world. The views are good in all directions!
- If you can afford it, the Sunday brunch is legendary. A true YOLO experience.
Getting to our room
The Hotel Del Coronado is broken up into several sections. We couldn’t afford a room in the main building, and the only thing in our price range was in an adjacent building called Ocean Towers. This building is set up like a regular high-rise hotel, which unfortunately lacks any of the special flair and charm of the main structure.
I’m not totally sure, but it looks like they added it sometime in the 50s or 60s in order to add more rooms to the overall property. At least it wasn’t far from the main building though – just a three minute walk out the front door to the right towards the beach.
The room
To be honest, the feeling of disappointment hit both my wife and I at exactly the same time as soon as we walked through the door of our room. This was not what we were expecting.
Sure, we had a somewhat decent view of the beach, and everything was clean, but the decor was very low end and it actually felt like a budget motel room. A budget motel room that we paid nearly $500 for.
Before going any further, it’s important to note that (even I’m going to complain – a lot – from here on out), the room was nice and clean. There are certainly worse things to be miffed about in this world.
That said, paying for the cheapest room at the Moana Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki (a similarly historic property compared to the Hotel Del Coronado) wasn’t a disappointment at all. And now, on with the review…
Making our room slightly even more disappointing was the fact that the walls are very thin and the people in the next room were watching college football at a very loud volume for the entirety of our stay. We heard everything.
We also heard them having sex the next morning (which lasted all of 2 minutes, but sounded intense). Classy! Anyway, it seemed like they were enjoying thier vacation immensely so who am I to complain?
The bathroom
The hotel grounds
Final thoughts (and some pros and cons)
In conclusion, I’m going to have to say that this one night stay at the hotel Del Coronado did not quite live up to my expectations. The problem was squarely on the room, and not the property itself.
As a matter fact, we had a very nice time that evening just strolling the grounds and just enjoying the moment of being there. But it was a different story back in the room – I’ve stayed in better rooms which cost $85 per night, so I had a really hard time digesting the fact that we paid $500 for this.
That being said, if you’re not from San Diego and aren’t used to seeing the beach every day like we are as locals, you are likely to have a different opinion of the rooms in the Ocean Towers. The location is pretty much perfect, which is probably the best thing you could ask for if you’re a tourist coming to visit the city for a few days.
Pros:
- Arguably the most “San Diego” hotel experience in San Diego.
- Directly connected to one of the best beaches in Southern California.
- Many great shops and restaurants within walking distance.
Cons:
- It’s not cheap (especially if you want a room in the main / original building).
- Getting to other touristy part of San Diego will take some time.
Someday I want to cash in a ton of Hilton Honors points and book a night in the main building where the rooms are (supposedly) magnificent. Unfortunately, there’s no way in hell that I would be willing to pay for something like that out of my own pocket, so it’s going to have to wait until I can amass an obscene amount of points to do so.
I guess that means that staying at the Hotel Del Coronado still on my bucket list…
- Use an online booking engine (such as Booking.com) instead of booking directly with the hotel.
- Booking engines are sometimes able to offer the lowest prices thanks to special partnerships they’ve developed with the hotel brands.
- Most booking engines have excellent loyalty / reward programs (which makes it easy to accumulate points for free nights). This is one of the reasons how I’m able to travel so frequently.
