A wonderful family vacation
My wife, and two kids (ages 3 & 6) stayed in Room 22 for four nights in September of 2010. When I booked the room I appreciated their honesty when they told me that the room is small for a family of four, but we decided to stay anyway since we were just planning on sleeping in the hotel and hanging out at the beach and going to Legoland. When we pulled up to the hotel we were very impressed with the overall aesthetics. The employee was very nice and informative. They provide us with free parking in a garage a few blocks away. Inside was clean. They have a cool little library section where you can sit and eat some free cookies and lemonade (or coffee). The top deck was closed for construction. Our room wasn't tiny, but it was small for a family of four...but we didn't mind. It worked out for us because we're low maintenance, but it would have been perfect for a romantic get away. We fit a cot in there and my two kids shared the cot at night. The room had a mini fridge, which we liked because we brought some milk and jelly and we were planning on storing some meals in there. My 3 year old hadn't really been on a vacation, so she wasn't sure what was going on, but after the 2nd day, she didn't want to leave. She actually cried when we told her we were heading home.
We walked to the cove (which is one block away) and my daughter swam in the water while my son climbed the rocks. We spent most of our time relaxing. There was a nice park about 5 blocks away which has some great playgrounds the kids. There's tons of food and shops around. The hotel was in a perfect location. The only time we really had to drive anywhere is when we went to LegoLand (only a 20min drive).
One day I walked past a room and I saw the cleaners doing some deep cleaning. All the furniture was moved around with cleaning supplies inside. I'm not sure if they do that after every stay or if it's a seasonal thing. Our room was spotless, so I'm assuming that cleanliness is a part of their hotel culture.
My wife was 8 months pregnant on this trip, so she definitely appreciated the continental breakfast that they delivered every morning. We called in what we wanted and they brought some great croissants, muffins, pastries, cereal, and drinks to us. It was nice not having to worry about breakfast in the mornings. That definitely saved me from running to the store to feed my wife and kids. It also saved us some money.
We brought our own beach towels and chairs, but one day we left them in the car in the parking garage and so we got some from the front desk.
You go a lot of places where people want to charge you for everything and add fee upon fee. So with the free parking, the cookies, lemonade, breakfast, towels, and chair, we were very grateful that La Jolla Inn looks at the bigger picture in taking care of their guest. We had a lot of fun as a family and we want to thank La Jolla Inn for how well you take care of your Inn and your customers.