Location, Location, Location!!!!
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 3/6/08
We loved the location, the restaurants, the entertainment,
and the free continental breakfast from the rooftop. We had cereal, bananas, toast,tea, coffee, orange juice and sweet rolls. The front desk was opened 24 hours, with brochures,maps, theater information, and suggested walking tours. For $30, you could catch the trolley tour that would take you to the Zoo, Balboa Park Museums, Old Town, Coronado Hotel on the beach and other areas of interest. But best of all, you could get off the trolley at any of the stops and resume the tour every half hour. The music was a little loud (we were on the 3rd floor) after 8:30 P.M., so we simply turned the fan on and had no problem at all sleeping. The kitchen area was sufficient but with place settings for 4. However, the refrigerator was small, so we would walk 4 short blocks every 2 days to Ralph's Grocery store and bring back deli salads, fruits, sodas, water and other goodies for snacks. Our living room was perfect for 2 people. We had a fantastic view (room 303) over looking two street corners that always seemed busy both night and day. The staff was professional, humerous and very friendly. (Not at all what the negative reviews suggested).
We saw a lot of history and learned about the buildings in the area. If there was one thing that could have been better, would have been the valet parking fee of $24.00 per day. But we used the services at least twice a day, driving to other areas of town and decided it was worth calling the front desk, asking to bring our vehicle up from the underground parking, then pulling up in front of the hotel and walking into the hotel. (That was really great when it was raining and it rained 3 of the 8 days we were there.) We found a N.Y. Pizza place selling large pizza slices for $2.50, and if you walked 3 blocks to the Horton Mall, you could find lots of quick foods at the food court.
A few nights we ate at the white linen tables set up in a Paris street fashion throughout
the town. We went to an old movie theater with red velvet chairs and stopped by a nearby laundramat that was only 3 blocks away. We enjoyed great jazz music and ate lobster soup for $6.00 a bowl. We also found a Brazilian buffet that was well worth the $16.00 per person. We really had a great time, and almost forgot to stop by the 2nd level restaurant connected to the hotel. We will definately go back - (hopefully we can trade another one of our RCI timeshare weeks as we did this time.) Thank you everyone!!