San Diego hotels

Okay, I know there are already threads about San Diego hotels. I'm sorry to start a new one. I don't want to hijack someone else's thread, so I started a new one.

Bottom line: I'm seriously overwhelmed by finding a San Diego hotel. We are going to be in San Diego July 13-15th before we go to Anaheim for a week at Disneyland. I'm overwhelmed by the number of "districts" to choose from: Gaslamp Quarter (near the Padres stadium?), Mission Valley (is "Hotel Circle" part of that?), La Jolla, Coronado, National City area, Shelter Island.... We are a group of 3 - two adults and one 10-year-old.

Possible plans (some of these will likely get cut):
San Diego Zoo (for sure), beach time for a couple of hours at most (for sure), Old Town or Balboa Park (probably), whale watching tour (maybe), see Hotel del Coronado (maybe), tour the USS Midway (maybe).

Questions:
1) What area(s) would you recommend and why? Help me understand what one area has over another. Who doesn't like to stay somewhere luxurious, but we don't need the poshest of accommodations because, as you can see from above, there is a lot we want to see and do.

2) We'd LOVE to keep the cost to under $150 a night. I don't even know if that's feasible based on all the research I've been doing the past few days. It seems like we might have to bump that up to $250 a night to find something nice or else we'll be farther out from the main attractions than we want to be.

3) Every hotel seems pricey for our dates. Is that because it's summer? baseball season? It's the week before ComiCon, so I wouldn't think that would influence rates a week ahead, would it?

4) I would like to be brave and use Hotwire, but again, that requires me to know the area that makes the most sense for us/is most convenient. For example, there is a Gaslamp Quarter hotel normally $284 a night that is listed at $141. It gets 90% positive reviews. Are we pretty likely to like any hotel in that area? Is the rate likely to be great but we'll get hit with extra add-ons (parking fees, amenity fees, etc.)?

5) I know traffic is a HUGE consideration in LA/Anaheim. Is that the case with San Diego as well? Should that impact where we choose to stay because we'll lose time with traffic if we don't stay close by?

Sorry to ask so many questions. I appreciate any help anyone has or wants to offer.

Moving to our Southern California board...

Mary Jo said:

Moving to our Southern California board...

Click to expand...

Oops - thank you! Sorry!

I don't know about all the different districts in SD, but the one hotel we return to whenever we're in the area is the Sheraton Mission Valley. We always get a good rate using some kind of discount, AAA mostly, and the staff is very friendly. It is very close to the Fashion Valley Mall and another large shopping area which makes finding something to eat easy and quick.

We use Hotwire quite often with great results. I look for a 3 or 4 star hotel in the area I want with 80% or higher ratings. Keep in mind that most 4 star hotels charge for parking $15-$25/night. Can still be a great deal overall, just figure it in with the total. Gaslamp has numerous restaurants around, often in walking distance from hotels. Hotel Circle (Mission Valley) is very easy to get to Sea World, Zoo, Mission Beach, Belmont Park or Old Town. Shelter Island has some very nice resorts but I found parking difficult at times.

On our last trip we ended up with the Hilton Mission Valley for $95 + $20 parking. Very nice hotel.
When we want to save more we've stayed further out in La Mesa. Usually get the Holiday Inn for around $75 or less, free parking.

When using Hotwire make sure to select 3-4 people in order to guarantee 2 beds.

You can get an idea of what hotel you will get looking at hotel lists on betterbidding or biddingfortravel web sites and comparing to amenities that Hotwire shows.

Will you have a car? This will determine what area is best for you. San Diego lacks decent public transportation. Driving around town is fine provided you go on off hours - leave the hotel after 9 AM, head back to the hotel before 5 PM or stop and have dinner and head back after 6:30.

Nah, hotel rooms are expensive here but summer they go up a bit more. You won't find a room in town during Comic Con.

Mission Valley/Hotel Circle has the highest concentration of low priced hotel room but are somewhat isolated from attractions but centrally located to the major freeways. OK for kids.

Gaslamp is located downtown and in an area with lots of bars and restaurants. Caters to out of town guests and the convention set. Somewhat isolated as it there are only two freeways in/out of it. Tends to skew older.

La Jolla is incredibly beautiful, and an high end beach town. Somewhat isolated from attractions, but you know, the beach.

There is no reason to stay in National City.

Coronado is stunning and even though it is 10 minutes from my house I feel like I'm on vacation when I visit. Hotels seems to be high end, somewhat isolated although the zoo/Balboa Park is about 15 minutes from Coronado.

I had a friend staying at the Catamaran last week in PB. Not very central but man, it was some beautiful grounds. He loved it, but he was from the snowy wastelands of Alaska...

You might want to look at Liberty Station (close to the airport and somewhat central). Tends to run a bit cheaper than other areas however.