Downtown San Diego
Always vibrant and active, downtown San Diego
is home to San Diego's downtown Convention Center,
Seaport Village, and the Gaslamp Quarter among other
notable attractions, and is conveniently located less
than five miles from Lindbergh Field, San Diego's
international airport where many of San Diego visitors
will first touch down.
Downtown San Diego has undergone a dramatic revitalization
over the last 15 years and that has the locals and
visitors alike going out downtown to enjoy the variety
of chic eateries and nightclubs that line the streets
of the Gaslamp Quarter, take in a dinner cruise on
the harbor or just take in the scenic bay views along
the Embarcadero, or browse one of a number of historical
museums during the day, or attend one of the variety
of cultural events going on each night. And now with
the recent addition of the San Diego Padres new ballpark
downtown and the surrounding Ballpark District now
complete, Spring and Summer evenings bring the excitement
of baseball to downtown for both residents and visitors
alike. Selecting a downtown hotel could be a great
choice for your stay.
This web site is designed to help you schedule
your stay downtown or in any other area of San Diego.
Here we list the best hotels, restaurants and activities
in the area or you can call one of our friendly staff
with your preferred dates and we can answer any questions
or personally assist you in planning your trip to
San Diego. Read More
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Use Our Quick Search Below to
find the
Availability and Prices for
All Downtown Area Hotels
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Across San Diego Bay from downtown, the isthmus of
Coronado is a well-scrubbed resort community with
a major naval station occupying its western end. It's
of somewhat limited interest, save for the majestically
modern Coronado Bay Bridge , a curving 11,000-foot
span that's one of the area's signature images ($1
toll for southbound travelers without passengers),
and the historic Hotel del Coronado , around which
the town grew. The massive Victorian-turreted "Del"
is where Edward VIII (then Prince of Wales) first
met Mrs Simpson (then a Coronado housewife) in 1920
and where Some Like It Hot was filmed in 1958, posing
as a Miami Beach hotel. The simplest and most scenic
way to get to Coronado is on the San Diego Bay ferry
($2 each way; tel 619/234-4111) which leaves Broadway
Pier daily on the hour between 9am and 9pm (10pm Fri
& Sat). Tickets are available at San Diego Harbor
Excursion , 1050 N Harbor Drive ( ).
The tall Moorish archways of the Santa Fe Railroad
Depot , at the western end of Broadway , built in
1915 for the Panama-California Exposition, still evoke
a sense of grandeur. Broadway slices through the middle
of downtown, at its most hectic between Fourth and
Fifth avenues. Shoppers, sailors, yuppies and slackers
linger around the fountains outside Horton Plaza (Mon-Sat
8.30am-5pm, summer Mon -Sat 10am-9pm, Sun 11am-7pm;
hortonplaza.shoppingtown.com), San Diego's major upmarket
shopping venue, with a somewhat dated postmodern style
that borrows heavily from Art Deco designs and motifs.
Head for the open-air eating places on its top level;
though the cuisine may be more expensive than in the
streets - and offers little more than the standard
fast-food fare of other shopping zones - it's fun
to sit over a coffee and watch the parade of tourists
go by. Take time on your way out to visit the 21ft-tall
Jessop Clock on level one, made for the California
State Fair of 1907.
South of Broadway, a few blocks and yet a world away
from Horton Plaza, the sixteen-block Gaslamp District
, heart of frontier San Diego, is now filled with
smart streets lined with classy cafés, antique
stores, art galleries, and, of course, gas lamps -
now powered by electricity. A tad artificial it may
be, but its late-nineteenth-century buildings are
intriguing to explore. Worth a peek is the Horton
Grand , 311 Island Ave, a reconstruction of two nineteenth-century
hotels originally located a few blocks away, with
Old World decor and hotel staff in Victorian costumes.
West of downtown, the Embarcadero pathway follows
the curve of the bay, and leads to the Maritime Museum
, 1306 N Harbor Drive (daily 9am-8pm, summer closes
at 9pm; $6; ), where the most interesting of three
vintage sailing craft is the Star of India , built
in 1863 and now the world's oldest still-afloat merchant
ship.
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