CA San Diego Downtown Holiday Inn Harbor View

[katwkittens]

Back from same trip. Hotel was very, very nice. Far exceeded expectations of a 3*. Garage parking (had a $10 per day parking fee but waived it for us). Cylindrical (round) hotel so rooms were triangular. All cherry wood furniture with armoire, large screen tv, tub/shower, vanity and GORGEOUS harbor views. We were 2 blocks from Anthony's Fish Grotto, Phillipa's Pizza Grotto (Little Italy) and historic downtown. Again very, very nice. We ended up not using the shuttle, but it did go to all area attractions and beaches. Restaurant inside terrific, nice staff..extremely helpful. Bumped us to upgraded room, great views.....no extra cost, just the $37 per night. Checked when we got back and for the July 3-7 weekend rate is well over $170 per night on hotwire. Wanted to go back then (we got seaworld annual passes) but will instead stay in Irvine and just make the trek from there, much, much cheaper on that given weekend.

[TravelGuy]

Thanks for the review. I'm considering trying for this hotel on my next trip to San Diego. With it being located right in the flight path to the airport and near the freeway, did you find noise to be a problem at all?

[katwkittens]

No, did not hear any noise....car or plane. Was very quiet. Could watch all the planes coming in though when in a room with a harbor view, kids thought it was very cool!!

[TravelGuy]

There's an almost Euro feel to this place in the way that tasteful design compensates for an economy of space. The hotel has 16 floors and a unique, slimly cylindrical shape, with just 16 rooms on each floor. Rooms seem on the small side, particularly upon entering, but, as mentioned above, fan out into a triangular shape, so that things begin to seem at least satisfactorily spacious after taking a few steps inside. The room's ambiance and decor are somewhat above what one would expect to find at a Holiday Inn. The armoire in lieu of a closet is particularly a nice touch (as well as a practical necessity, as there's no available space to put a closet).

My view from the14th floor, of downtown San Diego and part of the harbor - including a corner of Coronado and the Star of India tall ship parked at the Maritime Museum - was also terrific. Looking down onto the water, shimmering brilliantly in the bright afternoon sun as sailboats slid gracefully across, was mesmerizing.

Adjacent to the compact check-in and lobby area is the hotel's sole source of food and drink, a small but fairly stylish cafe with reasonable prices. The pool, ringed by about a dozen lounge chairs and 4 umbrella tables, is small as well, but interesting in that it's 8

[LoneStar]

Received this for $45 for a one-night stay. Previous reviews are accurate. The hotel is fine, but probably wouldn't be anyone's first choice (unless you could get it for $45 of course, which seems to have VERY limited availability). Surprisingly plentiful free parking around the corner, on the side facing the California Western law school.

Note that while Priceline still calls it the "Harbor View," the hotel now refers to itself as the "Holiday Inn Downtown," apparently because they lost much of their harbor view to new construction nearby.

While I must say I was a little disappointed to see a Holiday Inn classified at 2.5 stars, this one deserves it. It might even be a weak 3 star. An excellent deal at this lowball price. It's an older hotel (someone told me it was once a Marriott), that shows a bit of it's age, but is still being well maintained. Due to it's noisy location, I'd try hard to get an upper floor room. They accomodated me on this, and once on the 14th floor, there were no noise issues.

Biggest drawback is the lack of a real restaurant at the hotel. It seemed to originally have a rooftop restaurant, which has been closed. It now has only a small coffee shop in the lobby. No real reason to eat there, unless you have kids, which makes it a bargain because the kids are free pursuant to Holiday Inn policy. If you do eat dinner, I'd stick to the sandwiches, as that seems to be the limit of their culinary expertise.