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  1. Humphreys By The Bay Review

    January 6, 2013 by Staff

    2303 Shelter Island Dr.
    San Diego, CA 92106

     

    Oh the tropics. I love coming to these old hotels on shelter island, they literally make you feel like you are in Hawaii.  You walk in and the architecture is all Polynesian, it is full of magnificent tropical bushes and trees, the whole vibe of the place is this: Sailors from the 1840’s coming back from war and recreating their vision of the tropics here in San Diego. When you walk into the room, its obvious that is was built probably in the 1860’s, but you can tell that they put their time, energy and a little bit of money into updating it. Flat screen TV,  funky bedspreads, and padded headboards. They got nice facing sinks in the bathroom, and they put new carpeting and it looks like it was put in in the last few years. The pool is absolutely beautiful and in fact when I’m done writing this I’m going to go jump in the hot tub.They also got a huge amphitheater here with great concerts. I happen to run into the man who’s in charge of plant maintenance here a few weeks ago over lunch, we had a talk about it and he seemed like a really nice guy. I got a great deal on Expedia for the room it was only $70 for the night. To match it for the middle of the summer the same room being $250 or $300. Location on Shelter Island is superb, when I got to the front desk on a weeknight a little later nobody was there I hit the bell once and someone literally came tearing to the door to help me. I can’t thank them enough, the bed was really comfortable and I’m glad to be here.

     

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  2. Review: Airbnb and Embassy Suites

    April 19, 2012 by editor

    This was my first time using Airbnb.  We needed a place to stay in La Jolla that would allow us to have kids but also still create a nice environment to be somewhere near the beach.  A room near the water in La Jolla is about $250 a night.  A big suite of rooms would be at least $400 to well over $1,000.  A friend of mine recommended Airbnb so I went on it.  Airbnb got its start when some guys in Austin, Texas who wanted to rent out their air mattress on their living room floor when there was a festival in town and so the joke became a bed and breakfast on an air bed hence Airbnb.  Airbnb now has everything from renting castles in Scotland to renting the couch in somebody’s living room.  In the meantime, it was just an awesome place to get a room.

    We paid $130 a night for a quite large 2-bedroom condo and it had absolutely everything you could possibly imagine in it.

    They had tons of fresh towels stocked and they had bicycles you could go on a ride to the beach with. They had a kid’s bedroom with 2 bunk beds that could also be slept in by adults.


    There was tons of closet space.  They had salt, pepper, and spices in the cupboards, all the silverware, pots, pans, and dishes you could need, and a great refrigerator.  Everything was recently remodeled and scrupulously clean.


    I wondered how it was going to work to get the key conveniently, but they used a lock box system like a real estate agent would use.  Just as your heading out the owner is able to send a cleaning crew in for a couple hours and make sure the place is ready.

    The girlfriend is a great housekeeper so the place was in wonderful shape when we left.  We had to leave a $400 cleaning deposit, which was refunded to us 2 days after we left.  I’m sure not all Airbnb experiences are going to be as perfect as this, but they have a great rating system so you can see how people rated the condo owner before and the people who stayed there get rated and referenced as well.

    If you want a place to stay a little less then a mile from the beach in La Jolla and you got a couple kids with you, even if you don’t, I can’t recommend this place more highly.

    We stayed the weekend before in the Embassy Suites in University Town Center (UTC), which cost us $200 a night for a much smaller place.

    Embassy Suites – San Diego
    4550 La Jolla Village Drive
    San Diego, California, 92122
    Phone: (858) 453-0400

    Although you do have the advantage there of having someone come and clean your room every day and they do give you free breakfast for everybody, which did save a bunch of money.

    Courtesy of Embassy Suites Website

    Lobby - Courtesy of Embassy Suites Website

    I complement the general manger of the Embassy Suites in UTC because we did have a very significant snag with the national reservation system and what could have turned into an absolute catastrophe he jumped in and saved the day.  So, I am giving the Embassy Suites in UTC a double thumbs up if you prefer a more traditional hotel stay than staying in a condo.

    Living Room - Courtesy of Embassy Suites Website

    Bedroom - Courtesy of Embassy Suites Website

     

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  3. Hotel Review: La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club

    March 13, 2012 by editor

    Having lived in La Jolla for the last 20 years, La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club has constantly been on my peripheral vision.  As I understand it they didn’t allow people of my religious heritage to become members until not to many decades in the past.  In fact, the guy that greeted us at the front desk was black.  He and I had a really good laugh at the history of the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club and how neither one of us would have been able to be members a couple decades ago.  The place has changed.  All that is in the past and it was absolutely delightful to stay there.

    La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club
    2000 Spindrift Drive
    La Jolla, CA 92037
    Tel: (888) 828-0948

    Photo Courtesy of La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club Careers

    They were loose with their rules and allowed us to go in their swimming pool even after midnight.  They said as long was were weren’t too loud or create any nuisances.  The place is right on the beach.  I think it is $15,000 or $20,000 a year to be a member and it used to be a real frou-frou, chi-chi place.  In fact, actually, I had been kicked off their beach  a couple times for either trying to hang out on their beach or surf there.

    Our room was literally 50 feet from the sand.  We got one of the cheap rooms without an ocean view.  It had that old 1920 or 30’s California Spanish style architecture feel to it which I absolutely love.

    The grounds are enormous and you realize it is some of the most expensive property in the world that the club is situated on.  When you take all that into account a winter mid-week rate at $200/night is a decent deal.  It is the kind of place you want to stay for a special occasion.  Give yourself time to check in early and check out late so you have plenty of beach time to be able to enjoy La Jolla Shores beach.  Even though it is the beach I go to surf and hang out on it is still one of the most gorgeous beaches in the world.  I couldn’t recommend the place highly enough.

    The bed was super comfortable.  They had really great robes.  In fact, they had geese walking around the parking lot which is always an added bonus.

    It is the kind of place if you wanted to bring your kids in the summertime there would be a million things to do.  In fact, the beach right in front of the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club is one of the safest beaches in California because the way that La Jolla Cove blocks the waves the waves are often tiny there.  There are a lot of stingrays in the summertime though so always remember to shuffle your feet.  They even had big signs up reminding you to do so.

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  4. Hotel Review: Laguna Cliffs Inn

    March 5, 2012 by editor

    When you get a motel by the beach you don’t expect much not even in an upscale city like Laguna. You expect it to be musty and beaten up and broken down just from all the salt water and sandy people going in. You can tell Laguna Cliffs Inn have gone way out of their way to upgrade the rooms make them look modern, fresh, and clean. I’m not saying it is the Ritz Carlton but for a motel by the beach it was a hell of a lot better than what I expected.

    Laguna Cliffs Inn
    475 North Coast Highway
    Laguna Beach, California 92651
    Phone: 949-497-6645
    Toll Free: 800-297-0007

    What was really cute was there was an odd door at the back of the room just a regular door like you are going outside. When you unlocked it and walked outside we had our own little balcony which was very cute to go out in the evening. Although it looked like it could have been cleaned better, but I have a feeling people don’t use it very much.  The room had a little kitchenette inside.  I don’t think there was any kind of a stove or burner.  The bed was extremely comfortable and we slept really well.

    The location was gorgeous even though we were a block away from the beach.  As soon as you walked out the door onto the walkway you got a gorgeous ocean view.  So beautiful in fact we stopped to take pictures of ourselves looking over the water.

    We went to the hotel’s website on line.  They had a AAA rating.  I think we paid $170 a night which is obvioulsy going to be a lot less than a weekend in the wintertime which is when we went than it would have been on a weekend in the summer.  I can imagine in summer it would be significantly more than that.  If you are looking for a place to stay by the water where you can walk into downtown Laguna I can’t recommend this place more highly for the price.  Even if we had a lot more money to spend I don’t know if there would have been anywhere better located.  The Surf and Sand Hotel is obviously super beautiful, but I think the walk downtown would have been longer and the price on that I believe was close to $400 a night.

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