In mid-January I attended a conference in San Diego, and after a busy weekend Leandra flew out for the remainder of the week. Though we’ve been to SD many times now, we still love returning and it is one of our favorite cities to visit.
Hyatt Regency Mission Bay
I was able to use a soon-to-expire suite upgrade certificate to get an ocean-facing corner room in the tower. The room itself was quite nice, with a bed area on one side of the room separated by a curtain and a large seating area. Personally, I prefer a dark room at night for sleeping and the shutters in the bed area let in a lot of light early in the morning. It would be good to have some secondary drapes to get the room darker. Note that this wouldn’t be am issue in a standard tower room.
With a multiple-night stay I usually unpack so I liked the good-size closet. There were only 5 hangers, but a call for more had them delivered in minutes. The bathroom had plenty of counter-space and room too.
Given the height of the 14th floor we had an excellent view of the bay and ocean beach from our room and balcony.
good morning
Annoyances were fairly minor: 1.) Our room had a connecting door to the neighboring room, and you could easily hear conversations through the door. This could be an issue with loud neighbors. 2.) The TVs were very old, with poor quality signal and no HDMI connection. 3.) The wireless internet connection was rather annoying. As a platinum I had free standard internet, but the default connection was the premium which would have cost more, plus logging in each day should not be necessary. 4.) As seems to be standard practice in San Diego, parking is really pricey, with self parking running $24/day.
Overall I enjoyed the hotel and the room and would consider a stay in the future.
Tower 23
We stayed at this hotel in 2012, when we liked the location on the ocean and the comfy rooms. Our room was similar to last time, good-sized with a comfortable bed and lots of desk space.
On this visit the room location was a little strange as we faced a door to the outside tower deck. The tower deck is a relaxed deck area with lots of chairs and couches to enjoy the view of the Pacific with the bonus of waiter service throughout the day. This precluded much of the view but the front desk staff wouldn’t offer a better room saying this was “the room type we booked” (though the hotel did not seem full).
Thankfully the deck was quiet at night.
Parking at the hotel is a bit of a pain since it is valet-only, but you can call down from your room to have your car ready. At dinner time we waited about 15 min due to several groups from the JRDN restaurant but it generally worked out ok. Surprisingly their parking (on the ocean no-less) was better priced than the Hyatt at $20/day.
One of the best features of Tower 23 is proximity to the ocean– walking along the boardwalk is great for views, exercise and people-watching.
