W San Diego Hotel Review

My trip to San Diego didn’t exactly get off to the best start. After just beating the snowstorm that hit the north east, 2 hours on the runway, a diversion from SAN to LAX, and a late night bus ride, what was supposed to be a 6 hour flight turned into a 12 hour nightmare. To JetBlue’s credit, before I even boarded the LAX to SAN shuttle bus I had an e-mail from them with $50 in credits (most airlines won’t do this if it’s a weather related issue). Deliriously tired, I arrived at the W San Diego around 2am PST wanting nothing more than to get some real, laying-down-in-a-bed sleep (as opposed to fake, useless airplane/bus sleep).

I really liked the the W San Diego. It has the same type of trendy/modern/club feel as most of the other W brand hotels out there, so it was fun for a weekend getaway but may grow tiresome if you are there long-term. If you’re lucky enough to get a “cool corner” room, you’ll have a king sized bed, a separate jacuzzi bath / shower, and even this thing that I’m 99% sure is to put your feet up while going to the bathroom, which is “unique.”

Rates there are extremely reasonable ranging around $125/night during our stay, but we were there in a somewhat off-peak time period. It is a category 4 hotel though, so if you’d prefer and if the nightly rates are too high, it will only cost you 10,000 points a night. It is great that San Diego has some relatively low category hotels.

Another thing I liked was that from 5:00-6:00pm their restaurant Kelvin offered free wine to SPG members! On top of that, the W delivered delicious complementary cookies to my room. Unfortunately, all of the evidence was consumed before documentation could occur, so I am only able to share the aftermath.

If only one hour of wine drinking won’t do, the W has a nice rooftop bar / lounge area with plenty of seating and cool fire area that looks like a tower of chairs burning.

Working out wasn’t exactly on the top of my to-do list in San Diego, but the W did also have a gym, pool, and if you’re really looking for some grueling exercise, foosball table.

Location wise, the W is in a good spot, and is walking distance to the Gaslamp district, Little Italy, and several other fun places to eat / go out. My favorite places walkable from the hotel were:

• Craft and Commerce – walking distance from the W, great drinks, great food, and a “hipster-trendy”atmosphere
• Davanti – right in Little Italy (~10 minute walk from the W), and the foccasia bread with honeycomb appetizer was one of the top 10 apps I have had in my life.
• Boken Yolk – ~20 minute walk from the W in the Gaslamp district. Solid A- breakfast. French toast was great, as were the sweet potato pancakes (I had a big breakfast, don’t judge me). Bloody Mary was not quite spicy enough for my liking but you can’t win them all.

Parking in San Diego can be expensive, so it might actually be cheaper just renting a car for the day from a nearby car rental facility if you plan on venturing out to the beaches (which I highly recommend doing so!). This way you also won’t pay the airport surcharges that are tacked onto rental cars that are rented from airport locations. You absolutely do not need a car at night as everything is in walking distance.

Unfortunately, I had another mishap with my camera (my iphone camera that is) while at the beach, so was not able to take more pictures of the hotel. But here is the hotels online gallery which is very much on par with what the hotel actually looked like and the rooms inside.

Overall I loved San Diego, and thought the W was a great place to stay while I was there. At times I questioned why anyone lives anywhere else, especially now that I’m back home and freezing. If you are interested in visiting San Diego (which you should be, unless you already live there), feel free to check out all the tips other readers have left in the San Diego edition of “Help a Reader Travel.” Thanks!