November in San Diego! (Santa Monica, Encinitas: car rental, apartment, rental) - California (CA) - City-Data Forum

U4847 · 08-20-2010, 10:59 AM

Hello! I'm 29, from Europe and working this year in the US (Boston). I'm planning a trip with my girlfriend to the west coast for the end of October, and would like to stay one month in the san diego area, that would be November, to finish our year there with good weather.
We were thinking about where exactly to stay....and would like to ask you guys to give us some advice.
We won't own a car, so we'll lay on our bikes, and on public transportation, we're thinking about renting some place in an area close to the beaches,as we are looking basically to relax, but don't want to be too far for civlisation, I mean, don't need to be in the city, but would appreciate to have supermarkets, a movie theather and some nightlife as well at a biking distance. Maybe some little town in the San Diego County would be ok... or any special place in San Diego city.
Any info would be appreciated!
Thanks!

cruitr · 08-20-2010, 11:02 AM

How much rent can you pay for your 1 month of living in San Diego?

U4847 · 08-20-2010, 11:38 AM

We are open to share an apartment so 900$ if sharing, 1500$ if not sharing... around that.
Thanks!

cruitr · 08-20-2010, 11:51 AM

For $1500 a month, you might be able to make a deal with a small hotel. You'd have to negotiate directly with the hotel general manager or owner to get a heavily discounted rate for the month.

Western Inn in Old Town is known to make good deals: Western Inn Old Town San Diego Discount Hotel
Just tell them you're visting a friend in the Marines who is stationed here. They are very friendly to military families.

kettlepot · 08-20-2010, 05:58 PM

Yes, negotiating with a motel is an excellent idea. a 30 day stay is worth a big discount off of the standard rack rate.

You might like Ocean Beach. There are some hotels near the beach, plus some restaurants. And it wouldn't be too difficult to get to downtown from their on your bicycles.

Pacific Beach of course would be the standard answer for young people wanting the beach party lifestyle. However, the public transportation or bicycling out of Pacific Beach to Downtown would be more difficult than going over the hill in Ocean Beach to Point Loma and then bicycling along Harbor Drive into Downtown.

You might consider Del Mar as well. Perhaps when you wanted to get into Downtown you could take the train in. However, I'm not quite sure how you could return late at night.

tstieber · 08-21-2010, 09:47 AM

Those are all great ideas. I don't that Pacific Beach will be that busy in the off-season, but weekends should be fun enough. And you should have a lot more of the beach to yourselves, even if the weather is nice in November.

steel7 · 08-21-2010, 09:57 AM

November is the off season so you should get some good rates. Be sure to check out blacks beach (near san diego state uni). You may not see much cause it may be cool but you never know.

MAK802 · 08-21-2010, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steel7

November is the off season so you should get some good rates. Be sure to check out blacks beach (near san diego state uni). You may not see much cause it may be cool but you never know.

Blacks Beach is near UCSD. SDSU is nowhere near a beach.

steel7 · 08-21-2010, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAK802

Blacks Beach is near UCSD. SDSU is nowhere near a beach.

I stand corrected. Its been yrs since i have been to sd. I do though remember the college girls on the beach.

lrmsd · 08-22-2010, 12:47 AM

Um, I am not impressed with any of the replies to your post thus far, so I'll weigh in with areas I recommend:
-Solana Beach
-Encinitas
Small coastal towns in SD county...definitely bikeable places, and both run along the 'coaster' train route-where you can take the train into old town and downtown SD.

-Crown Point area of Pacific Beach (parts of PB are great, parts are to be avoided, IMO)
-North Pacific Beach (bordering on La Jolla)

Encinitas and SB are more convenient in my opinion-as they run along the 5 freeway and are easier to get to than PB, which has only one very crowded route in and out. Also, Enc. and SB are more, how does one say, 'pristine' overall-they are a bit mellower and upscale.
But all 3 of these places are full of 20-40 yr olds-lots of students and/or young couples, too.

Avoid Ocean Beach and Old Town. (though you may want to visit Old Town for part of a day).
You should plan on renting a car for at least a few days, to see san diego. SD is very spread out. And very little public transit. (Unlike Boston (where I am originally from, btw) in this regard). People do bike, but you will have a difficult time seeing places, if you are based in one area for your month. ie, people who live in SD bike b/c they have set up their life to accomodate this. They live, work and shop w/in a certain area. You cannot really bike as a tourist, very easily. And you will want to do some of the touristy things, like Balboa Park/museums, and Torrey Pines State Reserve/hiking, etc.
A few days of car rental should suffice, unless you decide to drive up to orange county (Laguna Beach is nice) or L.A./Santa Monica. Also, you can take the train into downtown, and then a bus down to Mexico and visit Rosarito, Ensenada or the infamous Tijuana, as a day trip or overnight. Downtown SD is just 20 min. from the border!

Good luck to you and have fun...