Tips on hotels in San Diego (Marina, August: move, nicest, vacation)

[chiccaska]

Hi there,
I'll travel around California in August with my husband and other 2 couples of friends. We will be in San Diego from 23rd to 26th.
I found two interesting hotel, but completely different from each other, starting from the location.
The first is Hotel Bristol, downtown, and the other one BW Island Palms Hotel & Marina, on Shelter Island/bay area.
We will have a car so we can move around but maybe it's nice to stay in the city at night... I'm really confused! Which one do you suggest??

Thank you very much,
Francesca

[oddstray]

If it were me, I would carefully check reviews for the Hotel Bristol (because it's not a chain and I don't know anything about it). Also be sure they have convenient parking available. If all that was good, I'd take this one because it'd be more adventurous.

The Shelter Island hotel looks luxurious, but it's a chain, so it'll be more predictable and maybe not as interesting. And it's not a central ... for example, you could walk to the Gaslamp area from Hotel Bristol but not from Shelter Island.

[bloom]

check also bedbug registry and report findings back here

[loves2read]

ditto the Bedbug registry--
I did and found that some of the "nicest" hotels had reports of infestations--
and there are probably more unreported ones

check TripAdvisor, the Frommer's site, Fodor's site-
they have comments posted by people who have stayed at hotels and also allows you to ask questions--
you have to register for that if you aren't a member but supposedly they don't pass along your info to 3rd party sites

[chiccaska]

Thank you very much. No bedbugs in both hotels luckily!

[love4travel86]

I would say stay in the Bristol if you want to experience more of the city lifestyle and be central to everything. Shelter Island will have a more 'resort'/vacation feel probably, but you'll still be super close to downtown.