We stayed for one night after flying in from the UK and had a king room which, although clean and fresh, was a little on the small side. We also stayed for 4 nights at the end of our trip; this time we had booked a one bedroom suite and we were not disappointed. The suite (on the 4th floor) was huge and had 2 bathrooms. The bedroom was a corner room with floor to ceiling windows which afforded lovely views over the marina and bay. The hotel cafe was good for breakfast, and there are several restaurants within walking distance - Jimmy's Famous Ale Tavern being one of them - good food and cocktails. Free parking. Would stay here again if in the area, and would definitely pay the extra for a suite.

First - the Holiday inn Bayside in San Diego, is notthe Holiday inn "On the Bay" in San Diego.
Althoughboth are located on Harbor Drive, the Bayside is Northwest of the Airport about a block from Rosecrans St. The other is located in downtown on the embarcadero. We stayed at the Bayside only one night as we had an early morning flight. We found the hotel to be convenient to the airport. The shuttle begins running at 5am pretty much on call or at about 15 minute intervals for the less than 2 mile run to the terminals. The other nice thing about the location is th access to Shelter Island for restaurants and nightlife. A short walk across Scott St. will bring you to several good long standing seafood restaurants. The hotel itself is quite nice with a restaurant, bar and convenience store on premises. The staff is friendly and professional, and the rooms completely in standard with the Holiday Inn brand. I would recommend this location for people spending several days to a week in San Diego, as it offers ease of parking and road access as well as a location central to either driving or walking to various venues.

All my reviews for hotels are based upon value for money i.e. whether you received value for whatever you paid. Otherwise, it is impossible and unfair to compare a Motel 6 with a Holiday Inn with an Intercontinental with an Aman Resort. Also, 2 people may pay different amounts and therefore will have a different value perception. I paid $59 per nite for this hotel, and based upon this I feel this was excellent value. This is in spite of the following flaws.

The room (I was upgraded to a deluxe whatever that means) and the bathroom were smallish, but there was a view of the marina. The bed was clean and comfortable and the wifi was reasonably fast except in the night when all hotel wifis slow down to a crawl. There is no extra charge for wifi, parking and breakfast even though breakfast as with all Holiday Inns in the USA is inedible since they only buy and provide industrially produced items of dubious quality consisting primarily of the flesh of dead animals.

The most unnerving thing was the layout of the hotel with multiple entrances and lobbies, numerous parking areas, confusing set of elevators etc. as a result of all this, security was a concern since none of the doors were security enabled and were always open 24/7.

The location of the hotel was ideal with easy access to the freeways and local areas, and minutes from almost any where.

Come to find out I never researched this hotel prior to booking (by mistake). I had done all my research on the Holiday Inn by the Bay including their long term parking. After arriving at the hotel we were so rummy after 9 hours in the car, some things did not seem as I remembered reading, but oh well.

We checked in at 2PM and the room was not ready yet but we were told that it would be around 45 minutes. We asked where the restaurant Anthony's (reservations that night) was and was told by the desk clerk that it was four miles down the road. That should have been my first clue that we were in the wrong place? Asking about places closer, the desk clerk pointed out other restaurants around the area, but did not give us their pre-printed restaurant guide until I went back and bugged her again about something else. She would only giving me the information I wanted and nothing more. I told her the kids were starving and if there were any fast foods places we could walk to, we were pointed in the direction. So, we headed off and noticed they have a little store on the property so we went in there. They offered premade sandwiches (which could hold them over) which we bought along with sodas. The store has all kinds of beverages, snacks, liquor and souvenir type stuff. You can get a sweatshirt there too. They have a nice (dining like) table and chair in the lobby where we could sit. They also have in the lobby a computer kiosk where you can print boarding passes. If I remember correctly I think I saw flight schedules displayed?

About 45 minutes later, I went back to the desk to see if the room was ready. I got the keys, told them we had made reservations for the long term parking and the male desk clerk (very good) gave me a ticket to put in the window. Grabbed the bags out of the car and headed to the room.

I had booked a two room suite with a bay view at a great AAA rate of 161.00 (not including tax). The "living area" of the room was very spacious with a full size sofa, chair, large sofa table, wetbar with sink and microwave. The living room also had a full bathroom. The TV was a large flatscreen. The bedroom area faced the bay and had a king bed, small table and chair and a large flatscreen TV. The dressing area was large although the vanity was small. The bathtub/shower and toilet were in a small room. The rooms appeared to have been updated recently, everything seemed fresh. After getting in the room and opening the blinds there was no balcony (second clue?) but oh well, maybe we would have had to wait longer, and I'm too tired to bug the desk clerk again. But I'm thinking to myself, "this does not look familiar, too many boats for a big ship to dock, the reviewers must know something I don't".

After resting a few hours, we jay-walked across the street to Jimmy's Famous Steakhouse. They do not take reservations, but the congenial host said to call about 15 minutes before we wanted to come in and they would hold a table for us. We headed over after our call and were seated immediately. We had an excellent meal and not crazy expensive either.

Back to the hotel and off to bed. The bed was extremely comfortable with soft sheets. The kids pulled out the sofa bed and saif it was pretty comfortable. The next morning we heard fog horns, so yeah the ship is coming in. I peeked out the window, fog so thick you couldn't see across the street, darn it. A few hours later the fog lifted but I still could not see the ship. So I get dressed and head down stairs to get coffee at the restaurant (mini pot in room too) and stop by the front desk and ask the same not so helpful clerk, "I though you could see the ship from here?" At that point she looked at me patetically and said, "no that's the Holiday Inn by the Bay". Duh, what a dope I am. I head back to the room to tell my husband and kids and I messed up, but at least we got a goods night's sleep, not hearing trains all night! They all forgave me and the kids (both teenagers) were excited the we were all going to order room service for breakfast. The food arrived hot, portions were very large and it was one of the best value room service meals I have had. The room service menu is quite good, although the restaurant itself is nice but small. I looked at their menu and they have something for everyone.

Anyway, we left the car there at $5.00 a day vs. the $9.00 we would have paid in the other lot. We were shuttled to the ship the next morning and told what to do when we returned. After we arrived back to the port and were off the ship by 9:30, we opted to taxi back to the hotel. The fee with tip was only $20.00, we were back at the car (still in great shape) and on the road home by 10:05am.

Even though I made the reservation at the wrong hotel it turned out to be a pretty good choice, even with the not so helpful clerk. The room was nice and comfortable and the parking was easy and very inexpensive. I would think twice about driving down again but if we did, we would certainly consider staying here again. The price could not be beat.