USA: Hotel del Coronado, San Diego

High on my "must-see" list for years was the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. Because it is out of town (on an island), I never had time to visit on past visits. After the cruise to Mexico [see: Norwegian Jade - Mexican Riviera], I had an entire morning and afternoon to kill before I could get into the room. I walked along the harbor to Seaport Village and then realized I was almost to the ferry out to Coronado. Why not? It runs hourly and I had heaps of time.

In fact, I reached the pier at exactly the right moment. I had to buy my ticket quickly via a cantankerous vending machine (almost missed the boat) but managed to board. I climbed to the top deck of a little tugboat-like craft and headed across the bay. The weather was cloudy, but the skyline was still impressive (Luckily, I had seen it clearly when the cruise ship departed under beautiful sunny skies the week before).

We docked and I immediately got a coffee in the collection of shops by the pier. I hadn't had a decent cup of Java for a week - the cruise ship offering was terrible. While waiting for my latte, I asked the woman working there if it was a long walk to the Coronado. She told me it was only 20 minutes. After coffee, I set off.

I walked down the main street, Orange Avenue. That main street has some businesses near the port and then becomes residential until the ocean side of the island. The other end is very commercial and the area adjacent to the "Hotel Del" is the real "town center" of Coronado, California. It had been a long time since I walked through a neighborhood filled with perfect, beautiful homes - all in different styles. Not only does Coronado not have any poor people, it also doesn't have any residents who neglect their yards. The place is scary perfect.

I finally reached the hotel - wow - just as I expected. It was bustling, too. Many people were coming in and out of the grounds and the building itself.

I entered via the rear garden and walked to the beach. Other things aside, the Hotel Coronado fronts an excellent, sandy beach overlooking the Pacific. Even without the hotel, the beach would be amazing.

One side of the hotel has a large rounded structure that I assume is a restaurant with an almost 180 degree view of sea. The entire seaward side of the hotel focuses on dining and ocean views. All of it is done tastefully (and luxuriously). The property felt more like something I experienced in Bali or Thailand rather than the US.

I followed the sign posts to the lobby at the front of the building. It was loaded with very official looking black limos.

The lobby (indeed the building) is entirely constructed of wood and is breathtakingly beautiful - High Victorian, oozing in details. I am not sure I have seen anything similar in the US. I was reminded of old British hotels in Southeast Asia of the same era.

January 2026

Hotel founders, Elisha Babcock, Jr., and Hampton L. Story, along with San Diego developer Alonzo Horton, survey Coronado beach, c. 1886. Although neither Babcock nor Story had experience in the hotel business, they were so inspired by the natural beauty of Coronado that they decided to buy the island and build a magnificent hotel, one that would be “the talk of the western world,” an iconic California destination where “people will continue to come long after we are gone.” Hotel founders Elisha Babcock and Hampton Story first created the Coronado Beach Company, after which they established a number of additional enterprises to support the development of the Coronado community (a ferry company, water company, railroad company and an electrical power plant). As soon as a site was chosen for the historic Hotel del Coronado, the men laid out Coronado’s parks, civic areas, commercial zones and streets (Isabella and Adella avenues were named for the founders’ wives). Once the town of Coronado was established, it was time to attract residents, so Babcock and Story held a very well-publicized land auction, which attracted a reported 6,000 people. 350 lots were sold during the auction, raising about $100,000. By June 10, 1887, Coronado lot sales had reached the $1.5 million mark. The grand total would eventually reach $2.25 million. With lot sales to fund the hotel’s construction, a stenographer was summoned to the beach on a beautiful December day in 1886 and Babcock, Story, Herbert Ingle (one of the hotel’s original investors) and James Reid (architect) conceived the resort’s basic layout. The design included a courtyard, pavilion tower and dining wing. Reid would later recall that “preliminary sketches were quickly prepared, and because of lack of time, remained the unchanged basis of construction.”

https://www.hoteldel.com/history/

How amazing that Coronado was not only a planned city, but the sale of the lots specifically funded the hotel construction. And the hotel's design never changed much from its original plan.

For a person who visited (or sometimes stayed in) very beautiful old hotels, I have to admit that the Hotel del Coronado is among the best I have seen in the United States. Of course, other modern hotels and resorts are larger with better facilities, but the Coronado's style (and fantastic beach) on a beautiful little island off the coast of a major city put it in a class of its own. It turns out the hotel is Hilton Property (I was also staying at a Hilton in town). When I returned to the lowly Hampton Inn for check in, I asked how much a cheap room was per night - $900 starting price. And the place is often full!

I walked back to the port via different residential street (gorgeous) and caught the next ferry to town. Back at the hotel, when I was discussing my journey to Coronado and the "Hotel Del", the woman proudly said, "Isn't it fabulous?". That word doesn't even begin to sum it up.

Hotel del Coronado - check. Expectations blown out of the water.