Best Western Bayside Inn

Best Western Bayside Just RIght

by TripAdvisor Member VENSIM

We stayed at the Best Western Bayside Inn and celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary in San Deigo in November 2005. This hotel was just right for us! It is three blocks above the bay in the cruiseship terminal area. The area is quiet and just right if you don't mind walking to get to some of the sights. We had a room on the 4th floor over looking the bay and we could see the cruise ships as they came and went, and also all the sailboats out in the bay on Saturday and Sunday. This is a low key hotel without a lot of amenities, but we really enjoyed our stay. The room was comfortable and clean and acceptably priced. They also have a shuttle van that picked us up at the airport and took us back. We would definitely stay here again!

Great Location and Value

by TripAdvisor Member cdncruzguy

Stayed at the Best Western Bayside pre-cruise. Handy location within easy walking distance to waterfront in safe neighbourhood. Shuttle picked up at airport as well as dropping us off at the cruise ship pier the next morning. Had bay view room on 10th floor ... nice and quiet as well. Would definitely stay there again.

We had a great experience

by A TripAdvisor Member

We stayed at the Best Western Bayside for a mother/daughter getaway weekend and had a great experience.

Forget the harbor views. We had a top floor room with beautiful city views and it was lovely and quiet. The hotel was full during our stay but we didn't hear anyone. Also didn't hear the trains.

Our room was spotless, the staff accomodating and the location was exactly what we wanted. We walked up and down India Street through Little Italy and settled on Buon Appetito for dinner. Excellent but huge portions. (We were grateful we had a refrigerator and microwave in the room. It allowed us to have our pasta the next night in the room after a long day at the zoo.) Then walked down to the Gaslamp Quarter for a little trip down memory land (I used to work there long ago). The Quarter was bustling with crowds and street musicians. Everywhere we walked we felt completely safe and I marvel at how clean the city is kept. The hotel is in a great location for exploring downtown on foot.

My only quibble: shampoo supplied but not conditioner. Combing out longish fine hair that hasn't been conditioned is difficult, to say the least. Bring your own or buy some at the drug store just one block away from the hotel.

We got a great internet rate and were thoroughly pleased with our stay. I plan to stay there again the next time we go to San Diego.

Travel tip from a former San Diegan: Balboa Park is wonderful on the weekends. Perfect place for a picnic lunch, throwing a frisbee, people watching or just strolling around soaking in the beautiful surroundings. El Indio is a San Diego institution on India Street just south of Washington (too far to walk, take the car). No atmosphere but great Mexican food!

Central, Reliable, Clean, Good Value Hotel

by A TripAdvisor Member

My family and I (party of 5) spent a 10-day vacation in San Diego and stayed at the Bayside Inn thru Christmas. Overall we do recommend this BW hotel if you’re looking for a central, non-fancy but tidy and moderately priced accommodation.

First of all, the location is quite perfect: 555 W. Ash St. is quickly to reach from the airport in a less than 10 minutes drive (Hotel shuttle). It’s a seemingly quiet quarter with banks, office and apartment buildings around, so especially on holidays this is a pleasant spot to stay. From here it’s just a few minutes walk to the harbour or Little Italy. Since we don’t mind walking at all, the 10-15 minutes walk it takes to get to the central downtown area (e.g. Horton Plaza Mall) and the Gaslamp District was absolutely convenient.

The rooms are nice and clean, not very big and a partly aged though. Make sure to ask for a room with harbour view on the upper floors, it’s worth it! Balcony is just enough to step out and perhaps not recommended for people with high anxiety. Bathroom was fine; fresh towels every day of course. Internet worked just fine on our laptops: you’ll get a password for your w-LAN connection at the front desk. The TV set appeared to be visibly aged and the picture was clearly not “state-of-the-art”. Anyway, who cares about TV while travelling? Well, the walls in such hotels are certainly not soundproof, so whenever there is just a little party at your next-door neighbour’s room or even loud talk, you will definitely know about. Yet this is more about common sense than a subject to complain, I guess.

Do not bother to use the coffeemaker unless you’re really desperate… Have breakfast at some nice coffee shop in nearby Little Italy or at else breakfast place like e.g. The Living Room Café in Old Town (awesome!). However, the breakfast served at the on-site “Bayside Grill” should not be more than an emergency option: been there 3 out of 10 days – the service is busy to slightly rude; the coffee is bad, the food is “basic” both in terms of variety and taste. Been there, in fact, also once for a late dinner which was just about tolerable. Btw, for a nearby dinner alternative choose Karl Strauss Breweries instead – very nice – good food, great beer in a 3 minutes walking distance.

The staff at Bayside Inn was being mostly friendly and helpful. Once or twice, the room had not been cleaned until afternoon but the maids then hurried to catch up with it after notification. Didn’t use the tiny pool or the tub; it seemed deserted all the time and it’s obviously only being there for people with little kids and/ or who can’t live without one.

Be aware that the 3-deck garage is rather cramped and well frequented: sometimes there might be no spot available if you return late night and with SUVs, you probably have no fun either, but those people driving these should blame themselves anyway.

While planning the trip we also checked several of the places at Hotel Circle but as we accidentally drove by at some of the considered places we noticed that Hotel Circle is not only quite a hike from downtown but indeed noisy like several users point out truthfully. Some of the comparable mid-prize hotels there at least appeared not at all inviting from the outside. Thus, we found we made the right decision with the decent BW Bayside. And in my opinion, downtown is the better choice to stay in San Diego.

PS: Unlike another user reported, we did not encounter any homeless people around the premises, at neither day nor nighttime – maybe they were on vacation, too ;->

What a dump!

by TripAdvisor Member FernandoBee

First of all, for being a Gold Crown Club International member, what an embarrassment! I went to the room and no towels were in the restroom. Then the iron was broken. And the hair dryer had hair from the previous guest. Shower pressure was horrible. When I called the front desk, the night clerk seemed annoyed that I called. And when I asked for an internet password, he grumbled the instructions. What happened to customer service? I waited in the morning to ask the young, Japanese clerk, who got my requests done. For the $115 that I paid that night, I may as well head to the Hampton Inn down the street. I won't stay in this dump. I travel for business 20 plus times a year and most certainly will think twice of staying at a Best Western.

delighted with Bayside

by TripAdvisor Member scallywag22

Had six nights at the BW Bayside last week. Floor 9, with bay views as requested, micowave and fridge,
Fr a relatively inexpensive hotel it was a wonderful stay primarily because of the location. We stay at the Omni in LA but it was full in SD.
From the sunny balcony we watched the Amtrak trains, trolleys,USS Midway and other military, cruise liners berthed and even planes landing and taking off. That meant we were also ideally placed for using the transport. We travelled Amtrak from LA, a wonderful experience, with 'the singing buffet car man'and fab views,We used public transport only and saw lots of the area.Unforunately we did not get to use the pool as the weather was cool. Anything that was required in the room [extra towels,coffee for the machine etc] was attended to quickly and with no fuss.
We ate a few times in Little Italy, only a few minutes walk through a safe-feeling area.
We would certainly consider BW again.
If location is your main priority you can't go far wrong with the Bayside.

Lovely view

by A TripAdvisor Member

As requested we had a bayside room with balcony on 7th floor. Lovely view of the bay and although some building was going on next door it wasn't a problem. In fact the reverse as we found it very interesting if we were in the room while they were building. .Car park was included and breakfast taken in their cafe next door to car park. Traffic in the area is very light but local transport is very good so we used a tram just down the road to get out to Old Town.

Just what was required

by A TripAdvisor Member

Best Western San Diego was a lovely hotel and a beautiful view from our 7th floor room.The deal we got was for the room,breakfast and tickets to the zoo & seaworld.It was a great price and breakfast next door was a great way to start the day. Being just up the road from "little Italy" was easy to find dinner. The train station was just down the road to go into the city proper. The drive to Seaworld and the Zoo was easy. The rooms were clean and tidy. The pool was closed at the time of our visit. The reception staff were a little slow and not that friendly but we got all the information we needed eventually.

Travel Diary-Road trip - South-Western USA - Part1

by AndreSTGT

"1st day"

SFO ----> San Jose ----> Carmel

Accommodation

Best Western Mission Inn; good rooms, bad location.

"2nd day"

In the morning we spent some time in Carmel with its beautiful beach and picturesque little houses.
We continued on Scenic Highway 1, which led along the impressive wild coast, still completely unspoiled in this area, to San Luis Obispo via Big Sur, where we had a great lunch at a Thai restaurant on Higuera Street.
On to Santa Barbara, in the beginning through boring agricultural land, later through nice coastal scenery.
Santa Barbara has a great beach and a picturesque downtown, that basically only consists of one single street with lots of restaurants. We had an excellent dinner in a trattoria.

Accommodation

Radisson Santa Barbara; behind the beach promenade; great location, the rooms were nothing special, but pretty good.

"3rd day"

We went on to Malibu and Santa Monica via Ventura.
The coastal scenery and the beaches here are even more attractive than further north, but not as untouched and wild.
Santa Monica is a modern, but very pleasant suburb of Los Angeles with a nice pedestrian zone and a little park with great vistas on the cliffs above the coast.
Venice Beach is the exact opposite of Santa Monica : a cool beach hangout in front of nice old little houses, populated by very strange, weird looking people.

Accommodation

Sheraton airport; luxurious hotel with comfortable rooms, but as the name implies at the airport, which means bad location.

"4th day"

Los Angeles!
As a city, the huge urban sprawl of Los Angeles could drive you insane; if you regard Los Angeles as a whole region, however, and the several interesting places as parts of it, L.A. has a lot to offer, and not only on the coast. There's wonderful mountain-and hill scenery (Griffith Park, Mulholland Drive) and stylish, green neighborhoods (Bel Air, Beverly Hills), as well as a plethora of stores and restaurants.
It also offers surprises, like for example that it's possible to get good and cheap food in Beverly Hills (in some kind of upmarket chinese hawker stall).

"5th day"

Another interesting day in Los Angeles, where there are so many different things to see. We spent the morning in Old Pasadena and had a very good breakfast at Il Piagi, one of the many nice restaurants in the old houses along the main street.
In the unbearable heat (41?C in the shadow) of the afternoon we went to Downtown L.A. There we visited the Pueblo, the old city of L.A. with a Mexican market.
A few blocks to the west is Little Tokyo, where we had excellent and inexpensive sushi at the Frying Fish restaurant on the Japanese Village Plaza.
East of the Pueblo there is the surprisingly small Chinatown, which basically only consists of the Broadway and a wonderful Asian Square with colorful houses and a pagoda a little off the main street.
Later we visited more or less uninteresting Long Beach, which didn't have a lot to offer except for a touristy kitsch Marina.
As opposed to Long Beach Palos Verdes was a highlight. The coastal road leads through beautiful scenery with high cliffs and nice residential areas to Redondo Beach.

"6th day"

The beaches directly south of L.A. are nothing special, especially because of the factories in the hinterland. It's getting nicer in Laguna Beach, which offers beautiful little bays. Further south it's again long sandy beaches with resorts down to La Jolla, where there are once again nice little bays for a change.
In San Diego we first had a look at the historical Pueblo, unfortunately it was Sunday and the place was packed. Nevertheless we had a great Mexican lunch at the Casa de Bandini.
San Diego downtown is very attractive and of manageable size. The old city (Gaslamp quarter) is surrounded by architecturally attractive skyscrapers and offers restaurants and sidewalk cafes and an extraordinary shopping complex called Horton Plaza.
The food at the Star of India in the Gaslamp quarter was fine, if somewhat pricey.

Accommodation

Best Western Bayside Inn; pretty central location and the usual rooms, nice balcony.

"7th day"

In the morning we made a trip to Tijuana and I was quite surprised how tidy and americanised the city is, completely different to e.g. Nogales, a less visited the Mexican border town. The prices in Tijuana are surprisingly high, but even here Mexico is still an entirely different world.
Back in San Diego we visited the wonderful Balboa Park, a huge park with beautiful buildings and a free trolley bus.
After that we went to the Cabrillo Monument, from where there are beautiful views on San Diego and the Bay.
All in all San Diego really does have a lot to offer, not only in the attractive Downtown but also in its surroundings.
Excellent and not even too expensive food at the upmarket Royal Thai in the Gaslamp quarter.

"8th day"

On to Palm Springs through the not really attractive, but fascinating and incredibly hot Anza-Borrego Desert.
Palm Springs is an elegant winter resort in the middle of the desert. In the summertime it's unbearably hot (we had 46?C in the shadow) therefore the real highlight (but not only because of the temperature) was the tramway-ride to a hill station, where you can take nice walks and enjoy and pleasant temperatures 2500 meters above sea level.

Accommodation

Best Western Inn at Palm Springs; the usual Best Western quality, but with a microwave oven and refrigerator in the room and a nice pool and Jacuzzi.