Coronado, San Diego

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We decided to drive over to see the Coronado Hotel on July 4th weekend of 2011...and the drive was a pleasant one since you go over this curving bridge which offers a great view of the city of San Diego. Coronado is a great place to visit, but the problem is parking during busy weekends or holidays. The hotel has limited parking for guests only, but there is a small private parking just before it which can easily fill up. After about 30 minutes looking around, we got lucky and got to park at a meter parking space in front of the hotel (no charges during Sundays and holidays).
The Hotel itself is spectacular and you could have seen already old pictures of this classic hotel from the year 1888. The interior has nice wood with an elegant chandelier in the lobby. The pool is wonderful and if you go out to the beach, you will have an awesome vanatage point from which to take pics of the hotel.
There is also a ferry which can bring you to the hotel from downtown, but I have not tried that yet. So far, the most convenient for us is driving to this picturesque area.

So many things to see and do. Our best time was to park on Ocean Bvld, and go along to Orange Ave, get some food, and relax on the beautiful beach, have lunch and then relax on the beach and get a little more relaxing done. Just watching the planes rolling over head can be interesting. And of course no visit to Coronado would be complete without a trip to the Hotel Del Coronado. You can visit it but now there appears to be limited access to the hotel so as not to disturb the guests. At night if you can park on First Street you can get a wonderful photo of the night skyline of Downtown San Diego. And the bridge. That is an experience to drive over.

Whether you cross the bay by boat or drive via the big bridge, get out to Coronado Island. We fell in love with this area - its colorful shops and dining places, beautiful (and expensive) homes and Victorian mansions, and of course the Hotel del Coronado. Unfortunately, the only photos I have are of the hotel. (And - by the way, it's not really an island; there is a small strip of land connecting it with the mainland.)

Note - the city of Coronado shares this "island" with a naval air station, and traffic can get really hectic at shift changes. You will get accustomed to aircraft flying overhead at low altitudes.

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Drive to the top of Mt Soledad and you could have a awesome view. You can see La Jolla and downtown San Diego from here. There is a big cross at the top and also walls that remembering the soldies fighting the wars.

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Not only Coronado has beautiful beach but it also have beautiful houses, parks, shopping and of course the famous Hotel Del Coronado. Of all the beaches in San Diego, i still love Coronado beach for its fine sand, more quiet and not so crowded. You can take a ferry from downtown to Coronado Ferry Landing area, bicycles are allowed on board too. Orange Avenue is a good place to dine and shop. Hotel Del Coronado is a nice place to have a drink and watch the sunset. Kids has so many activities that they can do such as flying kites or simply run in the sand. Parking will be a bit problem so be sure to arrive early in the day.

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The offshore island Coronado has a very flat, fairly protected beach with some of the safest and warmest water on the California coast without having any pollution problem.
Coronado Central Beach is ranked among the best in the country, recently rated the second best beach in the United States. The beach is very wide, flat and clean. In summer and on weekends it is a very crowded, full of restaurants, bars, clothing shops and fun.

Near the wide expanses of sandy beach there is also an area of rocky shore, the so called tide pool offers a chance to see crabs, starfish, mussels, anemones, limpets and moon snails.

The weather is almost always perfect for spending time here. It is hot enough to enjoy the relatively warm ocean water with such activities as surfing and swimming. And yet it is not excessively hot so you may also be comfortable just lying in the sun with a good book and a few snacks. Many visitors return here year after year.

On the end of the beach is the historic building of the pricey Hotel del Coronado, which was the film site for the Marilyn Monroe movie “Some Like it Hot.” This was built in 1888 and one of the biggest wooden buildings in the US and has even a haunted room!! .

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Visiting Coronado is a perfectly pleasant daytrip from San Diego, I wouldn't say it was the top place that I visited while in San Diego but the ferry ride was pleasant and the Hotel Coronado is a fabulous old hotel with a lot of history.

To get to Coronado, I took the trolley to the Sante Fe station, walked about 5 minutes and hopped on the ferry ($3 each way). Once the ferry landed at the Coronado dock, I walked out to the street outside the shopping area and found the #904 bus that takes you to the Hotel Coronado. I really had no idea of how far it was but I certainly was glad I found the bus since the bus ride was at least 15 minutes. The buses here were included with my 1 day MTS pass ($5 US). The bus schedule coordinates with the ferry schedule making it a very convenient way to get to the center of Coronado. Once I spotted the Hotel Coronado, I hopped off the bus, went for a stroll on the beach and wandered through the grand old hotel.

I'm sure there's a lot more to Coronado than the Hotel Coronado but I had places to go and food to eat so I headed back to the bus for the ferry ride back to San Diego.

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Rising from water's edge on the quaint island of Coronado in San Diego, the Hotel del Coronado is considered one of America's most beautiful beach resorts. A classic historic hotel, The Del was built in 1888 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1977. Today, The Del offers travelers contemporary luxury in an enchanting Victorian atmosphere.

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Located on the Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado, California, the Vietnam Unit Memorial Monument features a memorial wall and three brown water Navy boats: a PBR, a CCB, and a PCF. The memorial wall, 60 feet long and 8 feet high, lists the names of Navy and Coast Guard personnel who died in the Vietnam War during 1960-1975. A valid military ID or an escort is required to enter the base. For more information, refer to the website, www.vummf.org.

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Coronado Island is not a true island, but a very long peninsula that is connected to the mainland some miles south of San Diego. Since it's more accessible by boat or by bridge than by driving the long way around, people refer to it as an island.

This is the resort part of San Diego. Here is the best beach that I've seen on the West Coast. The water is relatively warm, and the sandy expanse is huge. It seems more like someplace on the Gulf Coast.

Ferry Landing has regular boat service to downtown (near Seaport Village). It also has scores of shops, restaurants, bars, and pleasant little town squares. This is a great place to go and just hang out--just like Seaport Village, across the harbor.

It's an excellent place to learn about what Coronado Island has to offer.