I'm looking to go to SD June 16th thru 19th. I was wondering what part of town to stay in? I know my girlfriend will want to go to the beach. I want to do some beer bars, restaurants, and breweries. I hear a lot of the good bars are on 30th street. Is there any bike rentals in that area to rental a bike and bar hop?
Gaslamp quarter is a great bar area in SD and most are close to each other, so you won't need a bike (which could land you a DUI FYI). I can't help with Hotels as I live here and don't stay often in hotels.
Concur, Gaslamp is awesome as is Little Italy, there are some great boutique hotels on Broadway which is walking and biking distance to both areas. Nice collection of craft beer shops like Bottle Craft in little Italy and of course all the great craft pubs. Cheers.....
Pacific beach has the Tap Room and bike rentals. Its a short ride to Pizza Port OB and some other bars/restaurants with good selections.
Where are all these great craft pubs in the Gaslamp? If I think of the top 10 beer bars in town, none of them are there.
You're going to have a hard time satisfying all your needs in one area in particular. 30th Street is probably the best for beer/restaurants/bars but there's pretty much only 1 hotel (Lafayette) and you're not by the beach. Though I guess not that far from other touristy stuff if you have a car. Gaslamp Quarter can be fun and has a lot of bars and restaurants. Not a lot of great ones but ones that will do none-the-less. And you've got a few beer options down there too (Neighborhood, Monkey Paw, Downtown Johnny Browns' - none of which are technically in the Gaslamp but are at least walking distance). Like 30th Street you still have a no beach problem downtown though. Pacific Beach will give you a couple of decent beer options and a beach, but it's kind of a crappy beach and the bars there are very college frattish. Ocean Beach is a slightly better beach and has better beer (Pizza Port OB, Olive Tree Market) but I'm not sure what hotels are around there. Point Loma is nearby and might be a good compromise for that one (Pearl Hotel is cool, Sessions Public and Gabardine are good food/beer options on top of that). La Jolla is gorgeous and has nice beaches and great restaurants, but it's more expensive and there really aren't any good beer options at all in the area. Coronado - pretty good beach, Coronado Brewing Company, and a few decent restaurants. But older, expensive and quiet.
I've only ever stayed at the Omni, which is right at the start of the Gaslamp quarter and attached to Petco Park (Padres stadium). It's right across the street from the convention center and there are a lot of bars in the area. As for beer...well, I have no idea what you could stumble across in that area. All I can say is the hotel is nice, in a great location and there are always taxis at that hotel.
Thank you for the help guys. When I book my room I will post where I'm staying to get tips I where to go. I still don't what part yet
Sorry to hijack the thread, but we just booked a room at the Dana on Mission Bay ($100 on Priceline). Any recommendations for bars/restaurants in the area? Thanks.
Ocean Beach (mentioned above) is a few miles south from Mission Bay. Pizza Port OB, Newport Ale House, Raglan Public House - all have respectable tap lists. The Pacific Beach Tap Room (just the north of you) has a pretty good beer selection.
FYI June is referred to as "June Gloom" around here. Just like today, it's usually overcast by the beach to about 1 mile inland. Not until July does it warm up enough to burn the marine layer back to bring out the sunshine. You're already on Mission Bay so you'll be able to get around Mission Beach/PB pretty easy, or short quick cab rides away. PB you have PB Tap Room which features local beer. A very good 1 stop to drink what's available in SD that's a short and cheap cab ride away. From there you have the rest of PB to crawl through, but there aren't any brewpubs there yet. Amplified Aleworks is still getting their hardware together. OB you have Pizza Port which is a must stop. Great house beer and excellent guests. Around the corner is Newport Pizza for more guest beer offerings. Across the street from them is SouthBeach which is great for seafood/fish taco's and a nice walk from the beach is Olive Tree market, w/ tasting room in case you want to bring anything back. Those are your 'local's'. From there I'd grab a cab and either hit Toronado (Tiger!Tiger! is 2 block walk from there), or Small bar, or Blind Lady (all short cab rides once in the north park/normal heights/adam area), or downtown you can hit Mission Brewing and/or Monkey Paw. MP has solid house beers, great food, full bar etc...
