La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club

Description:

• The location is unbeatable -- right on La Jolla Shores beach. However, standard guest rooms are plain; most have full kitchens that are appropriate for families or longer stays. Beachfront rooms are tiny, but they're brighter, and the wide ocean panorama at the foot of your bed is undeniably splendid. A variety of suites are available, ranging from one-bedroom street-side digs to deluxe two- and three-bedroom accommodations facing the ocean; the 35 beachfront suites have been updated with new paint, carpets, and furnishings. The beach is popular and staff stays busy shooing away nonguests -- in California, all beaches are public up to the median high-tide line, and the B&T strictly enforces its boundaries. Kayaks and watersports equipment can be rented; there's a 3-par pitch-and-putt golf course; tennis; and you can even make arrangements for your own private beach barbecue in the evening. The hotel's distinctive Marine Room restaurant is one of San Diego's very best. All told, though, you get better room value for your money at the club's sister hotel next door, the La Jolla Shores Hotel.

  Facilities: 2 restaurants; seasonal beach snack bar; 75-ft. heated, outdoor pool; 9-hole pitch-and-putt course; 12 championship tennis courts; fitness room; watersports equipment/rentals; massage; babysitting; room service (7am-9pm); coin-op laundry and laundry service; dry cleaning

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010

Other features:

12 hard surface tennis courts, a 9 hole golf course and a quarter mile jogging path.