San Diego · Hotel shortlist
Cheap hotels on the beach in San Diego
Stefan Bauer The American west
These are my five favourites in San Diego, out of the 25 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.7 down to 4.3.
Every one comes in under $130 a night, and the one I would book first is $52.
Highest rated of the five
Samesun Ocean Beach - San Diego
★★★★★4.7 from 1,031 reviews
Samesun Ocean Beach - San Diego comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.7 from 1,031 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.
It is a 3 star property, found under city centre and around $52 a night on the dates we checked.
25 hotels in San Diego qualified for this list and five made it. California Dreams Hostel is the one I would book if the first is full.
Why it works for this trip
- Spatreatment rooms on site, no booking a taxi for it
- Air conditioningthe one that decides a summer trip
All five, ranked
-
1
Samesun Ocean Beach - San Diego
★★★★★4.7 from 1,031 reviews
- Spa
- Air conditioning
-
2California Dreams Hostel
★★★★★4.8 from 822 reviews
- Spa
- Parking
- Kitchen
- Air conditioning
- Accessible
-
3 -
4ITH San Diego Mission Beach Backpacker Hostel
★★★★★4.8 from 215 reviews
- Parking
-
5
How this list was put together
25 San Diego hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating, then on class, and took the top five.
Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.
The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.
What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.
Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.
Stefan Bauer The American west
Chases total solar eclipses. Seven of them on four continents, from Wyoming to a fishing town in Chile. Banks days off through the on-call rota and books the trips years ahead, because eclipse dates do not move.
Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.