San Diego (downtown) pre-cruise stay

I always believe in arriving at a cruise port at least a day or two early. We had visited San Diego several years ago and had hit many of the prime tourist stops like the zoo, Sea World, Old Town, etc. The San Diego cruiseport is adjacent to downtown so I planned a 2-night stay focusing on the downtown area. This is a short ($10-12) cab ride from the airport. A nicely located hotel is within walking distance of the waterfront, Little Italy, the Gaslamp Quarter and other attractions so a rental car isn’t needed.

Highlights:

--a nice hotel: Sofia Hotel is an upscale boutique hotel that has been nicely refurbished. Rooms are very small but adequate. Service is super friendly. There are 3 computers in the lobby that can be used for checking email. I got a great rate ($80/night) from Travelzoo. I should have tried the happy hour in their restaurant.  (http://www.thesofiahotel.com/)

--being close to the Gaslamp district: this is a vibrant area spanning several blocks downtown with lots of bars and restaurants. Many restaurants feature popular happy hours. At 6PM on Monday we got the last table at La Puerta, a Mexican place (1/2 price appetizers and drinks all night on Monday). We had a few margaritas, a great pork quesadilla, and a tasty dish called “carne asada fries” (like nachos with french fries instead of tortilla chips).

--touring the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier: the Midway is docked downtown and serves as a museum. The tour is self-guided. The cost of admission includes an excellent audio device which you can use to obtain more information about each of several dozen exhibits. Docents provide frequent talks about the operation of the launching catapult and the landing procedure. You can also get a guided tour of the bridge. In all we spent about five hours touring this huge ship. http://www.midway.org/

--touring the Maritime Museum: this is a collection of several ships docked near the cruiseport. Your tour begins with the Star of India, the oldest ship still sailing. She was built in the Isle of Man in 1863 and spent her early days transporting emigrants to New Zealand. It is interesting to compare the accommodations to modern cruise ships! Another highlight was going through a Russian submarine; there are five narrow portholes that you need to scramble through. Fortunately they have a sample outside the ship labeled something like “if you can’t crawl through this, don’t enter the submarine”. Those guys really roughed it! http://www.sdmaritime.org/

--a quick tour of the US Grant Hotel: we had a few hours to kill on embarkation day so we started a walk about town and popped into this historic upmarket hotel. The lobby is stunning. I asked the concierge a question and he suggested that we go down a level to look at the historic photos. After doing this I stopped by the main desk and a receptionist offered to get someone to show us a room. This place is definitely worth a walk-through.