Hotel del Coronado

Photo courtesy of Hotel del Coronado

Jill's Journal: A handful of special hotels around the world are destinations unto themselves. The Hotel del Coronado on Coronado Island in San Diego Bay is one of them. Yesterday I shared where Rob and I got married, but when we got engaged, “The Del” was actually the first Southern California spot I thought of for our wedding (after no one else was as gung ho on a Bora Bora beach wedding as I was!). I remember contacting The Del those 15+ years ago and immediately knowing I’d have to find a “Plan B.” The prices were exorbitant then and I’m sure are even more so now. These days, prices for their wedding packages aren’t listed online, but their spectacular wedding meal menus are…I guess it’s one of those things where if you have to ask, you can’t afford it. :)

But oh! This place. I’d never set foot on the premises before, but I desperately wanted to see the iconic hotel in person and we made the trip across the bay to Coronado. While most of our “field trips” are based on the girls, this one was all for me.

We found Coronado to be an upscale beach destination/resort town. It doesn’t seem to have the friendly, laid-back charm so many little beach towns have; it has more of a Rodeo Drive-meets-the-ocean feel. But the hotel! Oh, the hotel. It was in love at first sight for me. Those red turrets against that pristine white wood with the blue sky and the surf crashing in the background…just divine. No wonder it was named one of America’s most beautiful beach resorts and was at one time ranked one of the world’s top 10 resorts.

Now a National Historical Landmark, the Hotel del Coronado was built in 1888. As the first hotel in the world to feature electric lighting, Thomas Edison personally inspected the final electrical installation.

No fewer than 16 of the last 22 U.S. presidents have stayed at The Del, plus a ridiculous amount of royalty and celebrities and big-time sports figures like Babe Ruth and Reggie White. It’s been the backdrop for a number of movies and t.v. shows, most famously Marilyn Monroe’s Some Like It Hot. L. Frank Baum wrote much of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at The Del and it is said he based the Emerald City on it. Florida’s famous Grand Floridian Hotel is also based on the Hotel del Coronado.

The land you can see across the bay from the hotel’s 31 acres of gorgeous beachfront is the Point Loma peninsula, site of the Cabrillo National Monument.

This is such a beautiful place and my snapshots don’t even begin to do it justice. If Rob and I ever get a night away without the kids (how many years away will that be?), I think this would do perfectly. I can dream, right?

Photo courtesy of Hotel del Coronado