The W San Diego is about a 10-minute walk to Horton Plaza mall and the Gaslamp Quarter, located in a quiet area near the county jail and some homeless people. They are quite harmless but it might be a bit disconcerting for families.

The staff are generally friendly, but I found some to be snobbish.

Standard rooms are on the small side, but the Cool Corner rooms and standard suites offer a lot of space. All room types have DVD players but there is a charge to take out a DVD from the hotel library, so consider bringing your own DVDs. All rooms also provide Bliss toiletries, so leave some room in your luggage!

The Cool Corner rooms have a large bath tub complete with bath bomb and loofah, while standard suites include plasma TV and sofa.

The gym and pool are very small and not very practical, but consider checking out the rooftop bar called The Beach, which has a firepit, heated sand, and cabanas.

Room rates are on the high side (usually from $270 per night), but all hotels in San Diego are overpriced anyway. I'd recommend staying in the hotel at least one night to try it out.

A tip: the lobby area has free wireless Internet, as are rooms in the first 3 levels.

The rooms were very comfy. It has all the typical W Hotels standards of a "Heavenly Bed", broadband connection, feather duvet, etc. There's decent views, depending on which direction you face. However, the rooms aren't what you'll be talking about when you return home.

The "scene" in the hotel lobby/"living room" and the rooftop pool bar/"beach access" is what makes this hotel groovy. The latter is not a contradiction. The rooftop bar has heated sand under your feet with a corner fire pit, for a more civilized beach pow wow. Then there's their signature restaurant "Rice", which is incredilbly good for a hotel restaurant. The cuisine is "Asian/Californian/Latin" fusion, which they pull off. The staff throughout the hotel were incredibly friendly and went out of their way to make sure our stay was enjoyable. They comped an in-room breakfast for an obnoxious noise coming from water pipes in the late PM and early AM after we politely mentioned it to the front desk.

This hotel turned out to be a great weekend getaway because everything that you really need is in the hotel itself - happening lounge/bar, delicious restaurant, and a relaxing room. And to all you Angelenos, a train ride from Union Station takes you to the San Diego train station, which is two blocks away from the W. For us, no driving meant this weekend was truly relaxing.