Hotel Solamar - A Kimpton Hotel

Hotel description

Located in the booming Gaslamp quarter, and just a block from the new baseball stadium that’s driving this city-center renaissance, Hotel Solamar is the first San Diego venture for the San Francisco-based Kimpton group — a group that’s busy exporting its funky yet accessible aesthetic all over the US and western Canada.

As such it’s a fine first entry; faultlessly placed, in the midst of San Diego’s nightlife and entertainment district, the Solamar is suited for business travelers, vacationing families, baseball fans, and would-be hipsters, all in equal measure. In classic Kimpton style the interiors are just stylish enough, never off-putting, in playful browns and blues, furnished in a manner that’s contemporary but short of avant-garde.

In terms of comforts the Solamar comes out ahead of the average design boutique: rooms are spacious, beds robust and plush, desks more than functional, bathrooms modern and well-equipped. Like all Kimpton hotels the Solamar is dog-friendly to the extreme, and humans aren’t neglected either — in-room spa treatments are available on request. The Gaslamp is dense with restaurants and bars, but the Solamar has its own: Jsix, serving coastal California cuisine, and the J6Bar, which redeems its obscure name with a clear view of the skyline and the bay from the fourth-floor rooftop pool terrace.