Originally the Scripps family's summer estate, this property was sold and converted into a hotel in 1958. The new owners opted for colonial Hawaiian–style architecture that's still in place today. Mahogany woods and South Pacific–inspired furniture outfit the 315 rooms. Yes, the theme can get a little stilted, especially when it comes to the luau nights, the lei-making table, and the the canoe hanging in the fake waterfall–equipped lobby. But hokey or not, the activities and the relaxed and welcoming vibe keep the Catamaran on the short list for families. The location is great too: a narrow spit of land between the Pacific Ocean and Mission Bay, good for swimming, kayaking, and sailing. The beach and boardwalk are just across the street, and Belmont Park and SeaWorld are also nearby.

The hacienda-style Estancia sprawls along the bluffs north of La Jolla. Setting the Spanish Mission mood are red-tile roofs, faux-adobe walls, and 210 rooms and suites set around arcaded courtyards. Interiors are equally inviting—an eye-pleasing array of apricot, avocado, and pumpkin hues set against Mexican reproduction antiques and Indonesian wicker. The Adobe restaurant blends fresh-off-the-boat San Diego seafood with traditional ranchero dishes such as grilled rib-eye steak. The after-dinner crowd adjourns to The Library for a quiet Cognac or strolls across the rose garden to the Mustangs & Burros bar, where drinks are served alfresco in front of a roaring fire and accompanied by a flamenco guitarist. The Spa at Estancia offers citrus body scrubs and outdoor massages.

Adjacent to a nature preserve five minutes from Legoland, this low-rise with Spanish colonial architecture overlooks "lush vegetation and lots of flowers"—though not the Pacific. Vivace has regional Italian cuisine and a terrace for alfresco dining. Rooms in rose, melon, and ocean blue have traditional furnishings.

Expect arched doorways and verandas "that merge the outside with the inside" at this one-year-old Mediterranean-style resort. Guest rooms have hand-stenciled ceilings but are "not over-the-top." Six dining venues include Addison, offering contemporary French. "Sublime spa treatments" use organic products. Perfect-scoring staff "make everything appear effortless."

(249 rooms)

It's gotten knocked recently for being a bit tired, but this 1888 landmark is still packing 'em in for vacations, weddings, dinners, and conference…but especially vacations. Yes, the Del is showing its age, but an ongoing series of facelifts is improving the rooms and adding (by summer 2007) a new spa and fitness center and a modern wing with cottages on the sand. Yup, this is the hotel from Some Like It Hot (it stood in for Miami, actually), so you can revel in the Del's iconographic status: a white, palm-fringed Victorian with picturesque red spires and gables on prime beach real estate on Coronado Island. Or you can just appreciate the benefits of staying at a vast (688-room) resort: Great beaches (with surfing instructors on hand), two pools, bikes for hire, take-out delis, a bakery that opens at 6 a.m., and an exceptionally child-friendly attitude, down to supplying swim diapers at the pool.

You could walk along swanky Prospect Street without ever noticing Parisi—and that's the point of this quietly aloof 20-suite retreat. Rooms, arranged according to feng shui principles, are tastefully appointed with walnut furniture and original abstract oil paintings, all of which helps deflect attention away from the disappointing views. (The best suites only have obstructed glimpses of the ocean.) Parisi is within easy reach of the sea caves at La Jolla Cove, but its guests (couples, businessmen, and Hollywood's elite, including Madonna and Cindy Crawford) tend to gravitate toward shopping and take advantage of the on-site acupuncturist, massage therapist, certified yoga instructor, or even the on-call clinical psychologist. If you haven't guessed already, this is not the place to bring Junior.

A block from the new Padres home at PETCO Park in the Gaslamp Quarter, the first Kimpton hotel in San Diego displays the brand's playful decor (here, a lot of chocolate brown, aqua blue, giant polka dots, and stripes), warm welcome for doggy guests, and good restaurant, Jsix. Opened in April 2005, the 235-room hotel is aimed squarely at the hipper end of the business market, with full-sized desks, ergonomic chairs, and free Internet access (wired and Wi-Fi) in all rooms, plus a 9,000-square-foot function space and three blocks to walk to the San Diego Convention Center. Come kickback time, there's a pool on a 13,000-square-foot deck with three fire pits to encourage the consumption of signature "passiontinis."

While the leather-bound lobby and erotic specialty suites (with group showers and stripper poles, for example) draw most of the notice, the Ivy's voyeuristic vibe is really built around more subtle features. From the overstuffed beds made up with Thai linens, one has the option of gawking at a giant flat-screen TV or your companion voguing in the translucent shower cube. But substance also accompanies the sexy style. Each of the 159 rooms is assigned an amiable and efficient butler who will run a bubble bath or fetch more champagne. The rooftop sundeck (where after-dark movies are screened) is strewn with daybeds, private cabanas, and wicker "pods" for two. At Quarter Kitchen, chef Damon Gordon's offbeat repertoire includes truffled leek empanadas and caviar tacos. The Ivy's nightlife scene remains a hot ticket in the Gaslamp Quarter, with the crowd gathering to watch the city lights (and one another) at the rooftop Eden bar, before descending into the depths of Envy for techno and bottle service rendered by servers in pleather minidresses.

Model T meets Maserati is an apt description of this newcomer in downtown San Diego, a welcome splash of Euro chic in a neighborhood of brash Americana. The Romanesque revival facade dates to the 1890s, but with legendary Italian design house Pininfarina at the wheel, the interior design is about as late-model as it gets—a fusion of faux glass, stainless steel, and a color scheme dominated by flashy swaths of racing red. The 35 guest rooms are wired with plasma TVs, iPod docks, and (Pininfarina-designed) espresso machines. The basement has been transformed into a semiprivate lounge, bar, and wine cellar fashioned from the building's Victorian-era bank vault, while more substantial fare can be had at Croce's Restaurant, a longtime area favorite that has forged a culinary joint venture with The Keating which includes providing room service to hotel guests.

Once a tony retreat for stars like Bob Hope, Lucy and Desi, and Clark Gable, L'Auberge Del Mar was renovated in 2008 but still retains an elegant Old Hollywood air. It's a family-friendly 5.2-acre spread with two nice pools, spacious decks, and terraces with Pacific views. Visit on a summer evening, and you'll find amorous young couples and baby boomers dining alfresco while a troupe of kids plays games nearby. Although it's not truly oceanfront, the beautiful cliff-lined beach of Del Mar is just a five-minute walk away on a private footpath. The 120 guest rooms have fireplaces, private patios or balconies (some with a slice of ocean view), and gorgeous marble bathrooms. The decor is an elegant mix of pale yellows and greens, with pattern used sparingly in the upholstered chairs and pillows. In mid-summer, L'Auberge's collective energy picks up when horseracing season begins at nearby Del Mar Thoroughbred Club and mint julep–fueled race fans descend on the hotel.

When it comes to location, it doesn't get much better than the venerable La Valencia. Opened in 1926, this pale-pink stucco and Spanish-tile-roofed hotel is perched just above the Pacific at famous La Jolla Cove. Meanwhile, its front door opens right onto the boutiques and art galleries of Prospect Street, San Diego's version of Rodeo Drive. Several towering palms stand guard as you enter the lobby, which is appointed with wrought iron, hand-painted ceilings, intricate Spanish tiling, and a stunning postcard view of the crashing waves below from a floor-to-ceiling picture window. The guest rooms are comfortable though the decor is a bit dated: Think grandmotherly printed upholstery with brass accents. The hotel is doing renovations here and there and recently unveiled 15 new terraced Ocean Villas with grade-A ocean views done up in subtle shades of brown with marble floors. La Valencia also has three restaurants and a pair of bars, all of which attract a mix of tourists and hip locals. It's extremely family- and pet-friendly, yet the hotel manages to maintain an air of casual grace.

A shining example of early 20th-century California architecture, this 170-room hotel was meticulously modeled after the Gamble and Blacker houses in Pasadena, a pair of classic Arts and Crafts structures built in 1907 and 1908. Its construction is said to be so faithful to the Craftsman tradition that guests will be unable to find even a single nail used on the property. The Lodge's exterior of shingle, sandstone, and clinker-brick complements the pines, wild grasses, and sandstone bluffs of its ocean-view location north of downtown La Jolla. It's all quite grand—more so after being renovated and reopened in 2002—yet it's still homey: Both the common areas and the rooms are earth-toned, with exposed posts and beams, rich leather couches, Stickley furniture, and Tiffany lamps (some real, some not). Even the smallest guest rooms are comfortably large; those on the west side face the manicured golf course, while those with eastern exposures look out onto a somewhat unkempt-looking natural landscape that includes the namesake Torrey pines. Requisite resort-style amenities, a pool with classical music piped in underwater, beach cabanas (in summer), and a full day spa please the families, romantic couples, businessmen, and golfers who stay here. It's notoriously tough to get a tee time at the Torrey Pines Golf Course, home of the 2008 U.S. Open, but the Lodge reserves 20 a day for its guests.

Casitas of various sizes—49 of them—are secreted within 40 acres of citrus groves and flowers in this quiet, relaxed, and luxe resort 25 miles north of downtown. Wood-beamed cathedral ceilings, terrazzo tiles, ceiling fans, and fireplaces lend the open-plan living quarters a rustic air. The newer, bigger Grove Suites also have patios with Jacuzzis, steam showers, and jetted tubs in the bathrooms. Tennis coaching is first-rate, spa treatments are excellent, and the beaches of Del Mar and La Jolla are close at hand. There's also a croquet lawn, and the eponymous restaurant is a local destination.

Though the Sè is very much a visual feast—with a massive bronze front door, a grand staircase framed by faux sand dollars, lamps covered in gray stingray, an entire wall at the spa covered in tiny green Chinese teacups—it's more than just a pretty face. The staff seem to be genuinely thrilled to help you, and the 184 rooms, in a steel-and-glass building perched atop a Victorian-era structure, are small but well appointed. Yet the thing that really sticks in your mind (and belly) is the complimentary breakfast in bed with chocolate croissants, serrano ham and melon, and granola. All of this from chef Christopher Lee, whose Suite & Tender restaurant is surf and turf with a twist: pork belly and scallops, hamachi fish tacos, carpaccio of Kobe beef. The spa, too, is a pleasant surprise—especially the harem-style lounge, where you can curl up with a good book (or another warm body).

Opened in July 2005 and the first luxury oceanfront hotel to be built in San Diego in a decade, Tower23 is a splashy glass oblong of a design statement with 44 mostly ocean-view rooms and suites. Named after its neighbor, Lifeguard Tower #23, the three-story minimalist building wants to be an urban beach resort for attention-deficit adult kids. Suites have that latest in questionable relaxation equipment: chromatherapy baths. There are also Xboxes, flat-screen TVs, Bose sound systems, and Wi-Fi access that stretches to the beach. Jordan, the 10,000-square-foot restaurant, and the boardwalk/beach Tower Bar promise to become new centers of hip.

When the son of President Ulysses S. Grant opened this hotel in 1910 in the heart of downtown, it became an instant landmark, favored by presidents and the social elite through an extended heyday. You know the rest of this story: fading beauty, unfortunate makeovers, and finally, an unlikely savior. In this case, the heroes are the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians, who used capital from their nearby casino to buy the hotel and pour $56 million into its renovation. Unveiled in October 2006, the new-again U.S. Grant echoes the stately grandeur of its past without feeling dated. The 317 rooms are appointed with reproduction antique furnishings, basin sinks, and flat-screen TVs, and nearby Spa Velia partners with the hotel for in-room treatments. Downstairs, just off the opulent lobby, the new Grant Grill traded in its formerly dark, clubby vibe for light woods and mirrors, its traditional afternoon tea for "Tea and 'Tinis"; and steaks for lobster corndogs and blue-fin tuna tartare. If you're in San Diego for a beach vacation, this isn't for you, but it is close to the convention center, and attracts a lot of guests with business there.