Question for people familiar with San Diego!

[Pokeyonekenobie]

So my friend was hired to help with NerdHQ next month (not sure if hired is the right word as it's a non-profit thing) and we're looking for decently priced (read inexpensive) hotels in the area.  Any suggestions? 

[goddessofpeep]

I sincerely hope she's not going to be there for SDCC if you're looking for cheap hotels:/  Finding a room for under $200 a night is a tall order that week, if you can even get room.  All the decent hotels in the convention area assign rooms by lottery that week. 

Like most cities, the further you get from the downtown/convention/airport area, the cheaper the hotels tend to be.  When we stay there, we usually just check hotels.com, Priceline, Expedia, or Orbits for the cheapest rates we can find.  They let you look by area.  During SDCC, any hotel that you can walk to the convention will probably be at least $400 a night, if you can even get a room.

Will she have access to a car?  If so, the out of the way hotels on the outskirts of town will be your best option for cheap.  If not, you'll probably have to stay closer to wherever he will be working.  There is some public transportation, but it can be spotty.

If it's SDCC week, on site convention parking is by lottery as well. So your friend will have to park at whatever hotel they find, and take the buses/train/uber.  The good news is that most hotels in the area are part of a free shuttle bus network for the entire SDCC time.  During the first day or two, it stops running around midnight or 1am.  I think Friday and Saturday the shuttles run 24 hours a day.  Double check before you book.  They do have free parking at the Stadium for the entire time, but to get to the convention from there you have to take the not-free train. 

If you do have to do SDCC week, and you can't find a hotel that works for you due to location and price, check AirBnB.  I had a friend who got a good deal one year using that. 

[LadyMoondancer]

If it's during SDCC, the farther away he is from the convention center, the cheaper it will be. I'd check for hotels along the light rail (train), fairly far away from the city center.

[Pokeyonekenobie]

Unfortunately it is during SDCC week, however it's being held at The New Children's Museum I have no idea how far that is from the SDCC event).  She will have her car down there.  I suggested she look at one of the small towns outside of San Diego, even if it means a half-hour drive (which is what I drive to get to work every day anyway so it's not really as bad as it sounds).

I'll suggest airbnb to her.  I don't think she's tried that yet.

[goddessofpeep]

http://www.thinkplaycreate.org/parking-transit-directions

I just looked it up.  Yeah, it's like right in the middle of SDCC central.  It's off Harbor Blvd, which is total chaos during SDCC.  You can not drive down that street during SDCC.  It's technically open, but it can take an hour or more to go one block. Also, the entire downtown area is a maze of one way streets, and during SDCC this is even worse as they randomly block off streets around the convention center for pedestrian traffic.  There will be no local parking unless she's already entered and won the parking lottery.  You can park at Petco park, but that may be lottery now as well. I can't keep up with all the "now it's lottery and costs $$$$" changes that happen every year.  If it isn't, you still have to navigate downtown's one way street and pedestrian nightmare to get to it.  The museum's near the train station though, so she should check out hotels along the train route. You can buy day/weekend/week passes for the train. She can buy online or through her phone to save time if she wants.

http://www.sdmts.com/schedules-real-time/maps-and-routes

Also, she *should* be able to make use of the free hotel shuttles.  I don't think she needs a SDCC pass to get on(I've never seen anyone checked for one, or kicked off a bus, but I've also never seen anyone without a pass on a shuttle bus), but it couldn't hurt for her to be wearing some "geek" tshirts or something over the weekend to blend in.

She *may* be able to park down there if the people putting on the event have already arranged for parking for any volunteers who are helping out.  She might want to ask about that.

Also, there is the option of parking at Qualcomm Stadium(and several other locations) and taking the trolley/train to the convention area.  Parking there is free, but you need to buy a ticket for the trolley/train.  If she does this, she can get a hotel wherever, and then take the trolley in.
http://www.comic-con.org/cci/transportation
http://www.sdmts.com/rider-info/transit-station-parking

Good luck!  And tell her to get her arrangements sorted asap.  It's not going to get any better or cheaper the closer you get to SDCC.  San Diego is seriously not capable of handling the SDCC crowds, so the entire downtown area is a disgusting mess for the entire week.

One bit of advice for her - the farther she gets away from the convention center, the less crowded the restaurants are:p  The ones within one block of the convention center can have hour+ waits if you get there at the wrong time.   

[scarletjul]

I have no advice.  I just wanted to say that sounds like so much fun for your friend!  And such a good cause.  That's Zachary Levi's event, isn't it?  I seem to recall him talking about it in interviews before.

I hope she has fun. 

[kaoskat]

Ick! Good luck! I hope you can find a hotel within your price range!

[Pokeyonekenobie]

I have friends that live two hours away from San Diego that said we could stay with them but we don't want to drive that far every morning and every night, especially as there's a chance she won't get done until 2 am some days. 


Though, I have never ridden an actual trolley so that might be fun!  Thanks for all the suggestions. 

[goddessofpeep]

I live 2 hours away from San Diego(up the 405). SDCC weekend those 2 hours can take up to 6 or more to travel with the traffic if you hit it at the wrong time.  If your friends live in the LA area, do not try to make that trip on a daily basis. You'll be stuck in traffic and miserable. The 405 is literally the worst freeway for traffic delays in the entire country.

[Pokeyonekenobie]

I live 2 hours away from San Diego(up the 405). SDCC weekend those 2 hours can take up to 6 or more to travel with the traffic if you hit it at the wrong time.  If your friends live in the LA area, do not try to make that trip on a daily basis. You'll be stuck in traffic and miserable. The 405 is literally the worst freeway for traffic delays in the entire country.

YIKES!  Good to know, thank you so much for telling me!

[goddessofpeep]

Never underestimate Southern California traffic.  There's a reason why when you ask someone out here how far something is, they answer in time - not miles.  The 405 is a nightmare, and always is.  However, since SDCC brings a significant number of extra people into the area, it gets *really* bad at certain times.  I had a friend who left LA to go to SDCC at about 8am.  She should have arrived around 10am.  She arrived after 2pm, and that was her last year attending.  To avoid that particular jam you have to be either really early(leave the house by 4:30/5am) or really late.  It may have improved somewhat since they started selling out.  Before that, it seemed like all of Los Angeles wanted to go to SDCC on Saturday.  Now I think there is a bit less traffic since more people are staying in the area, and not coming just for the day.  Still, if she's got to be somewhere at a specific time, she should factor in some extra time for travel. 

If you don't get caught in the 405 mess, the worst traffic you're likely to find is around the convention itself.  If you can avoid that, you should be fine.  Trust me, you don't want to get into that.  The streets are small, and most of them are one way.  They close random streets and reroute traffic away from the convention, so GPS stuff doesn't work right around the convention.  It is possible to end up driving around in circles, and driving around that area is horrible at the best of times, let alone when there are street closures and thousands of pedestrians running all over the place. 

Not all freeways and streets in San Diego are a mess during SDCC.  There are some back roads you can take to get around the outskirts pretty easily and quickly.  The convention area is a mess, and some of the major freeways are pretty bad, but there are alternatives.  There are no real alternatives to the 405 if you're coming from LA, but if you're coming from the east, I don't think it's *as* bad.

If you want any more information, feel free to PM me.  I don't live in San Diego, but I do have a friend who used to.  She told me a few secrets to the city:p  And I've attended almost every SDCC since 2003, though I'm sitting this year out due to a serious injury:( 

[BabySunnybunch]

I recently stayed in San Diego at the Best Western Seven Seas. It's def a no-frills sorta place, but it was decent and less than $100.