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INFORMATION

Libraries & Internet Access

Coronado Public Library ( 619-522-7390; www.coronado.lib.ca.us; 640 Orange Ave; 10am-9pm Mon-Thu, 10am-6pm Fri & Sat, 1-5pm Sun; wi-fi) occupies a museumlike building and offers children’s programs. For other library branches, visit www.sannet.gov/public-library.

Post

Coronado Post office ( 877-275-8777; www.usps.com; 1320 Ynez Pl; 8:30am-5pm Mon-Fri, 8:30am-noon Sat). Check the website or phone for other branches.

Tourist Information

San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau’s visitor centers Click here serve other beach communities.

Coronado Visitors Center ( 619-437-8788; www.coronadovisitorcenter.com; 1100 Orange Ave; 9am- 5pm Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm Sat & Sun)

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SIGHTS

We’ve organized this section beginning with Coronado and heading north.

Coronado

Directly across the bay from downtown San Diego, Coronado is a civilized escape from the jumble of the city and the ordered quietness of the beaches. Follow the tree-lined, manicured median strip of Orange Ave toward the commercial center, Coronado Village, around the Hotel del Coronado. Then park your car; you won’t need it again until you leave.

The story of Coronado is in many ways the story of the Hotel del Coronado (see following), opened in 1888. By 1900 John D Spreckels, the millionaire who bankrolled the first rail line to San Diego, took over Coronado and turned the whole island into one of the most fashionable getaways on the West Coast.

The visitor center doubles as the Coronado Museum of History and Art and offers historical 90-minute walking tours (tour $12; 11am Tue, Thu & Sat), beginning at the Glorietta Bay Inn. Inquire about other tours.

The spectacular 2.12-mile-long Coronado Bay Bridge opened in 1969 and joins Coronado to San Diego; Silver Strand, a long, narrow sand spit, runs south to Imperial Beach and connects Coronado to the mainland, though people still call it ‘Coronado Island’ in honor of its original status.

Use the electric Coronado Shuttle to get around (free). Alternatively, bus 901 from Downtown runs along Orange Ave to the Hotel del Coronado. The Old Town Trolley tour Click here stops in front of Mc P’s Irish Pub. For information on ferries, water taxis and bike rentals, Click here.

Four-and-a-half miles south of Coronado Village, the white-sand Silver Strand State Beach ( 619-435-5184; www.parks.ca.gov; ) has warm, calm water, perfect for swimming and good for families. Parking costs vary seasonally, from free up to $8.

HOTEL DEL CORONADO

Few hotels in the world are as easily recognized or as much loved as the Hotel del Coronado ( 619-435- 6611, 800-582-2595; www.hoteldel.com; 1500 Orange Ave; ). The world’s largest resort when it was built, this all-timber, whitewashed San Diego icon offers conical towers, cupolas, turrets, balconies, dormer windows and cavernous public spaces typical of their designers, railroad-depot architects James and Merritt Reed. Acres of polished wood give the interior a warm, old-fashioned feel that conjures daydreams of Panama hats and linen suits.

Guests have included 10 US presidents and world royalty – pictures and mementos are displayed in the hotel’s history gallery. There’s speculation that Edward (then Prince of Wales) first met Mrs Simpson (then Mrs Spenser) when he visited in 1920, though the two did not become an item until years later. The hotel achieved its widest exposure in the 1959 movie Some Like It Hot, which earned it a lasting association with Marilyn Monroe. There’s an interesting resident ghost story, too, about a jilted woman who haunts the hotel; some claim she silently appears in hallways and on the TV screen in the room where she had her heart broken.

For a taste of the Del without a stay, enjoy breakfast or lunch at the beach-view Sheerwater restaurant or splurge on Sunday brunch under the grand dome of the spectacular Crown Room (adults cost $59 and children $23), designed by L Frank Baum, who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Click here for details on staying here.

Point Loma