We got to Homewood Suites Liberty Station after our cruise by 10 am and hung out in the breakfast area and pool table room until our room was ready (amazingly by noon!). The front desk was great at letting us store our luggage and giving us pool
more +access keys. The pool here is best in the early afternoon before the pool is in the shade. Not easy to do after a day at the Zoo or Seaworld but the hot tub was super hot and warmed us up. The pool closes promptly at 10 pm. Free internet was easy to access with my laptop.
The free hot breakfast was good, switching back and forth from bacon to sausages and another meat dish daily. The waffles were great too. Day or night coffee/hot chocolate/tea area are available in the lobby. There are BBQs as well for use by hotel guests and a free dinner Monday-Thursday which included wine and beer. If you eat outside don't leave your food unattended or the ravens will help themselves to your breakfast!
The room had a fully equipped kitchen so we made some lunch sandwiches for the Zoo, and had spaghetti one night for dinner after a quick drive to Von's (Canadians can use their Safeway cards here!). I believe they will stock your kitchen for you if you ask as well. They give you one bag of microwave popcorn, but were not very good at restocking the coffee pouches so I picked some off the maid's cart. The dishwasher is really loud and takes forever so let the maid turn it on instead while you're out.
The room had two bedrooms (1 Queen and 1 King) with separate bathrooms and TVs, on each side of the kitchen/living room area where you have another TV...just like home! The pull out couch made for a terrible bed, but I asked the maid for more cushioning in the form of an extra duvet to reduce the lumpiness of the springs so my 4 year old didn't mind it too much. They do have cots but they're not the fold up kind and would have taken up too much room in the living room for us to bother with (not enough room in the Queen bedroom). Oddly the Queen bedroom has the desk and balcony, but the closet isn't as accessible. The lighting in the bathroom toilet/bathtub area is a little on the dark side but otherwise the bathrooms were perfect and clean. The maid took great care with cleaning the bathroom sink area and placed all my stuff out on a towel. After a few days I stopped hiding the laptop (no safe in the rooms). I hardly heard the airplanes at all and we were on the 3rd floor on the parking lot side.
We used the tiny gym area which worked fine for us with a few different aerobic machines to choose from and another TV to keep your mind occupied. A small area beside the front desk had keychains and candy for a decent price. A list of events in the area is posted so we checked out the Birch Aquarium Easter Egg hunt on Easter Sunday (plastic eggs hidden in the aquariums with letters on them that spell a type of fish).
The hotel location is great and if you turn left out the path behind the hotel and walk about 10 minutes you'll find a gigantic park for little kids up to age 10. It was about 10-15 minutes to SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo, as well as Old Town and Point Loma. The airport and cruise pier are only 10 minutes away and the shuttle driver was fabulous with interacting with my kids. If you can bring your own GPS it works great with the rental car and saves a lot of money. Warning, do not open the Enroute box near the passenger visor for toll booths. I opened it by accident and after I got home I saw that I got charged $20 US on the Visa we used to rent the car.
Booking this hotel was tricky as for some reason I couldn't book 3 days that had a discount rate on Expedia and 2 days separately using Visa points. So I had to book all 5 days on the Visa and pay the difference on the nights I didn't have enough points for at full price. Oh well, it worked out fine in the end and I'm glad I followed the Tripadvisor reviews. It was a perfect hotel and saved us money on breakfasts and two dinners. Go ahead and book here, you'll find alot that you'll like, especially if you enjoy having more room.
Date of Stay: 04/02/2010
Children in Party: 3
Kids (3-6) Kids (7-9) Tweens (10-12) Accommodations Dining Money Value Staff
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Homewood Suites San Diego Airport-Liberty Station 
