My Stay at The Pearl Hotel in San Diego

Every year in the spring I start to get an itch to travel somewhere warm and relaxing. I dream about driving along the coast with the windows down, feeling the familiar warmth of the sun on my skin, listening to the song of the ocean as the waves race toward the dry sand and slowly back again.

After a year spent looking at the four walls around us, being able to escape to a place like this was even more meaningful than ever. And so at the end of March (and safely taking all precautions), my husband and I escaped to the ease of southern California for a week.

I had never visited San Diego, but as soon as we touched down on the tarmac I knew it was a special place I’d be visiting for years to come. From the Sunset Cliffs and the food to the overall beauty of the landscape and weather, I was hooked. Then we arrived at our hotel which was the absolute cherry on top. We stayed at a spot called The Pearl, which served laid back mid-century meets casual surf energy until our hearts were content. And unknowingly when we booked our stay, it ended up being nestled perfectly halfway between the cliffs where we watched the sunset each evening and the coffee shop we visited almost every morning during our stay.

The hotel originally opened as a motel in the 1960s by a husband and wife duo named Charles + Dinorah, which is now the name of the Pearl’s in-house restaurant. The interiors and architecture were even dreamier than I could have imagined with beautiful textures playing perfectly into the mid century surf aesthetic. Each detail from the lobby and the rooms, to the restaurant and the exterior has been so carefully thought out to fully transport you to a place of serenity while paying homage to the original hotel’s history. The pool is even original, shaped in the famous mid-century kidney shape.

The Pearl Hotel was such a lovely, serene stay during our time in San Diego. It’s a part of Casetta Group, a small collective boutique hotels that currently offers stays in picturesque Palm Springs and San Diego – with other beautifully unique spots opening in Los Angeles, Big Bear and Taos, New Mexico at later dates. Casetta Group also has several sustainability initiatives which made staying at The Pearl even more pleasurable.

All in all, I couldn’t recommend staying here and visiting San Diego any more. I hope you have the chance to visit one day soon and experience it in all of its mid-mod glory.