InterContinental San Diego Brings Stellar Views And Modern Luxury To The Bay

Located at the corner of Pacific Highway and Broadway in downtown San Diego is the new 19-story 400 room InterContinental San Diego.

The location of this new resort is stellar, a short 10-minute drive from the airport sitting just across from the San Diego bay; short walks to the Gaslamp area and Little Italy and about a 20-minute drive to the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park.

The lobby, if guests park in the $38 a day parking, is up gleaming glass elevators to a beautiful long open space featuring Vistal Bar & Restaurant with stunning bay views to the right and a few small seating areas and check-in desks to the left. The design is very beach inspired with sand colored wood floors, ivory sofas and chairs and blue accent rugs.

I received a nice two drink voucher upon check-in and headed to the roomy elevators. The view is the highlight of the rooms, looking out to beautiful views of the bay. My room mirrored the downtown LA InterContinental design with floor to ceiling windows, a wooden framed king bed with a leather headboard, a single chaise lounge, a small desk, lighted mirror in the small bathroom and a nice makeup or shaving area with a shelf and a close-up mirror.

The InterContinental restaurant, Vistal, offers indoor and patio dining, both providing stunning views. The main bar is huge and has several televisions for sports watching. The restaurant is large and  open with wooden floors and tables, cozy banquettes and barstools and chairs in a light and dark blue color scheme. There's also a 14 seat chef's table to catch all the kitchen action.

Chefs Amy Di Biase and Paul McCabe have created a local seafood centric menu. There's also special dumplings dishes with ingredients including black truffle, ricotta, guanciale and local lobster. Appetizers also include ahi belly, baby beet and burrata  salad, oysters, pickled black cod, clams and roasted sun choke soup. The bread is extremely tasty and served with beet hummus, fennel butter and olive oil. In addition to a whole crispy skin local fish served with vegetables, there is also a duck confit, cornmeal dusted sturgeon, New York strip steak, chicken fried steak, salmon Wellington and Baja prawns. Desserts include a burnt sugar cake, pumpkin cheesecake, chocolate and peanut butter cake and a daily selection of sorbet and gelato.

Vista's breakfast menu includes lemon ricotta pancakes, chai brioche French toast, a pork eggs benedict, short rib and Brussels sprouts hash, breakfast tacos, trout and eggs and vegetable fried rice with eggs.

Up one floor from the lobby are the large gym and spinning room and a small pool with cabanas and lounge chairs.

The InterContinental San Diego is a great choice for a family vacation for it's ideal location to museums and the zoo, a business trip for it's space and a couple's getaway for it's romantic restaurant ambiance.

Located at 901 Bayfront Court, www.intercontinentalsandiego.com.

The InterContinental provided a stay and meals for this review.