I need some San Diego Travel tips...?

Take a look at this website for suggestions on beach hotels: http://www.sandiego-romantics.com/san-diego-beach-... Winter is not the high season...you may be able to get a great deal at one of these hotels. Check out their websites to see if they have any specials going on. If you work for a city, county, state, or federal agency, see if they offer a government rate.

One of my favorite things to do in San Diego is to have a bonfire on the beach. Bring marshmallows...most beaches have firepits for this. Learn more about this idea at: http://www.sandiego-romantics.com/san-diego-firewo...

The same website can help you with other fun things to do in San Diego.....taking the ferry from downtown San Diego to Coronado Island is fun. Kayaking through the La Jolla caves is awesome!

Hotel Circle.

Near the beach... you're talking about privately run motels. You can do 100 a night on the beach..

If you have someone in the family that's military, they can look into Navy Lodging at Coronado. It's the cheapest deal and you get the ocean view, but it's pretty popular.

Oceanside is usually not mentioned, but there's a lot of hotels there...

Also a bunch along the 101 north of Del Mar up to Carlsbad that have motels and hotels scattered through the road. Also a great road trip.

Fun things to do...start with info center at Mission Bay Park because you're near the beach and near downtown and can get a lot of questions answered.

x-factor is right. Hard to say what is cheap. What is cheap for me might be way out of your price range, or the other way around.

Basically, Pacific Beach and Ocean Beach are the Mid range beaches. Not upscale, but maybe not lower end. La Jolla and Coronado are a little more up Scale. Imperial Beach is nice too but has a bad stigma from about 10-20 years ago, but in the last 10 years has been revitalized. Honestly i dont think there is any beach front hotels in Imperial beach, maybe a motel or 2 close by.

If money is a factor, but you want to stay near the beach id recommend imperial beach. From there you can drive up Silver strand to Coronado Island (Coronado is an island, but has a land bridge ) Coronado is a very cute and upscale looking area. Keep going north and you cross another bridge, Coronado Bridge, and you go towards down town san diego. Lots to do there. Go a little further North and you are in world famous Balboa Park, Home of the san diego Zoo, and many museums (FYI, many museums in Balboa park are free on tuesdays)

Go just a little futher north, and you can get to Old Town. Lots of history there, food, shopping, and a historic haunted house. North of Old Town is sea world.

Bottom line, most places in San Diego are within 20-30 minutes from the beach unless you stay really far east in san diego. Staying in La Jolla or Coronado will give you the feeling of upscale Vacation, but also the price tag. I know Coronado allows bon fires, but not all beaches do. Check into that before coming to san diego, that may effect your decision. I dont think Imperial beach allows it because the beach is thinner.

I hope i have been helpful, feel free to email me and i will try to be as helpful as possible.

Dont forget to hit up one of or many taco shops while in san diego. Order the "Carne Asada Fries" This is a San Diego invention that has us all in its delicious grasp.

Leucadia. It's a little surf town in north county that is reasonable to stay at and the beach towns between Oceanside and LaJolla are great.

pick up a copy of The Reader when you get to town. It's a free weekly magazine that has tons of great information on dining, lodging, concerts, clubs, etc. Here's a link to their web page

http://sdreader.com/

There's lots of great place to stay. You didn't say how much you like to spend on hotel. I would stay in Pacific Beach(PB). Night life is good there as well as the beach. Here's a site with hotel on PB: http://reservations.californiasunhotels.com/681_ho...