Review – Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego

During our visit to San Diego we stayed at the impressive Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel located in the waterfront area of downtown San Diego.

I strongly believe that your hotel makes your holiday.  It needs to be your home from home and the 5 star Manchester Grand Hyatt ticked all the right boxes for us, making our family time in San Diego truly special.

This is our review of the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego and why it’s a great option for families when visiting the city.

Our great experience at the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego started before we set foot inside the hotel as a week before our arrival we received a lovely email from a Hyatt guest manager. They were able to arrange what time we required turn down service each evening and assisted us in making any reservations we needed.

As we arrived at San Diego airport late in the evening after a long transatlantic flight from London it was great to know that a taxi to the Manchester Grand Hyatt was just a 15 minute drive away in downtown San Diego.

Even at night it was hard to miss the hotel with its imposing two towers (Harbor Tower and Seaport Tower) dominating the city skyline..

As we arrived at the hotel you are struck by the sheer scale of this luxurious hotel.  The entrance to the hotel is quite striking and the lobby area certainly matched the Grand element of the Hyatt brand.

The Lobby

As the bellman took our luggage the huge palatial lobby literally takes your breath away it is so impressive.  Featuring eye catching pieces of artwork, marble floors, imposing wooden columns and massive chandeliers, it was so spectacular and grand it wouldn’t have looked out of place at one of the luxury hotels of Dubai or Las Vegas – yet it was so family friendly.

A large interactive touch screen contained hotel information, live weather updates, dining and entertainment information which was really useful. It was a nice interactive facility if you wanted to look for local information with just a few swipes and clicks.

Check-in was fast and efficient which was just what we needed after a long 11 hour flight into San Diego from London.

If you are looking for a small and intimate hotel then the Manchester Grand Hyatt  is probably not the place for you.  The hotel is huge, with 1,628  rooms and 76 suites located across its two towers.

It’s the second largest hotel in California and the Harbor tower which is where our room was located is the tallest waterfront building in California.

The Room

Our Grand Club room located on the 29th floor of the hotel (club rooms occupy the top floors of the hotel and have their own lift) was stunning.  It was modern, contemporary, light and spacious – perfect for our family of four. Our room had the most amazing views over the city, the bay and Coronado bridge from our floor to ceiling windows.  On a clear day we could also see the hills of Tijuana, Mexico in the distance.

One of my favourite things during our stay at the Grand Hyatt was opening the curtains each morning to see this spectacular view, I could never get tired of it and is one of the lasting impressions we have of our stay.

We had a welcome gift of fruit, chocolates and bubbly which was a really nice gesture. This is just one of the many ways that we felt so much at home during our stay.

Our room had two extremely comfortable double beds, a small table and chairs as well as a great size desk and plenty of power points if you needed to catch up on work.

A large wall mounted television, plenty of electrical sockets to charge ipads and phones along with high speed complimentary wifi provided all the entertainment options that a family would need for a comfortable stay.

The bathroom was modern and well-equipped with marble counter top sinks, a deep bathtub with shower, plush towels bathrobes and slippers. At the Grand Hyatt you get all the toiletries you need, basically you don’t need to bring any with you.

There was cotton wool, shaving foam, razor, toothpaste, mouthwash, sewing kit and comb.  There was a also plentiful supply of June Jacobs’s toiletries (a famous American Spa brand) which were lovely.

Grand Club

One reason why it’s well worth upgrading to a Grand Club room is for access to its Grand Club lounge on the 33rd floor where we enjoyed breakfast each morning.  Here we could choose from a choice of cereals, pastries, breads, fruit and a selection of hot dishes.

After busy days exploring the sights of San Diego, the Grand Club was a lovely family friendly area to call back to relax.  Along with breakfast we could use the lounge for all day refreshments, afternoon tea and evening canapes and drinks.

The dedicated Grand Club concierge at the Manchester Grand Hyatt were also a credit to the Hyatt brand as they were so knowledgeable, helpful and friendly.

Chloe was happy designing on the Apple Mac whilst Holly would choose a board game (typically chess) from the complementary selection for a game against us.

Facilities

The hotel has two pool areas, one for adults only and the family pool deck on the fourth floor which links the two towers of the hotel, which offered great views over downtown San Diego and the bay area.  The pool deck was one of the girl’s favourite parts of the hotel with a large freeform pool, hot tubs, cabanas and games areas.

One of our favourite things to do in the evenings when staying at hotels in America is roasting s’mores at the firepit and the setting at the Grand Hyatt was fantastic.  Roasting marshmallows at night with views of the skyscrapers of San Diego and the bay certainly created some magical memories for us.

Within the hotel were a number of shops, including the Market store in the lobby.  This was like a mini grocery store offering a great range of sandwiches, fruit pots, cakes and Starbucks drinks.  It was here that we could also pick up the Hyatt smores kits which we used each night of our stay at the firepit on the pool deck.

The Top of the Hyatt rooftop bar at the hotel is well worth visiting, as from its 40th floor you are rewarded with arguably the best views of the city.

There were lots of beautiful communal areas and artwork throughout the hotel that we enjoyed exploring during our stay.  We had great fun exploring the vast public spaces and the amenities of the hotel which included a spa, gym, tennis courts and a basketball court.

Location

We chose the Manchester Grand Hyatt because of its location.  It’s in a beautiful waterfront setting and at the heart of everything that we needed to visit in downtown San Diego, so we didn’t need to hire a car for the first part of our holiday.

We were near several main tourist attractions like Seaport Village, Petco Park home of MLB side the Padres, Gaslamp Quarter, San Diego harbor cruises and the USS Midway museum, all of which were within walking distance.

Great family friendly restaurants were also close by, one of our favourites the Cheesecake Factory was less than a five minute walk away in the Seaport Village area.  Here we also came across Puesto.

We love Mexican food and this was one of the very best Mexican restaurants that we have visited across the globe.  The Gaslamp Quarter was also home to lots of restaurants great for families and we visited the highly recommended Old Spaghetti Factory, which was fantastic.

Overall

The Manchester Grand Hyatt is an excellent family friendly luxury hotel and is highly recommended..  We had such a wonderful stay and it was the perfect location for us to explore the great family attractions of San Diego, which has cemented a place in our hearts as one of favourite cities in America.

We booked our stay direct with Hyatt and as World of Hyatt members we used their points and cash promotion to book our Regency Club room.

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