Howard Johnson SeaWorld

We booked this as a cheaper option to balance the price of our holiday (having broken the bank a bit in Las Vegas!).
Location was not picturesque, but the hotel (motel) was well situated for driving or travelling by public transport to SeaWorld, Balboa Park, and the zoo and was a good base to come back to at the end of a packed day. San Diego is a fantastic city with lots of things to see and do.
The hotel did remind me a little of Pontins, with rooms that open straight onto the car park, but they had lots of useful things in them, two queen beds, iron, hairdryer, fridge, coffee maker, free toiletries. A small bathroom, but it was fine for a few days.
This is not the place to stay if you want to have a bit of relaxing time in the hotel. There was a really small and tired looking pool, near to the road, which looked pretty grotty.
Breakfast was available but wasn't great and the breakfast room had a bit of a funny smell to it. There were juice bars, starbucks, and bagel brothers shops right opposite, so we opted to go there where you could sit outside and have loads of choice.
There were lots of shops roundabout - a T.J.Maxx also opposite, was brilliant for bargains to bring back to the UK.
On the roads round the corner, were every fast food place you could ever imagine. Chillis was one of the better ones. Also round the corner, a five minute walk away was a Sports Bar (Kelly's I think)? which looked a little bit dingy, but was actually great. Good American food and really reasonable prices for food and beer. It was a local’s kind of place and you felt part of the American culture (American Football and Baseball shirts on the walls etc., pool and diner style booths). They were very friendly there too. A proper pub.
A bus outside the hotel took you straight to the trolley bus station and from there you could get Downtown or to the Gaslamp Quarter which had great bars and restaurants. This was the cheaper option and parking wasn't easy in the city centre of an evening.
This hotel was not luxurious, but was fantastic as a base and ran lots of free shuttles if you didn't want to drive, plus free parking. So all in all a cost effective way to see the city.