La Pensione Hotel

While Downtown offers the ultimate proximity for tourists and business travelers, Little Italy’s lovely La Pensione Hotel is set away from the traffic and chaos; yet it is still in walking distance from the city center. Reminiscent of an Italian bed-and-breakfast, the hotel is unlike anything in greater San Diego. There’s even a resident dog in the lobby who serves as official greeter.

Seventy-five rooms surround a pleasant courtyard filled with amiable guests and salt air rolling off the nearby bay. Two restaurants are on-site, and countless more are within a block or two. When you’re sick of impersonal big-chain service, La Pensione is the best place to book a room and enjoy the most friendly, personalized, old-world service west of the Mediterranean.