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Travel + Leisure

One of California's Most Iconic Hotels, on Coronado Island, Has a Private Beach, 5 Neighborhoods, and a Nobu Restaurant—and It Just Got a $550-million Renovation

Hotel del Coronado has been an aspirational Southern California resort since 1888, when the (then) all-inclusive offered a room and three daily meals for $3.50 a night. This week, it completed a $550 million renovation of the entire resort. The six-year endeavor touched each of the 938 rooms across five neighborhoods. Suffice it to say, a stay no longer costs $3.50 a night, but what guests now get—redone rooms, three new restaurants, including a Nobu, and exclusive hotel-within-a-hotel stays—is well worth the price increase. The parts of the hotel I'm most excited about are the Shore House at The Del (standard rooms from $868 per night) —a brand-new build—and the Beach Village (standard rooms from $940 per night) . The two neighborhoods, by design, feel like boutique hotels within the 28-acre resort on Coronado Island. While the entire Hotel del Coronado eco-system is under Hilton, these two stays became part of the higher-end LXR portfolio in October 2024. 'You have an exclusive check-in and drop-off area, recently renovated bungalows, and a higher level of service at Beach Village,' says Feisal Jaffer, Hilton's global head of LXR. The newly built Shore House and overhauled Beach Village are done in 'modern Victorian style,' as Marco Tabet, Hotel del Coronado's general manager, put it. Guests of these two hotels have access to a private pool, a members-only Beach Club, and the Ocean Club, a posh living room and beachside outdoor patio where, one morning, my family had a leisurely breakfast of pancakes, a wild mushroom omelet, and eggs Benedict. The interior of the restored lobby. We also made use of The Beach Club, which is open to members (mostly San Diego locals) and LXR guests. The private stretch of beach, strewn with white-fringed navy blue beach umbrellas and lounge chairs, was lively but by no means crowded. We posted up here on both days of our stay, ordering from the private bar—a converted Volkswagen wagon—and grazing on fish tacos. Tabet insisted they've seen a surge of multigenerational families visiting, 'especially because we have so many units with several bedrooms.' (Both Beach Village and Shore House have one-, two-, and three-bedroom cottages and villas.) Sure enough, at The Beach Club, my 11-month-old son made a toddler friend, who was visiting with his parents and two sets of grandparents. The finishing touch on the six-year renovation, however, is the just-completed rooms in The Victorian building. The resort's original building—with its signature bright red crown most Southern Californians have seen in pictures or spotted from the I-5—has a 137-year legacy that shines brighter now that it has been scrubbed and buffed to the tune of $550 million. It's home to a picturesque courtyard, dolled up for the reopening with Jeff Leatham florals, the original, dark wood–paneled Victorian lobby with a crystal chandelier, rocking chairs on the wraparound porch, and one of the first elevators in America. 'And we have more than 90 people with over 30 years of experience at the hotel,' Tabet says. My family and I were among the first to stay in The Victorian's renovated guest rooms. Ours was small but quite serviceable, with two queen-size beds, a crib for my son, a small patio with ocean views, and a bathroom. The Victorian, along with The Cabanas and The Views neighborhoods, are part of Hilton's Curio Collection, and are priced more affordably than the LXR offerings. 'This is always going to be The Del Coronado. For us, it was about making sure the brands that we brought in worked in harmony with that,' Jaffer says. 'So, the Curio brand is about hotels with their own story and individual personality, and LXR, similarly so, but with a more elevated product, service, and experience. Here, we're able to offer different experiences at different price points.' For $399 per night at The Victorian, guests enjoy access to a private beach (though not the members-only one) and three new restaurants: Nobu Del Coronado; Serea, a Michelin-recommended Mediterranean restaurant; and Veranda, a more classic all-American fix. There is, of course, a buzzy main pool area lined with cabanas and topped with Sun Deck Bar & Grill. The Views beachside fire pit terrace. While the seared Wagyu from Nobu was, of course, a treat, my family was more called to the casual eats: There's a taco shack on the beach where you can get a lunch of tacos al pastor and charge it back to your room, and an ice cream shop, where my son and I split a sundae with cookies and cream ice cream, hot fudge, and sprinkles.