Best Western Encinitas Inn & Suites At Moonlight Beach

I’m so sad to write this review because I love this hotel stayed here last year and I love this city but the general manager, Vicky, ruined our visit. My sister’s room had a broken lock and she just went to go ask to be moved to another room because we wanted to leave for the day and didn’t want to wait to see that it was fixed properly and she gave no explanation as to what would be done and treated us like we were trying to weasel ourselves a free room!
I ended up having to call Best Western customer care. :(

Been here less than 12 hours and sufficiently annoyed. Room was hot when we walked in, opened nice slider door to patio on to be bombarded by cigarette smoke. There are no accessible outlets for and iPhone chargers other than in the bathroom. There are plugs on the lamps by the nightstands but there is not enough room between the base of the lamp and the plug to fit a charger. Room finally cooled down by 10pm and then the trains blared by with their horns waking up our 1 year old… No trains overnight, but the first one in the morning was 4:55. To top things off, I woke up before the family to use the gym and try to unstress the upcoming day and it turns out the gym is not unlocked until 6am b/​c for some reason it is on the 2^nd floor and there are guest rooms underneath. Now at 5:28am and second train of the morning is blaring by as the 1 year starts to stir. Good times. Seriously considering packing up and headed to another hotel for the next 2 nights.

Customer service is nonexistent. Stayed an entire weekend here for a wedding on Memorial Day weekend and was not real impressed. Front desk staff was unfriendly prior to arrival on phone, during stay, and upon checking out. The room was nice, but that was about it. Customer service is huge to me and unfortunately, many establishments nowadays including this one are lacking it. The maids were extremely nice and did a great job, you should put them at the front desk.

True story, I had my graduation from SDSU party here in 1993. Last time I had stayed here, probably cause I was kicked out! It was the Ramada then, no longer. The folks from the Best Western own it now. The rooms were nice, the people were nice, just not that great of a hotel in my opinion. Also, you now initial a box saying you won’t have a party! I guess I know who was the reason for that box!

here is a hotel with a great location, ocean views and ten minutes drive from so many beautiful and fun outdoor destinations… Pet friendly; a great continental breakfast; a swimming pool; spacious rooms available — I look forward to coming back!

Too bad I’m only here for one night. It’s nice that’s it’s freeway close but the downside is vehicle noise from the main streets Encinitas and Coast HWY.
The room is decorated very nice with dark woods. Very clean with plenty of parking underneath and around the building. It’s less than a miles walk to Moon Light State Beach.
Will come back and upgrade for the ocean view room for the extra $ 40 dollars.

Best Best Western I’ve been to. Pet friendly, free WiFi, decent continental breakfast. Clean. Large and practical room, kitchenette, patio, and bathroom layout. 5 minute walk to town and train. For the price and location this place is a find.

Lots of logistical problems getting me set up. Checked in, had to wait at the desk because the room they had me assigned to wasn’t cleaned yet. Finally found another room. I’m out at my car bringing my stuff in, and the desk guy (not his fault — he was very polite and trying to be as helpful as possible), has to run out and stop me. Back to the desk — the room they switched me to still had someone in it. Looking around for another room… Waiting… They finally find another room for me. I schlep all my stuff up to the room… and it obviously has not been cleaned yet. Bed all unmade, garbage in the trash bins, etc. I schlep everything back downstairs, and they find yet another room for me. This one is empty and clean. First thing I wanted to do after a long drive was take a shower. The towels were still damp. Yuk. I was tired of getting bumped from room to room, though, so I just stayed in the room and used the most-​dry towel. My room ended up getting lots of noise from kids in the pool during the day, so be aware of that if noise is a concern for you. Wi-​fi is free, but slow and spotty, and even went down one day. I just ended up using my own cell phone hotspot.
Pros: Location can’t be beat. Lots of parking.

We spent two weeks in this delightful, clean, and lovely hotel, which is situated in a very convenient location in Encinitas, CA. Not only was our suite a very comfortable size with French doors separating the bedroom from the kitchen/​living room area, but it was a very quiet and well insulated environment. The highlight for us was the terrific breakfast buffet which started each of our days. In addition, the outdoor pool and Jacuzzi were an added attraction. We would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Encinitas or any of the towns nearby..

For the price you pay, this is a great hotel. I’m not sure what level of service or amenities people are expecting, but this place offers a great deal. The hotel is clean, the suite rooms are spacious, the continental breakfast is actually pretty good (the donuts are actually decent-​sized donuts with a good amount of variety and the eggs are better than others), and you’re close to the beach (a very short walking distance).
Yes, you can see the freeway from most of the rooms. If you look at a map, it’s not difficult to see why. The 5 mostly runs parallel to the coastline in north county San Diego, especially in Encinitas. What the complainers fail to add is you can also see a nice park from the hotel, and the park offers a great place to take your family for a picnic if you want somewhere else to eat.
In fact, if you look at a map, it’s not difficult to see that the hotel is in a nice location for tourists and visitors. I recommend it to most people who visit San Diego. It is across the street from Cottonwood Park in Encinitas, and it has two more great parks within walking distance (one at Moonlight Beach and one by the library). Encinitas library is also closeby… as are a bunch of great restaurants and stores. AND you’re right by the Encinitas Train Station, where you can take a coaster train downtown (and skip the traffic).
When we lived in North County, I would pass this Best Western often. When we moved out of San Diego, we tried several hotels whenever we’d come back for vacation, and we decided this is our favorite. You just can’t beat it for the price… especially when you have kids. There’s so much for a family to do when you just want to enjoy a relaxing vacation (and the surf).

Continental breakfast was the usual. Cereal, diluted juice, watery oatmeal, eggs that are shaped like a ‘D’, pastries that look too sweet it made me a bit queasy, meat patties, and make your own waffles that was empty and was a huge mess. Get some fresh fruit in your continental breakfast!
The front desk was very pretty and clean.
When we got into our king room, I looked in the fridge, there was moldy guacamole and salsa…
We had a large balcony but it wasnt very lively. They only had 1 chair… Put a table out there with a couple chairs! We did have a nice view of the ocean though.
The pool was somewhat heated, the jacuzzi didn’t have lights around or in it so when it was really dark at night, the jacuzzi was very dark and was kind of scary. The jets barely worked and it was barely hot…

This is a great hotel for the price — The room was clean, the bed was comfy the free breakfast was excellent — Only recommendation is to somehow get some fresh air in the room. It was extremely stuffy when we walked in the first time — Other than that I would def. come again when in the area

This is by far one of the worst experiences I’ve had at a Best Western. I’m a super easy going person so my complaint isn’t picking little arbitrary issues. There customer service is the worst!!! First they booked us for the wrong room. When we explained that we ordered a queen suite and not a mini queen suite (which the person taking the reservation over the phone clearly was the cause for the error in their system but my confirmation email showed that I indeed reserved a queen suite for 4 people). They were argumentative about the mistake and tried to scape goat the error. Finally we agreed on getting 2 roll away beds & a discount. Then an hour later we open our fridge to have the bottom shelf break off and our two glass bottles fall & break everywhere. I called the front desk just to request housekeeping to clean up the glass (not even complaining about the faulty shelf and breaking our bottles) but we just wanted the glass to be cleaned and the liquid. The guy at the front desk was then incredible rude! First he cut me off when I tried to explain the situation and said he would send up maintenance. I then said that was not the main issue but we needed someone to clean up the broken glass, to which is response was «so what do you need from us». I then explained that there is broken glass in our room and we need it cleaned. The front desk guy then said in the most condescending voice «okayyyyyyy… So what do you want us to do» I then replied again «send housekeeping!» Then he said «I will see what they want to do» and hung up! 30 mins later still no housekeeping… I’m just astonished by their «I don’t give a shit about your problems attitude.»

The rooms are excellently maintained and sized big. There is no whistles and bells in this one but You got to get over the misty old hotel smell and open the windows. You have more than enough outlets to plug your smart instruments or medical equipment. Parking space is ample –their have in house and outside the bldg parking.
They have a pool, jacuzzi and a gym. They have vending machines and ice cube machine. The pool is beautifully warmed and you don’t smell chlorine. The jacuzzi was working and will be warm for the next 15 minutes
Only gripe is going around before entering the entrance. You have a u turn from Legoland and turning right and do a u turn again before entering the hotel. It it actually doesn’t make sense. I hope they have a detour so that travelling is much easier.

For the love of god change the bathroom light so its not horrendously blinding!!! Omg. Only complaint!!!

2.5 rating, it’s clean and has the very basics. Beds are comfortable but the entire property needs repairs and upgrades. It’s has an old musty smell to it but appeared clean. I wouldn’t eat the breakfast as it was all processed foods. No food service other than this in the hotel. I was there for a work conference along with 5 other Co workers. No one had a working tv in their room, meaning of you change the channel be prepared to wait ten minutes. My room didn’t have a working tv but that didn’t bother me since I don’t watch it. It would have been nice since there is a lot of noise at night with the train and freeway. Pool looked nice and I liked the fitness center and loved the location as far as being able to walk to the beach and Down town. Bring good shoes to hike down the little hill;)!

Nice place for the winter rate of $ 135.00 with AAA or senior discount for a king room with a sideways ocean view. See picture.

I absolutely love this hotel.
1. Friendly staff
2. Free standard hotel breakfast
3. Rooms are clean and modern.
4. The gym was the best I have seen.
5. Walking distance to the Beach and local restaurants.
The only downside of the hotel is that you can hear the train go by. I have stated at this hotel twice. If I recall correctly I heard the train 2 – 3 times (between both stays). This is definitely my hotel of choice when traveling to the area for business or pleasure.

It’s really 3.5 stars and here’s why.
The location is great, it’s on top of the hill, next to the 5 fwy. We couldn’t get a hotel near comic-​con, so we compromised by getting a hotel halfway to the con. The room we had on the 3^rd floor was great, the view was great, shower pressure good, everything very clean, and a very decent hot breakfast! There were enough parking spots in their lots. We came for a 3 day 2 night stay.
My biggest complaint for my stay was the sheets and towels; they were clean, towels were plenty, BUT … they did NOT use fabric softener on the sheets and towels !!!
Ladies, there’s nothing worse than coming back from the con dead tired near midnight, showering, drying yourself on HARD towels, then slide into a beautiful comfortable bed with HARD SCRATCHY SHEETS !!! Maybe my skin is too soft and tender but those sheets kept me up until I changed into a long sleeve shirt and pants and socks just so I could get some sleep.
For $ 240.00 a night, I expect my sheets and towels to be soft and fluffy, not hard and scratchy! This is a AAA 3 star property and I love all aspects of my stay except for the uncomfortable sheets and towels. $ 240.00/night is NOT budget price.
The weekend mornings, breakfast was hot cheese omelets, crispy bacon, sausage patties, breads and cereals, fresh fruit, milk, coffee, yogurts, juices (their orange was better than apple). It was tasty and great. We did eat very early, before 8 am.
I hope the management reads this and the sheets /​towels improve.

What luck. I thought this is going to be a less admirable stay but it turned out to be wonderful. Save some of the obnoxious people at breakfast and at the pool, it was a perfectly fine.
We went for the king suite and found that the room was much larger than we had originally anticipated. Seriously, you could’ve easily fit about 20 adults in there! And we had a kitchenette area with a sink, a two burner stove top and microwave. They told us we were supposed to have a toaster oven but there was no oven in the room. And while the hotel staff said that there was no view of the ocean, we did get a little bit of the view, which was a nice surprise.
But those two glitches aside, the room was fabulous. That bed was amazing! Nice, soft and huge.
The room service was quick to take care of our issues, whether it was that we needed towels for the pool or we needed general room service. Sometimes it was a bit too quick.
And another bonus was that there was breakfast served daily. Eggs, bacon, waffles, cereal, yogurt, etc. A full on hot breakfast. Even had juice. But we found the eggs and bacon were somewhat strange. Both tasted perfectly fine but it seemed as though they weren’t actually real eggs and bacon. Hard to describe it.
The pool is a nice size in the staff keep it pretty clean. There is sand in the Jacuzzi, but it’s not that big of a deal, especially after coming off of the beach.
One thing about that though, getting to the beach is somewhat of a trek. This hotel is only about three blocks from the beach, but it is over some hills and after spending several hours running around the beach and in the water, it might be too much of a walk for some to make it back.
But, in all, excellent experience. It’s not super fancy. It’s not outlandish. Expect to deal with some screaming kids and obnoxious adults from time to time. But overall I give it a high rating and look forward to coming back.