San Diego in June
 

My husband and I are going to spend 3 nights in San Diego in June. We would like to stay in a nice hotel near the beach, but not far from Gas Lamp Quarter, Old Town, Seaport Village, etc. (things I guess you have to see on your first trip to San Diego). I have read a lot about Coronado - is this the place to stay? What about La Jolla - how far away is it and what does it have to offer? Thanks!!

Coronado has some nice beaches and restaurants and would be closer than La Jolla, to the places you would like to visit. For accomadations, you can't go wrong with the Hotel Del Coronado or the Marriott Coronado Island Resort.

La Jolla's like ten, fifteen miles north of downtown San Diego. Forget Old Town and Seaport Village, these are just tourist traps. There aren't any beaches near the Gaslamp Quarter, you've got to go over the bridge to Coronado and then down to the Silver Strand as it's called. Not a particularly good beach anyway.

Better to stay up north in La Jolla or Del Mar. Torrey Pines beach is heavenly.

I love Coronado Island - beautiful, relaxed, and just over the bridge from downtown.

We stayed at the Marriot Coronado last year with a bid through Priceline. It was nice. Of course the Hotel Del beats it hands down with respect to character. The Marriot is on the bay side of Coronado, so you have views of the downtown skyline and a nice walking path along the water.

I disagree with sequoia that Old Town is nothing but a tourist trap. The old sqaure is quite historic and I think is an important stop for visitors - esspecially people who come from outside of California and may not be familiar with our history. The shops surrounding the old square are definitely touristy - if a person wants to buy the standard souvenier stuff, then this is the place.

I would definately skip Seaport Village-
if shopping is your goal there are better opportunites in some of the coastal towns- LaJolla, Carlsbad (Carlsbad has a great outlet mall) Encinitas- and I prefer those towns as places to stay as well -
You can visit many of those places by train if you wish- The Coaster goes from downtown up to Oceanside- and you can get a day pass.
I just spent a day in Carlsbad- wandered through all the shops, found a place to do some wine tasting, walked over to the beach and spent some time there - it was great!!

those three things are probably the three i would have way down on the list for a 3 day visit. actually, i enjoy old town in the evening. go waunder around and have dinner there (casa de bandini) but i would not waste any of my day there. seaport village is just a bunch of shops - nice place to stroll along the harbour but an hour would be fine for me. the gaslamp district at night is good if you want to just bar hop (many charge a cover fee).
with three days, on my list would be a visit to coronado, la jolla, out to point loma, maybe a harbour tour if you like boat rides, time down at pacific/mission beach/bay walking/blading/biking the board walk, a picnic at sunset cliffs, torrey pines state park, drive up to mt soledad (could do this while driving to or from la jolla)
also, just to warn you in case you are not aware, june is often overcase along the coast. maybe plan inland activities for the a.m. and do the coast later in the day.