San Diego Guide to Entertainment

This just In: To get on the guest list for The Ivy's ultra-exclusive nightlife venue "Envy" click here or email vip@discoversd.com.

Is it just me, or is the Downtown San Diego hotel scene starting to reflect a Las Vegas vibe? A hotel is not longer just a place to rest your head; Downtown San Diego is home to a booming new hotel scene complete with extravagant amenities and signature nightlife entertainment. Wave goodbye to standard chain hotels; it's officially time to welcome a new era in hospitality: luxury and boutique hotels. The Ivy Hotel in San Diego, slated to open June 2007, is making quite a stir in the hospitality scene-before it even opens.

Are you looking to kick back at a Hotel bar filled with the young professional crowd and retire to your room late night to watch a DVD on the 42" plasma on the wall? Or, is your idea of a hotel stay more along the lines of your average Marriott?

For most, the decision is one part budget and one part amenities. So, looking at San Diego hotels classified by price and by geographical location, then comparing boutique hotels in San Diego to chain hotels in San Diego we find that prices and amenities can vary quite a bit.

You might have noticed that I have a guide to entertainment category. I'm pretty big on going out, enjoying the city's great restaurants, nightlife, and the overall scene. It's very diverse, and that's cool because I've got a diverse group of friends and acquaintances to enjoy it all with.

There are a number of San Diego nightlife guides, San Diego restaurants guides, directories of San Diego hotels... and of course the big aggregators of travel info, as well as the huge national travel guides (aol's, yahoo's, citysearch, etc).

• The Specific Guides - I find these to be ok... but most of them haven't changed much in terms of focus, design (and usability), or interactivity (web2.0 people!) in years. I know how to glean information from these various sources well enough but I think they could all do a better job.
• The Aggregators and National Guides - Large sites that don't really have any unique editorial content in most cases. Some that do, are somewhat complicated to navigate and really use as a resource. They do seem to often have a good amount of user reviews as they probably have quite large visitor bases.

What's Next in online San Diego Entertainment Guides?

I might just have to say that DiscoverSD.com is. There is obviously a lot lacking as the site is new, and has kinks to work out, and needs to grow a LOT to be a significant competitor. But, the foundation is right. The design is cool and refreshing, the layout and content are pretty much right on.

2007 is here! If your 2006 was anything like mine it went by really quick. I'm not even sure if I got half way through my resolution list… but maybe that's why, I just keep adding new resolutions to those left on the list from years passed. So what's one of the biggies? Simple, to have more fun!

2006 was one of the most trying years as we spent months and months developing things behind the scenes where there is no instant gratification (like adding a cool feature to a live site for instance), and often long hours (16 hour days should never happen) communicating with people from all over the globe to make the pieces fit. So, with development wrapping up, the fun part begins (the promotion, marketing, and product development) and there will be more time for real world fun (no, not watching the MTV real world show). Nightlife and good dining take top billing on my list of San Diego fun.