Pendry San Diego

The Montage resorts are known for their no-expense-spared luxury and for their near-total seclusion from their surroundings. Which makes their brand-new line of Pendry hotels a fairly dramatic departure. The first one, the Pendry San Diego, is an urban boutique hotel, through and through — from the loft-apartment styling in its guest rooms to the six restaurants and bars, all of them intended not just to serve hotel guests but to tempt the locals who frequent the city’s Gaslamp dining and nightlife district. And while it’s no bargain-basement operation, it’s rather more affordable than its Montage cousins, to suit a wider and perhaps more youthful audience.

You’ll still get a luxurious experience, with custom furnishings, Fili D’oro linens, MiN New York bath products, 50-inch televisions, and Bluetooth sound systems, whether you’re in a standard Superior room or a 1,500-square-foot Luxury Suite. There’s a fairly expansive spa as well — if it’s not quite as large as a full-scale Montage spa, it’s certainly above and beyond the ordinary city boutique. And the common spaces are what really make the Pendry, from dinner at Lionfish, helmed by one of San Diego’s most promising young chefs, to posh cocktail bars Fifth & Rose and the Oxford Social Club. And if your Southern California experience is limited to Los Angeles, you’ll be delighted to find out that San Diego is compact, even walkable — the Gaslamp District has most of what you need, and is close by to everything else.