The Lodge at Torrey Pines — Hotel in San Diego

I want this to be a fair review and please note this is a review for The Lodge as a wedding venue. For the positive, the Lodge is a really beautiful place with its wood furniture, luxe cottage/getaway feel and beautifully maintained grounds (golf course) with ocean views. Service staff are great as well as you could expect from a 5 star resort.

However, there were a few bumps in our experience as a couple holding our wedding here.

1. The team was VERY slow to respond to emails during the months leading up to our wedding ( I would almost call it unresponsive). Literally, I would wait 2 to 4 weeks for a response with no reply, then follow up with a phone call and/or another email to try to contact them about the same questions/issues. So usually it would take me a total of about 4+ weeks to get a response to any issue or question. I do understand if it is more than a few months out from an event, they have other events coming up sooner which they need to prioritize and I have no problem with this. However, it was a highly unpleasant experience for us and I imagine for any other couple trying to plan their wedding. It felt like we were constantly chasing them to get any response, like pulling teeth.

By six weeks out from our wedding, we had STILL not received a banquet event order with details for our wedding and it was stated in our contract with them that this would be provided by 6 weeks out. We actually did not receive the final event order until about 3 or 4 DAYS before our wedding. This was highly stressful for obvious reasons as well as the fact that we were planning a destination wedding (travelling to Socal from Vancouver, Canada). By the time the order was sent to us, we were already in SoCal the weekend before our wedding (thus staying in hotels, with friends and family also arriving from out of town), and it was very overwhelming that close to the wedding to have to still be trying to finalize details. Again, I understand that the hotel has other events they cater to, but literally the week of the wedding was pushing it and I feel they could have been more considerate of this point and the clients' experience.

2. We wanted to hold our wedding here because we loved the look of the property and grounds. There were wedding photos on their website with couples standing on the cliff overlooking the ocean, and we really wanted photos with this particular backdrop. I believe we had also mentioned this to our contact and no one told us it would be an issue, for a year from the time we signed the contract with them until our wedding date. Literally on the day of our wedding, we were told that we would not be able to go to this location we wanted to for photos because there was a change in management? It was disappointing to say the least. One of the biggest selling points to us was this particular view. Secondly, they should probably remove the wedding photos showing this view from their website promoting their venue for weddings, if couples are no longer even allowed out there.

3. We were told by others who had held their weddings there that we could probably get a room upgrade and I was somewhat disappointed they did not offer us a nicer room considering we spent so much money there.

Overall, the Lodge is a lovely place to stay. I would reconsider holding your wedding there unless you can somehow guarantee faster response times throughout your planning process, and if you don't mind that you cannot take any photos in a place they, a) advertise as a location to be used for wedding portraits at the venue and, b) is obviously a core selling point in the aesthetics of this place that it makes no sense you are not even allowed to go there on your wedding day. The service is five star if you are on site. Especially considering that this place is pretty costly (spent about 25K there on the wedding for just 20 people), response times and some aspects of how the wedding was handled were definitely...

Stayed here one night over Mother’s Day weekend with my mom on a little road trip from L.A. and I really regret choosing this hotel over the La Valencia where I’ve stayed before.

The hotel is extremely overpriced for what it is- a creepy, clammy poorly maintained property. It’s like a scary labyrinth out of The Shining with really odd art on the walls. It gave me the creeps. Smells moldy- but apparently was rebuilt from scratch in early 2000s. I have no idea why they couldn’t update the design and put some windows in this place. The rooms are mediocre and dark. When I entered the balcony my face got stuck in a spider web. The bedskirts look like they haven’t been changed in 100 years. The serve coffee mate creamer with Nespresso pods. Someone in charge doesn’t understand modern luxury.

The restaurants and pool don’t have any views. They are tucked away for no good reason. The spa didn’t have any availability and is also in the strangest spot and doesn’t take advantage of the property views. While it is on a golf course- they haven’t built any way for pedestrians to safely walk around and enjoy the views - the golf course attendants will kick you off- you expect to be able to enjoy the nature there but unfortunately not if you are not golfing. Just wasn’t into the mood for golf that weekend.

I had forgotten my swimsuit and went to the shoppe in the lobby- the lady had a huge attitude that they wouldn’t have that and was telling me to drive to Nordstrom rack. Next day I went to the spa and the spa has a spa boutique too and they had ton of swimsuits. Thanks to do the lady in the lobby shoppe I couldn’t get a swimsuit to even relax in the hot tub the only night we were there. But they sure did remember to charge me a resort fee which was another $65. They also charge a psycho amount for parking $55 - I’ve stayed at many luxury hotels and it’s never this much if there is a charge at all.

Next is the restaurant situation- it seems they were all overbooked with outside reservations and the staff kept giving attitude to us about reservations. Hotels of this caliber should have priority seating for hotel guests and even restaurants exclusive to hotel guests only. But never mind the snottiness- the food at the grill for both dinner and breakfast was awful - I left them a separate review.

After waiting an hour to the breakfast and another hour to be served a cappuccino and a stale croissant we couldn’t wait to get the f out of there. The best part of staying at the Lodge was leaving the lodge. Next time will stay at the La Valencia where the experience is always excellent and restaurants have great service and an updated high end menu.

Brought up my issues to the front desk when I was checking out but was met with blame - well did you make a reservation? well did you call ahead? No sir I booked this stay two days ago.

I cannot believe this place is on Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts. Absolutely not in the...

We were excited for the stay as part of Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts. We didn’t get any of the promised upgrades or early check in and they have some front desk agents (likely new) who don’t understand basics on welcoming guests or communicating on how to spend time when things aren’t available. (We were fortunate enough to be granted the 4 pm check out). ||The hotel has a lovely old school charm but unfortunately beyond the initial appreciation of that it gets lost in what ultimately is a dated resort charging the same as updated resorts along with resort fees that done ah for themselves, mattresses that need to be replaced, large rooms but with dark old decor and dated shower tubs you need to climb up to get into. The rooms around the courtyard don’t have views and are really dark, air ventilation is poor in the rooms. The bathrooms (while dated) were the best feature-due to their size. They will charge you $55 for self parking in a garage that is narrow and not super accessible. They will charge $10 more for valet but we saw a lot of people waiting with frustration when they did that. ||There is no benefit to staying there from a golf perspective. They have no pull in getting tee times. The spa is dated and the style of therapy is equally dated and not effective. We had 2 massages and left feeling like the price did not match the service (with forced gratuity) and the facility was fine but the inhalation room was a single diffuser sitting on a bench and it wasn’t working. ||The concierge was helpful but no email confirmations, everything manual. The drivers were nice and on time-shuttle was a helpful service. The pool is small but tightly packed with chairs and the service for food and drinks was very slow both days we went (contrasted by another resort north of here where service was readily available and efficient). ||And check your bill! We had prepaid with Amex and the folio was going to charge us for one of our rooms all over again. Despite having to communicate daily about breakfast benefits with the grill, one of the team members still didn’t do it right and we were going to be charged for a breakfast in our package. And our Amex spa benefits also weren’t applied. It took me.a half hour to review bills and make changes as an end to the stay. ||If this resort wasn’t charging the same premium rates of superior properties along with additional $60 resort fees and $65 for valet, maybe I would feel differently but this was very overpriced for that it is and those considering...