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Hotel del Coronado, Curio Collection by Hilton
Coronado, California, United States · Curio Collection · Core Luxury
Hotel del Coronado opened on 19 February 1888 as the largest resort hotel in the world, a wood-frame Victorian the Reid Brothers raised for Elisha Babcock Jr. and H. L. Story, who wanted 'the talk of the Western world.' Billy Wilder used the beach as the Seminole Ritz for Some Like It Hot in 1958, with Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon in the sand. It has been a National Historic Landmark since 1977.
- 757 rooms
- Opened 1888
- Neighborhood: Coronado Village
- Architect: Reid Brothers (James W. Reid; Watson Reid)
About Hotel del Coronado, Curio Collection by Hilton
- It is the second-largest wooden structure in the United States, after Oregon's Tillamook Air Museum.
- The Crown Room's wooden ceiling was set with pegs and glue, without a single nail.
- Electric light in a hotel was a world first here: 2,500 Mather lamps, with gas lines as backup if the new current failed.
- Shore House at The Del, 75 residential-style oceanfront keys by LEO A DALY, opened in 2022 beside the Victorian.
- Kate Morgan checked into Room 502 in 1892 and died on the grounds; it remains the most requested room in the house.
History
Hotel del Coronado opened in 1888 on Coronado Island, across the bay from San Diego, as the signature project of Elisha Babcock Jr. and H. L. Story, who set out to build a seaside resort that would become “the talk of the Western world.” The hotel’s design is credited to the Reid Brothers, with James W. Reid leading the architectural work and Watson Reid supervising construction. When it opened on February 19, 1888, The Del was widely promoted as the largest resort hotel in the world, a scale that matched the ambition of its wood-frame Victorian form.
From the beginning, the hotel drew prominent guests and big events. Hotel history compiled by the property and Hilton notes that the resort has hosted royalty, celebrities, and generations of beach-going families, while the hotel’s own heritage pages preserve its reputation as a landmark of Southern California leisure culture. The Del’s guest book has long included presidents and entertainers, and the hotel’s official history materials highlight its Hollywood associations and its continued role as a setting for special events and seasonal programming.
The building itself became part of the preservation story. Hotel del Coronado is recognized as a National Historic Landmark, and the property has undergone repeated restoration campaigns to protect its Victorian fabric. Recent work has focused on the original lobby, main entrance, and the historic Victorian building, which the hotel says has been lovingly restored. The resort also added Shore House at The Del, an oceanfront residential-style hotel that opened in 2022, expanding the property while keeping the original landmark at its center.
More recently, the hotel completed a multi-year restoration program that returned many of the Victorian building’s key spaces to service, reinforcing The Del’s unusual position as both an operating resort and one of the most important surviving seaside hotels in the United States.
Billy Wilder shot the beach exteriors of Some Like It Hot here in September 1958, dressing the Victorian as the fictional Seminole Ritz; interiors were filmed in Hollywood. The Del is the second-largest wooden structure in the United States. The Crown Room ceiling was assembled with pegs and glue rather than nails. When the 399-room hotel opened it used 2,500 Mather incandescent lamps, among the first electric lighting systems in an American hotel.
The setting
Hotel del Coronado, Curio Collection by Hilton anchors 1500 Orange Avenue on the sun-drenched Coronado peninsula, where entrepreneurs Elisha Babcock and Hampton Story built the Pacific coast's defining resort in 1888. The Victorian wooden landmark — a National Historic Landmark since 1977 — faces the Pacific along one of Southern California's most celebrated stretches of sand, reached on foot in seventeen minutes. Orange Avenue, the island's palm-lined main artery, frames a village of boutiques, galleries, and dining that has served the resort community for over a century, cementing this oceanfront address as Southern California's original luxury destination. 5 miles from downtown San Diego.
Restaurants and bars
- Sun Deck — Restaurant
Amenities
- Spa
- Infinity pool
- Hot tub
- Fitness center
- Pet-friendly
Awards
- AAA Four Diamond (2026)
- National Historic Landmark
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More hotels in Coronado
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- Loews Coronado Bay Resort — Loews Hotels · Near Luxury
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