Hilton Garden Inn: Carlsbad

On my first business trip I was booked by the local travel agency at the Hilton Garden Inn in Carlsbad, California and I quite liked it. Situated just off the I5 highway (or is that freeway?) just 30 minutes north of downtown San Diego this 3 storey hotel has a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean and is close to various amenities including a short drive to Legoland.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the greatest because I seemed to have brought the clouds and rain along with me from Vancouver. Even though the weather wasn’t the greatest, overall it was a good trip and my stay at the Hilton was pretty good.

Room prices I am sure varied like they do at other hotels and since my employer was paying for me to go down, I am not entirely sure how much the room I stayed at was. I believe it was at least $175 US a night. I also had the chance to try out their Room Service menu which was quite tasty and I enjoyed the couple meals I had.

I had chicken caesar wraps and fish and chips, but the fish and chips I did not think were pretty enough to take a picture of, but it was quite tasty.

My room was a lot better than I expected. I walked in and right away noticed how my room had a 32” LG LCD TV as well as a lovely king sized bed.

The view from my room was nice, it over looked the courtyard where the pool and hot tub are situated as well as a decent view of the ocean. Granted I never did go swimming in the pool, though I probably should have since no one else seemed to while I was there.

They offered high-speed internet access via wireless or Ethernet though during peak times while at the hotel, working with VoIP was a bit troublesome. My max download speeds were around 120kbps, whereas the upload speeds were noted around 200kbps which allowed people to hear me crystal clear but they were coming in a bit distorted and hard to hear.

Would I stay at a Hilton Garden Inn again? Yes, I would. In fact I will be staying at the Hilton Garden Inn in San Jose when I go down to SugarCon; a conference for SugarCRM software users and integrators.  I will only be at the Hilton Garden Inn for one night and then moving over to the Dolce Hayes Mansion for two nights where SugarCon is being held.