Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas

It was a pleasant enough stay but definitely doesn’t feel like a luxury hotel when it comes to service. The room was clean and comfortable but no one gave me any info on activities and the check in process was awkward and left a lot to be desired.

Nice hotel and good location. The one pet peeve was the $50 daily resort fee and the $60 daily valet charge. Those charges are extraordinary and should be more apparent when you book the room. They added $110 to the daily rate. I felt like it was a bait and switch. We left the hotel disappointed.

This place is awesome! The property is stunning, the views are amazing, and the staff is superb! We enjoyed breakfast at VAGA and lunch/drinks at The Pocket while on property, everything was great.

The location of this hotel is incredible. The views are unmatched and the rooms are spacious and well designed for a hotel room. It's a short distance to the beach and the main streets of Encinitas. We had a ocean view room with a balcony and this was a major highlight of the trip. A few things to keep in mind. Valet is required and can be expensive, so plan accordingly. Lastly, this hotel does allow children which means at times they may be in the pool which can turn a peaceful place into a more kid centric environment.

Not sure I would recommend a stay here after spending two nights to celebrate our anniversary. For context of the rest of my comments, we paid close to $1000 a night at Alila. You can get a room at the Grand Wailea in Maui for roughly the same price. I would not say they are comparable. The rooms are clean and simple but well appointed and the location is great with beach access just a short walk away, but other than that we were pretty disappointed. We chose a lagoon view room, but were a bit surprised to be put one door down from the main ballroom, elevators, and highway, when it seemed like there were plenty of rooms of the same type we could have been put in for a quieter stay. Service was slow pretty much everywhere. Check in took over 10 minutes with only one person working at check in on a Friday. Valet took 20+ minutes to bring our car on a quiet morning. Our drink orders weren't taken for 10+ minutes, and so on. We also watched staff drop food on the floor and kick it under the bar, not a huge deal, but again, I expect a little more class at this price point. Then there was the food. Pricey as you would expect, and dinner at Vaga was good, but nothing crazy, so no complaints at first. Breakfast was another story. Our espressos were very sour, the pancakes were tough and chewy, and the breakfast sandwich was dry and bland. Lunch at the Pocket was probably the most enjoyable because we just got tacos, but the drinks were meh. One thing we did really like was the spa. Very reasonably priced compared to resorts of similar room prices and the service was great. All in all, I felt like I didn't get what I expected going in. I recommend going for the spa treatment, but finding other stay options as pretty much everything is a stones throw away from the beach. There are plenty of options for the same price with better value, or you can save some money.