Fairmont Grand Del Mar

“Amazing experience”

Your senior director Neil Patel was so warm, knowledgeable and helpful. We will come back just for him! Addison was amazing.

“Flawless and beautiful”

My wife and I decided to go to there for our 30th wedding anniversary. We are avid travelers and I have been to 54 countries and stayed at hundreds of hotels and resorts. We were not familiar with this resort but we both enjoy golf and pickleball. Being from commercial construction and architecture… more

My wife and I decided to go to there for our 30th wedding anniversary. We are avid travelers and I have been to 54 countries and stayed at hundreds of hotels and resorts. We were not familiar with this resort but we both enjoy golf and pickleball. Being from commercial construction and architecture, I am a perennial critic of hotels. This property bar none is the nicest hotel property that I have ever experienced. I could not find a flaw. The attention to detail was impressive. Neal at the front desk was amazing and the valet, restaurant hostesses, servers and staff were amazing. Personable responsive and welcoming. The property is in a stunning setting and although the golf course was closed for aeration the facilities were first class. Pickleball/ tennis courts were beautiful and they have multiple pools around the property including an adults only pool w/ cabanas. With highs in the 70’s and lows in the 60’s it is difficult to find a place more appealing weather wise for the Summer or other times for that matter. We played some of the local courses Aviara, Torrey Pines, etc. which are all within 30 minutes. Dinner or day trips to Del Mar & La Jolla were awesome. Only cons that I could find, was that it was certainly not inexpensive, charging for the pickleball courts seem petty and the restaurant combinations should be revisited. Perhaps changing one to make the menu more approachable. We did not eat at the Michelin rated restaurant. We just scratched the surface on our 5 day trip and will definitely be returning with friends.

less

“Beautiful grounds, poor service”

Our experience at fairmont was average due to poor service. The hotel itself is beautiful and expansive (albeit a bit outdated decor wise). So visually we liked it, and appreciated the expansive grounds. But at the pool, the service was terrible. It took forever for us to be checked on, our server … more

Our experience at fairmont was average due to poor service. The hotel itself is beautiful and expansive (albeit a bit outdated decor wise). So visually we liked it, and appreciated the expansive grounds. But at the pool, the service was terrible. It took forever for us to be checked on, our server would forget to come back for 30-45 min at a time. Our food took over an hour to get to us. And overall we felt like we had to find people to help us, which should never happen at a luxury resort. Also the food costs are unusually high as compared to the other luxury resorts we have been to locally, but the service is so bad it felt like a rip off (plus the actual food was subpar so it felt like we were paying premium rates for bar food). This was the same for the bellman service (took forever for them to get to our room) and also for the service at grand social restaurant. The restaurant experience was beyond bad.... it took over an hour to get food, the food did not all come out together leaving us all eating at different times. We had to walk around and find a server. And the food itself was bad. Overall it just felt like really low level service for a resort charging luxury resort rates. And walking out of grand social with a bill that exceeded $400, but feeling like we had dined at a DIY bbq park. It's just a bit shocking how bad the service if for a fairmont resort. Due to the poor service, we would probably not come back. It felt like we didn't get what we paid for, and if we are going to spend the money we prefer to experience something a bit more dialed in.

less