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Where to stay with a Roadster, San Diego, CA

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adiggs

Well-Known Member
Sep 25, 2012
6,422
24,526
Portland, OR
Good afternoon all,

I'm looking for a San Diego area hotel, preferably south side / San Ysidro area, that also has EV charging on site (or nearby), to stay the night of Sunday July 7th when I get to the end of BC2BC. Any locals with a suggestion? This is for a Roadster. I'll have J and 14-50 cables, and I can also plan ahead and pick up enough charge earlier in the day, to return to Tesla San Diego on Monday morning to actually charge for my Monday the 8th travels (in which case, any hotel / motel will work - sleeping in the car isn't in the cards for me!)

As I'll be traveling for most of 3 weeks and staying in hotels, keeping the hotel bill reasonable


More info:
As I put together my plan for BC2BC, one point that has me stuck is figuring out where I'm going to stay Sunday night, July 7th. I am hoping that I can get some suggestions of good places to stay from somebody local or who knows the San Diego area (I don't know it at all).

The constraints that I know of - I'll be leaving from San Luis Obispo around 9-10am on Sunday morning of the 7th, and I plan to get to San Ysidro and the conclusion of BC2BC that day. My rough math right now has that as 367 miles, with a lot of that being in day time Sunday LA and San Diego traffic. Is that something to be worried about? Driving a Roadster, I figure there will be about 4-5 hours of charging mixed into 6 or 7 hours of driving, and another hour of futzing about - it's going to be a long day.

Anyway - that end of things can work out. I can skip a few of the Tesla stores to save some time and miles (but not all - I'll be using them as charging resources).


The part I'm looking for a suggestion on - I'll arrive in San Ysidro sometime later in the day on Sunday the 7th, cross the finish line, and then what? Ideally, there's a reasonably priced hotel nearby with EV charging that I would be comfortable parking the Roadster at overnight. If you have any suggestions, please share.

For that particular night, I'm also thinking of a lazy start to Monday, with a short drive to Tesla San Diego, and using the high speed charger there for the overnight charge. Get's me a late start on the day, but that also creates some additional flexibility.

Thanks for the help!
Asoka
 
Not sure about hotels with chargers in that area. But I did do most of that drive back in February when I picked up my Model S. I drove from San Luis Obispo to my home in the northern part of San Diego city on a Sunday. Traffic was no problem, except for the 405 through Sepulveda Pass in Los Angeles, but even that wasn't too bad. San Diego is unlikely to be congested on a Sunday.
 
Paradise Point Resort in Mission Bay apparently has some. That's 23 miles away so not too close. My favorite is the Torrey Pines Lodge, but that's even farther.

There are lots of public charge stations (30amp) closer, but none right at hotels that I'm aware of. You could charge at a closer station for a bit then head to one of the hotels for the night. Check plugshare.com
 
Good afternoon all,

I'm looking for a San Diego area hotel, preferably south side / San Ysidro area, that also has EV charging on site (or nearby), to stay the night of Sunday July 7th when I get to the end of BC2BC. Any locals with a suggestion? This is for a Roadster. ...

If you don't mind taking the time to book airbnb, I've had good luck traveling with my Roadster that way. Generally cheaper and more fun than hotels. You really need to carry an extension cord (same plug/receptacle as the UMC) which takes up some space and weight. Other threads discuss how to make this cord.

Look for places on airbnb that are good candidates to have parking fairly close to the house. Before booking, I would then send a message asking the host if they wanted to accommodate a special need for an additional fee of $20. Find out how far it is from their dryer to where you would park. You might also have them email a pic of their dryer outlet, although I never did because I had a good assortment of adapters. Charge slow, overnight.

While planning a trip recently, I inquired with 7 different hosts and every one of them was intrigued with the request and tried to make it work. We didn't stay with all 7. Two of them our extension cord wouldn't have been long enough. With another the owner had rented out his driveway! We only had a problem at one house where we stayed. The service panel was so old that it only had fuses, no breakers! We thought that would be OK, but in the middle of the night a 30A fuse blew that was over 50 yrs old. The car was only drawing 24A. We were about to go to Home Depot to replace the fuse when a group of neighbors stopped to see the car. One of them had a 14-50 in his garage and happily invited us over to use it.
 
I checked the Blink Network and the Pearl does no longer show on their network. They indicated that they recently made an arrangement with Cars2Go, and that may have affected they way they are displayed on the Blink Network. The Pearl assured me that they still have 2 Blink EVSE's. If you call the day of your arrival they will reserve one of their two spots for you.
 
If South County free charging is an incentive, there is free charging at the 30 amp Blink stations at two of the Kohl's stores in town. The Chula Vista store is close to the border and there is a Soup Plantation restaurant there where you could grab a bite....

Kohls Santee 9412 Mission Gorge Road (Santee) - 2 units
Kohls Chula Vista 1870 Main St (Chula Vista) - 2 units
 
I checked the Blink Network and the Pearl does no longer show on their network. They indicated that they recently made an arrangement with Cars2Go, and that may have affected they way they are displayed on the Blink Network. The Pearl assured me that they still have 2 Blink EVSE's. If you call the day of your arrival they will reserve one of their two spots for you.

Beware of the charging rate at the Pearl. We had a Blink plug melt at work. Then ne of the guys at my work was noting that his Fit EV was charging more slowly than normal. When he contacted Blink he was (eventually) told that some of the Blink chargers had been de-rated to deliver some reduced number of Amps. I think the ones at work only advertise 15 Amps now. We were told that the Pearl was the other site that was de-rated.