Balboa Inn

It sits with its toes on the boardwalk at the foot of Balboa Pier, old stucco warmed by salt air and nine-foot ceilings that still creak with history. Walk in and you hear surf, a bar talk low and tourists arguing about ferry times. The remodel shows in a tiled ocean-view sundeck and a hot tub that makes sunsets worth the price of admission. The on-site Matera will hand you lobster ravioli that tastes like someone bothered to care. Then there are the other rooms, the cheap-back ones with thin walls and paper blinds, the continental breakfast that is mainly rolls and cereal. Valet will ferry your keys and your complaints, sometimes in the same motion. Stay for the pier and the view. Ask for an ocean-view room, then time the jacuzzi for the last light on Catalina.