Every now and then, we all need a vacation — so I’m on one. And when I travel, I tend to be very particular about the places I stay. I prefer hotels with a bit of personality and some unique angle. Well, this time around, while I’m in San Diego looking for a place, I landed at Moxy in the Gaslamp Quarter and I’m loving it!
I can’t quite put my finger on one definitive thing that I’m digging about my stay at the establishment that opened in 2018, but I think the name sums it up pretty well: The place has got Moxy!
They cater to a certain audience (specifically Millennials and younger + cool people in general), and I think this sentence from Eater San Diego sums it up nicely…
Designed for the Instagram crowd, the newly-built hotel forgoes the traditional registration counter for a check-in “trike” that pours a welcome cocktail on nitro and a lobby stocked with arcade games … and a cocktail bar…
Eater San Diego
All of that said, let’s take you on a visual tour of how I’m living for the next few days.
(QUICK NOTE: Click all images in galleries for larger versions)
You are Welcomed with Love & Gusto
Modern architecture (mixed with some hipster fixings and industrial finishings) awaits you at the entrance of Moxy. There is that little drink cart mentioned in the pull-quote above as well.
When you look around you’re immediately going to notice the bar and the visual feast that is to come.
There are arcade games, an eating area, and a sweet little nook for when you want to hide away in plain sight.
Kudos to Moxy’s Lobby Designer
The mixture of minimal modular leather furniture with modern chairs. The shuffleboard. The contrast of the warm and cold textures from the wood and concrete. The cool bench that has a chair back built into it (love that thing)! The fact that there are giant games everywhere.
If you guessed that this area was set up to host events, you’d be right. Although I haven’t attended one in my few days here, Moxy is a bar and restaurant venue set up to accommodate different types of gatherings (and they promote it as such in the programming that plays by default in your room).
If you peek around the corner in the lobby area, you see this great art installation wall of skateboard wheels…
And the bar is right behind you (at this point) along with other little spots for you to grab yourself snacks any time of the day you’d like (they know their audience — snacks and booze).
There’s a lot to love on this level, including the gym (which we’ll visit in a bit) – but first I want to show you the stuff upstairs!
A Productive Upper-Level
If you need to handle business during your stay at Moxy, you won’t have a problem getting away from the potential bustle of the lower level. Your rooms have complimentary high-speed wi-fi, but there’s also a dedicated meeting area right up the steps from the lobby.
Tucked away in here you’ll find multiple seating areas, the public-use computers, and the meeting room.
This Gym is Different (In a Good Way)
I always make use of the gyms in the hotels I stay at. If a hotel doesn’t have a gym, I don’t stay there. The fun thing about the gym at Moxy is the different types of equipment they have. There’s like a Gymnast Ring set up installed… WHAT?! I have never seen that before in a hotel’s gym, so I was pleasantly surprised (and I’ve already used it).
There are little quotes all around the walls, the lockers right outside the gym have cool names on them (check it out), and access to the space is by reservation (at least it is during my stay).
I am not 100% sure whether that’s a practice because of COVID, or if that’s their regular practice.
Either way – I had a pretty good 5 AM workout (hey, don’t be impressed or disgusted – I’m on East Coast time in the West Coast) here, and I know I’ll enjoy the other workouts during the rest of my stay.
Finally, My Minimalist Room at Moxy
So, I booked my room through Orbitz and didn’t go for anything extravagant – but I adore my simple temporary space. If you check out their site or just search online you’ll see that the rooms come in many different flavors. Here is a quick look at the space I was in.
No, that’s not my exact room above – but it’s the same model (found a pic online). Sorry, once I got in after a day of flying I immediately unpacked things and sprawled out across the space.
I really dig the headboard. The phone is dope (the gray and orange rotary look is just fun). The desk is a simple little pulldown that collapses into a nice minimal rectangle on the wall when closed.
I love it!
Oh – and the bathroom. I want a bathroom like this.
Simple subway tile with little pink complimentary items added in there for a color pop. I was surprised they went with pink instead of orange (like the phone), but I still like what they did there.
And I have to point out that the toilet (with its two flush settings) is NOT round – LOL. Plus, I can’t get over the detail of the shower floor!
BE WARNED that my room did not have an iron, a dresser, a fridge, or a safe. You get a garment steamer (my first time using one – pretty neat) and a little cubby to put things away in, but that’s about it. Beyond that, there’s an ice machine and water machine on the floor (which, by the way, looks pretty cool with its top and bottom exit signs).
Which is how I’ll end this visual tour of Moxy hotel. There are fun and pithy little statements on many of the walls here. The art is nice. Even the elevators have personalities all their own (you’ll see if you ever stay here)!
This is definitely a spot I’ll have to revisit once I’m drinking again (2022), and I’d recommend this as a spot for friends when they visit if they’re looking for a place. 10 out of 10 would recommend. Marriot knew what they were doing when they put this little number together.
The last thing I’ll leave you with is this video from their grand opening, because… “Why not?”
Peace, and thanks for reading.
The soundtrack for this post provided by…
Image Credits:
– Cover Image © Marriot/Moxy
– Body Images © Yeesh — I took half of the photos in this one (the dark ones taken at like 4:30 in the morning) & the others come from all over Google.
– Body Images © Continued: If you see something of yours you want to be removed, please contact me (jw3@sosodope.com) and I’ll happily comply.