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March 2006
National Geographic Traveler
Hotel Central (Excerpt)
Edited By Susan O'Keefe and Amy Alipio
San Diego's Downtown Beat
Another local landmark got a face-lift last year, the Britt Scripps Inn (www.brittscrippsinn.com; from $225), at Bankers Hill. Hotelier Gordon Hattersley III spruced up the Queen Anne Victorian mansion, restoring the original two-story stained-glass window and flying staircase of white oak, and adding a wealth of antiques, including a rare 1885 Steinway Art Case piano. Most rooms boast 12-foot ceilings and the kind of amenities today's bankers might expect: 1,000-thread-count linens and flat-screen TVs. Stroll through the neighborhood, where the city's most prominent citizens built homes at the turn of the last century, past well-kept mansions bisected by tranquil finger canyons, on the way to nearby San Diego Zoo and museums of Balboa Park.
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