Q Inn Beach Hotel

Curved steel ribs arch overhead in the lobby, a shape left over from 1941, when the building went up as a wartime Quonset hut. That barrel roof is the first thing you notice walking in. The Q Inn has kept it, along with the crown of light at the centre of the structure, while rebuilding everything else into ten modern rooms. It sits on Main Street, on old ground once split between a Spanish land grant and the California that came after. Rooms come in three grades. Deluxe Kings have an open shower; Superior Kings add a private patio with a fire pit and a larger bathroom. Two Superior rooms are built for accessibility, one with a roll-in shower, one with a tub, and both allow dogs for a one-time cleaning fee. It is a short walk to the sand. Morro Strand Beach runs close by, and the Embarcadero's fish stalls and sea otters sit a few minutes off. Guests can watch fog roll over Morro Rock from a room deck after dinner, then head back out along the old town's shopfronts, many dating to the postwar building years when the town's population first climbed past 2,500.