I've had the opportunity to stay in several top-notch hotels both in the States and abroad: the Plaza in New York, The Met in London, a Days Inn in Paducah (okay, scratch that last one). The Grand Del Mar takes the best elements of all the hotels I've ever had the pleasure of temporarily calling home and rolls them into one excellent resort.
The rooms are large and luxurious, but not at all grandiose or "stuffy"; they're modern and comfortable. And oh, the amenities! Flat screen TVs in both the bedroom and the bathroom? Wonderful. (And really, who doesn't want to watch Spider-man while showering?) On both the large scale (a truly magnificent bathroom) and the small scale (iPod compatible alarm clocks), the rooms are fantastic.
The hotel itself is equally wonderful: the lobby bar is dark and inviting and the view from our balcony was stunning. In short, I give the Grand Del Mar my highest recommendation. If I could live there, I would. And I would start each day with the Amaya restaurant's waffles with roasted pear. Yum.