My husband and I are taking the kids from the East Coast to sunny southern CA soon (San Diego area). We have a 13yo son and a 10 yo daughter. We're already planning Legoland, Sea World, San Diego Zoo, the Reagan Ranch (for my husband), a drive up the coast, and the beaches. What else should we see while we're there?
el pollo loco is not good. If you want more of a real mexican feel go to one of the walk up mexican places you will see everywhere in sd. We used to call them some generic to's. The first was albertos and several made up a name with that ending. Juanitas in Encinitas is great.
Take time for balboa park and to chill on the beaches
The Wild Animal Park!
My favorite sites when planning trips, from an hour away to across the country or across the world, are TripAdvisor.com and Frommers.com. You can find a lot of great info, including re off the beaten path kinds of places!
Enjoy!
Wild Animal Park is great too. I second all of the suggestions as well.
Del Mar and La Jolla are great places for lunch, but dinner would be pricey with younger kiddos.
As far as Mexican food: Old Town Mexican is one of the better ones, but for authentic, hit up Las Cuatras Milpas for lunch. It's in the barrio and everyone lines up there for lunch. Cheap authentic, non-Americanized food. Check out Lucha Libre too. They have a website. Its a small place set up all in Mexican wrestling kitsch. Good food and your kids will dig it.
For a day trip, go up to Julian, an old mining town and/or continue on to the desert. You can do the beaches, mountains and desert all in a day here.
Birch Aquarium is good, but after Sea World your kids will likely be unimpressed.
Balboa Park is worth at least a walk through when you do the zoo.
I just took the train up the coast a bit. You can take it to San Juan Capistrano for an interesting visit to a California Mission...theres an awesome playground for a picnic right behind the train station if you want to truly daytrip it.
Definitely go to Coronado and seee the Hotel Del Coronado. Such a fun place to visit and there are good beaches there too. If you want to splurge, have brunch there on the weekend. You can drive over the bridge or take the ferry.
Beaches: Coronado is good, as is La Jolla. La Jolla has a snorkeling cove with classes to take. Pacific Beach is young and Ocean Beach is the grungy smoker scene. Mission Beach has both a beach and bayside as well as an old roller coaster that is fun.
If you can hit the zoo as soon as it opens you will see more animal activity aand the least visitors. The opposite is true od the Wild Animal Park. On a hot day, hit the animal park at the rnd of the day and take the last tram ride. Fewer people and more animals.
Finally, if you want to see any great examples of California gardens, check out the free Water Conservation Garden at Cuyumaca college. It has gorgeous succulent gardens and California native and friendly plants. The Quail Botanical Gardens are also great...but coastal, so different plants. There is an awesome bakery called Elizabethan Desserts right near there tucked in a nursery which has the best non-commercialized cupcakes you will ever eat.
Enjoy your trip. I was born and raised here and after 5 years in L.A.....ugh..am back to raise my kiddos here! Feel free to send me a private message. I'm chock full of opinions and ideas on SD! :)
I really love Venice Beach! Have fun!! Looove Cali!
Hi, we are taking a trip there this summer also, and plan on doing all of the things you listed, and also going to Birch Aquarium at UCSD. Here is the website. http://aquarium.ucsd.edu/
Have fun!
Go to the Wild Animal Park, too! It is a great place!
I loved Mission Beach...there's a little amusement park right on the beach and only about 15 minutes from downtown san diego...very easy to get to. Actually I think it's just past the zoo :)
I also visited the aircraft carrier (can't remember what the name of it was!) but that was really cool. if they like planes or ships, that was a really neat place to go...plus you can walk along the docks and see tall ships and cruise ships, etc. there's an excellent restaurant right next to the ship too that is right on the water.
Edited: it's called the Midway :) I had to google it...it was driving me crazy! And that restaurant is called the Fish Market. Also, never got to go over the Coronado bridge, but heard it's beautiful over there.
I skimmed thru the other ideas and they are all great but wanted to suggest something to you...if you haven't already bought your tickets to Legoland, I would skip it. It is really designed for younger kids. They do have a great water park area but really only a few rides that are meant for older kids. The Wild Animal Park is awesome!! Your kids are old enough to do the tour where you can feed the animals and get right up close! Also the Reagan Ranch is quite a bit up the coast. I would say almost a 3 hour drive. But there are tons of things to do in that area also. Solvang is a cute little danish town right out side of where the ranch is. We have stayed at a place called the Alisal and its awesome. Its like a modernized dude ranch!! I just relocated here from the West Coast so if you need any other suggestions please feel free to message me and I will help you out as much as I can! I hope you have a great trip! :-)
I grew up in SD. It's a great city!
1. Balboa Park. Full of museums. It's like a "mini" smithsonian. Plus, it is gorgeous
2. You could go to a Padres game at the stadium downtown. It's beautiful and is right next to the water.
3. Hiking at Torrey Pines Park. It's right on the beach and has beautiful trails!
4. Have lunch at Hotel Del Coronado. It's a famous hotel in Coronado. Many movies have been filmed there and it's haunted. You should google it.
5. A lazy day at the beach.
6. Space museum in balboa park. It's great for kids and watch a movie in the IMAX theater. It's awesome!
Have fun! And, DO NOT eat at EL Pollo Loco. It's a chain mexican restaurant. It's like the McDonalds of Mexican Food. You will find many great mexican restaurants. Try El Indio in San Diego or Old Town Mexican Cafe in Old Town.
Maybe a lil' car ride and go and people watch in Hollywood! I grew up in La and that was my all time favorite thing...for a long while...so interesting, seeing whose celebrity hands and feet fit yours!
Have fun...and I suggest eating at an El Pollo Loco....yummy!
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I do not care what anybody else says...El Pollo Loco IS good. Yes, it is a fast food restaurant and we do not have them in WA where I live now...it is inexpensive and a quick good lunch rather than a McD's or Taco Bell.
I wasn't trying to give you "Good Mexican Food" advice.
Old Town San Diego is very cute, lively on the weekends, but appropriately so. I loved tromping around there - I'm an adult, but a kid at heart! Take them on the trolley train.
