Stay Classy, Sunny San Diego
Sun, surf, and sand with a beautiful coastline and world class attractions, what’s not to love about sunny San Diego?
The best thing about visiting California now that Lady Yeya is five is that we can play tourist. Each trip we plan on taking her to see a different part of California. On this occasion, we opted for a road trip down to sunny San Diego for the quintessential California-style beach holiday.
Having not been to San Diego in over a decade, my California-based mums sent me a list of family-friendly things to do in San Diego. To name a few, there are big attractions such as Legoland, SeaWorld, and San Diego Zoo. There are gorgeous beaches from La Jolla Shores to Mission Beach and Coronado Beach, as well as interesting points of interest such as Balboa Park, Old Town, and Seaport Village. Of course, there is no shortage of hiking trails in sunny San Diego, but the beautiful Torrey Pines Reserve takes the top spot.
Our Five Day Itinerary
With only five days to explore sunny San Diego, we wanted to balance between major tourist attractions, and some chill out time at the beach. There is no shortage of family-friendly things to do in San Diego, which makes narrowing down an itinerary tough. We could only pick one major attraction and it had to be the San Diego Zoo!
Arriving to our AirBnB at Mission Beach around 1:30pm, we spent the rest of the afternoon at Belmont Park with an easy stroll along South Mission Beach. After a long 7 hour drive on I-5 South from Tracy, it was nice to stretch our legs and enjoy the ocean breeze. Later, we picked some tasty Mexican food from a local taqueria and went to bed early, exhausted but excited to be in San Diego.
The next day was meant to be our ‘beach’ day, but the weather was mixed with a thick coastal fog. Luckily, there was a fantastic playground on Mission Bay called Maruta Gardner Playground, named for a local community activity. The sun finally peeked through by lunch so it was off to the beach wearing the quintessential Californian staple: the ubiquitous hoodie. It was a bit chilly for our liking but Lady Yeya had a blast. Then it was off to dinner. An assortment of tasty and fresh fish tacos from a local favourite Oscar’s Mexican Food in Pacific Beach hit the spot. It is probably one of the best in San Diego.
World Class San Diego Zoo
Next stop: the world famous San Diego Zoo. Our animal-loving and Lion King-obsessed 5 year old daughter absolutely loved the zoo. I highly recommend taking the free 35 minute perimeter-loop bus tour of the zoo upon arrival to orientate yourself with this amazing zoo. Then I would suggest mapping out a route, prioritising the animals you want to see before lunch. For us, it was all about the big cats, especially the lions, cheetahs, leopards. Other favourite animals: the baboons, gorillas, porcupine, crocodiles, tigers, koalas, and black bears.
Remember to wear comfortable shoes as we clocked over 18,000 steps covering every corner of this 100 acre zoo. We stopped by the Crack Shack, a casual and fun open-air restaurant in Little Italy for a relaxed dinner of fried chicken. It was a fabulous day out for my budding zoologist. Sad that we didn’t make it to the Safari Park, maybe next time.
Lovely La Jolla
The next day, my family and I did a bit of exploring around San Diego’s waterfront, starting from Seaport Village to the Maritime Museum. Enroute, we saw the Port of San Diego, USS Midway, the Kissing Statue, and a memorial and tribute to Bob Hope. Then it was off to La Jolla Shores where Lady Yeya burned off some energy at Kellogg Park playground, a lovely oceanfront park before going to see San Diego’s famous residents: the sea lions. We walked along the clifftop from from La Jolla Cove to the Children’s Pool watching the seals and sea lion sunbath around the rocky coves. Upscale La Jolla is gorgeous with a lovely downtown area and swathe of trendy restaurants. For dinner we went to Puesto La Jolla, an upmarket Mexican restaurant, where we ordered a feast thanks to the happy hour special.
Sadly it was time to leave. Five days wasn’t enough to explore all of sunny San Diego so hopefully we’ll be back again soon. Until then, “Stay Classy, San Diego!”
