<p>We are from the midwest, had 3 teens, and chose San Diego for our spring break. As previous posts mentioned, go to the San Diego Zoo. We were lucky, there was a baby panda present that spring, not sure how often that happens. We needed extra room, so we chose the Best Western on Coronado Island for a few nights; they had a suite that slept 6. The Hotel del Coronado is beautiful, just not in the budget for our party size.</p>
<p>We are a fairly athletic family, so an offbeat activity we chose was a drive to the Anza Borrego State Park. We hiked a path back into the foothills and were able to see bighorn sheep. This terrain is so different than what we have back home, so it was enjoyable. The fresh fruit stands along the way are wonderful.</p>
<p>Time at the beach was a requirement for this trip. It was a bit chilly, 60’s for temps, but the teens got some sun. We also were able to see the seals with their babies on a protected beach area.</p>
<p>Driving up the coast is also an activity in itself. We stayed a few nights in Carlsbad; just off the beach in a Hilton Garden Inn(if memory serves). Enjoying the ocean and walking the beach, shopping in Laguna Beach, seemed to satisfy us.</p>
<p>Oh thank you!!! That is the park out in the desert that I could not remember. It is WELL worth the drive. Terrific place, interesting “visitor center”…Great for a day trip.</p>
<p>I wanted to find a link for you about sculpture collection at UC San Diego-- and came across this, which is along the same lines.
[Queen</a> Califia’s Magical Circle Garden](<a href=“http://www.queencalifia.org/]Queen”>http://www.queencalifia.org/)</p>
<p>One day for no apparent reason we wandered around UCSD finding all of the obscure sculptures scattered around in random places including the one with old TVs poking out of the ground, the Dr. Seuss scuptures at the Geisel campus library (he was a La Jolla resident), and the one building with the graffiti/art stairwells. My D knew where most of them were but they’re really scattered around.</p>
<p>“As previous posts mentioned, go to the San Diego Zoo. We were lucky, there was a baby panda present that spring, not sure how often that happens.”</p>
<p>Pertinent to the thread, today’s Sunday LA Times travel section has a San Diego vs. San Francisco Smackdown. Which is an appropriate comparison since both cities insistently define themselves as Not Los Angeles. The article contains many travel and sight-seeing recommendations for SD (and SF too).</p>
<p>Excerpt:
"One city has a winning football team, and one has the 49ers. Both have losing baseball teams (if you count up the last three seasons), and both teams play in retro-flavored downtown ballparks near water’s edge.</p>
<p>So if you’re a weekend tourist, which is better?</p>
<p>I hereby submit that from dusk to dawn, San Francisco is better. Well, except from November through March, when it can get cold enough to frost your Irish coffee.</p>
<p>I further submit that from dawn to dusk, San Diego is better. Especially if you get outdoors a lot or you’re a kid.</p>
<p>Oh, but San Francisco will be better July 22 to 25, when 126,000 Comic-Con people will clog downtown San Diego. And San Diego will be better Sept 19 to 23, when 45,000 people gather at San Francisco’s convention center for the annual Oracle OpenWorld information technology conference.</p>
<p>To arrive at this richly nuanced answer, I made fresh visits to each city and weighed the data with absolute objectivity and seriousness, except for the parts that I goofed around with, which follow. Your results may vary."</p>
<p>Have been to San Diego a number of times over the last 20+ yrs. Some for vacation and other times for sports tournaments. We have stayed in a couple of different areas. With the sports teams we always stayed somewhere cheap on Hotel Circle. If I was going on a vacation I would pick a nicer more scenic area to stay.
Found the places we have stayed aside from Hotel Circle Drive.
Paradise Point Resort- someone mentioned it earlier
Sheraton in the Marina- we were joining people on a boat so the location worked. Nice if you don’t mind a high rise
Shelter Island- this was years ago and I don’t remember the name. Nice grounds, nice for walking if you like looking at boats. I recall our room had plenty of space for 2 adults and 3 kids.</p>
<p>Mission Beach - as nursekay mentioned above is just north of downtown and next to Mission Bay (but the beach is the ocean beach), has an amusement park and boardwalk (actually a wide walking/biking path) your teens might find of interest.
[www.belmontpark.com</a> | A great day out for the whole family](<a href=“Belmont Park | Official Site”>http://www.belmontpark.com/)</p>
<ul>
<li><p>USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum - close to downton near the convention center, Seaport Village, etc.
[USS</a> Midway Aircraft Carrier | San Diego Museum | San Diego Tours](<a href=“http://www.midway.org/]USS”>http://www.midway.org/)</p></li>
<li><p>In the water by the beach at the south end of La Jolla Shores beach (right in front of the La Jolla Shores hotel) one can often find quite a few Leopard sharks swimming around in the surf and wading depths. They’re beautiful fish (most seem to be roughly 3-5 feet long) and are completely harmless. One time we were there when there were dozens of them so I waded in to try to get closer to them. I then found out that a local TV news station was doing a segment on them and we saw ourselves on the news later! This area is also great for kayaking. You can usually rent kayaks right there. More often than not it’s relatively calm around here but that can vary. You can often see them just from standing on the beach.
<a href=“http://www.sandiegobikeandkayaktours.com/leopard_sharks.html[/url]”>http://www.sandiegobikeandkayaktours.com/leopard_sharks.html</a></p></li>
<li><p>La Jolla Cove - a very scenic spot in La Jolla (just south of La Jolla Shores beach and north of Pacific Beach which is just north of Mission Beach). When the water’s warmer or if wearing a wetsuit and the waters are calm, it’s a decent spot for snorkeling. There’s a nice large grassy park area between this cove and Children’s cove that’s very scenic.
<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jolla_Cove[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Jolla_Cove</a></p></li>
<li><p>Children’s Pool - this is really another cove just south (short walk) of La Jolla Cove and has turned into an area where one can usually find a lot of seals which have sort of taken the place over. </p></li>
<li><p>Torrey Pines state beach just north of La Jolla is a nice stretch of beach with a large parking lot (but they charge to park). If you go there be sure to go across the street from the entrance to pick something up from Roberto’s - a local fast Mexican food mini-chain. You can pick something up and go eat it on the beach - you can walk from one to the other.</p></li>
<li><p>Del Mar is north of La Jolla - The Poseiden restaurant can be kind of fun if you sit outside on the deck which is right on the beach. I haven’t been there for a while. </p></li>
<li><p>Various water things to do even if you’re not a big water playing family - </p></li>
<li><p>Rent kayaks at La Jolla Shores beach</p></li>
<li><p>Rent a small sailboat on Mission Bay (at the Hliton hotel and some other locations). Anyone can sail these small sailboats and it can be fun.</p></li>
<li><p>Take the San Diego harbor cruise during the day to look around</p></li>
<li><p>Maybe take a San Diego harbor dinner cruise</p></li>
<li><p>Go tidepooling at low tide to see what creatures you can find and take photos. Good areas are at the south end of Point Loma near the lighthouse but down the small road to the water, some of the beaches in north county where there are rock formations at some spots of the beach</p></li>
<li><p>Do a whale watching tour</p></li>
<li><p>Do an ocean fishing trip</p></li>
<li><p>Across the street from UCSD near Torrey Pines golf course is the Glider Port where you can watch the hang gliders fly around off the cliffs above Black’s beach (between Torrey Pines beach and Del Mar beach).
<a href=“http://flytorrey.com/cms/[/url]”>http://flytorrey.com/cms/</a></p></li>
<li><p>If you have a budding astronomer in your teens you might want to drive up Palomar mountain (north of Escondido) to see the Hale 200" telescope at the Palomar observatory. This would be maybe a 3 hour total trip from downtown though.
<a href=“http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/[/url]”>http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/</a></p></li>
</ul>
<p>Whether the Children’s Pool rightfully belongs to the kids (for whom it was created) or the seals (who liked the pool too and moved in and took over) is the most hotly-debated political issue in La Jolla - with endless arguments, emotional demonstrations, near-riots, fist fights, lawsuits, etc.</p>
<p>In most cities, local government disputes are about zoning, development, taxes, city services, and the like. In La Jolla they fight about seals.</p>
<p>^^ True. But regardless of what side you’re on (I side with the 'Children’s ’ side myself and used to enjoy snorkeling there with my kids), it’s still fun to see the seals which even before they completely took over, used to be in the area and don’t seem very bothered by the people that happen to be around.</p>
<p>^^^ I side with the “children” too because my kids surf in the area and seals are a favorite food of big sharks … and from below a surfer in a wetsuit can look like a seal. </p>
<p>That panda-babe is SOOO cute! But the best show at the zoo is if you can catch the hippos frolicking underwater. Ask the keepers what time they typically get energetic–they are a hoot to watch as they chase each other around the pool underwater. (The hippo enclosure has glass sides so you can see what’s under the water line.)</p>
<p>I also wanted to mention the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla. I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned yet: [Birch</a> Aquarium](<a href=“http://aquarium.ucsd.edu%5DBirch”>http://aquarium.ucsd.edu)</p>
<p>Twice during the summer my family has rented a condo in Pacific Beach right on the bay. It’s fun to ride your bike or skateboard. Often you see Sea World workers riding their bikes to/from work and the Sea World fireworks are visible from the bay front. Right across the street is the beach - it’s a great spot to be! We’ve eaten at The Mission before for breakfast which is nearby. I recommend it, but there can be a long line if you don’t get there early enough: [The</a> Mission - SOMA](<a href=“http://www.themission1.signonsandiego.com/]The”>http://www.themission1.signonsandiego.com/)</p>
<p>Also nearby… a small little amusement park, if it can even be called that. Belmont Park: [www.belmontpark.com</a> | A great day out for the whole family](<a href=“Belmont Park | Official Site”>http://www.belmontpark.com/) It really isn’t amazing, but if you’re in PB or Ocean Beach, it could be a nice detour. They have an old, rickety roller coaster :)</p>
<p>I’m a local, but if I visited with teenagers (partially recapping stuff already said):
Find a rental in Mission Beach and rent a car if you didn’t drive here. The kids can cruise the beach/bay loop and Belmont Park either on foot, bike (rentals available), or skate. I’d add Kono’s next to Crystal Pier for a great (and also crowded) breakfast place. Walk out on the pier and watch tandem surfers and see what the pier fishers are catching.</p>
<p>The touristy pay-to-see stuff I’d put in this order: Zoo, SeaWorld, Wild Animal Park, Birch Aquarium, Legoland. Look for online discounts/coupons. I’ve lived here for decades and still regularly visit them all, except Legoland because the kids outgrew it. But they’ve recently added an aquarium, so it may warrant a visit.</p>
<p>La Jolla is great too. Someone mentioned the La Jolla Shores Hotel. It has a premium location on La Jolla Shores Beach – a nice clean sandy break, good place to learn to surf or just play in the water. Kayak tours head south to the caves. The Cheese Shop is great for sandwiches and Piatti’s is a local favorite for dinner. It’s a bit of a walk to La Jolla Village, and parking is tough prime time, but the Prospect shops and Cove to Children’s Pool walk are a “must do”.</p>
<p>I think you’ll find plenty of things to do and, frankly, I’d avoid Mexico right now. The random violence in Tijuana is pretty scary. My son went to Mexico last year on spring break and they went through Calexico to avoid the west coast problems.</p>
<p>I just went back and looked through my TripAdvisor review of last March’s trip to San Diego with our then 21 year old son. We’d been there before when he was young and saw the zoo and SeaWorld, which are both fun for all ages. Here is what he (and we) most enjoyed on this trip.</p>
<p>We stayed at the Homewood Suites Liberty Station, which is on the former Naval Training Center and was an excellent location for all activities. We all greatly enjoyed the self-guided tour of the USS Midway; DS went up and down a lot more stairs then we could manage so he saw a few more areas. We went to the National Comedy Theater, an improv group that only does a few shows a week but was quite funny.</p>
<p>We went on a whale watching tour and eventually did see some whales, but just their backs under the water. DH and I appreciated the time on the water but DS was somewhat bored except for the great views of the city; plus we saw the USS Nimitz with all the planes out on deck. We drove up to Torrey Pines and hiked all the way down to the ocean overlook; DS (who is not an hiker at all) loved it. To quote myself, “We could have stayed at the overlook for hours; not only were there views up and down the coast and out to sea, but jets from Miramar kept flying over and we could see hang gliders down the coast. Stunning vistas.”</p>
<p>On the way back from Torrey Pines we saw a spot on the map called GliderPort and found out where the gliders came from - absolutely fascinating to watch although none of us were tempted into the tandem rides that were offered.</p>
<p>We drove out to Cabrillo Point to walk the paths and enjoy the views, then all the way around back over to Coronado. The Hotel Del is always fun to see; we found a back way in. But the real hit was Segway of Coronado; we were the only ones signed up so had a private tour from Norm the owner. It was the first Segway for any of us and an unforgettable experience; highly recommend it.</p>
<p>We went to Old Town for a few hours; the historic section was educational but the restaurants/shops were undergoing a lot of renovation and were nothing like we had remembered from past trips. Incidentally, DS was not at all impressed with the arcade at Belmont Park.</p>
<p>Our favorite meals were Trattoria Fantastico (lovely table on the back patio) and the Island Prime (great views and popovers). And MooTime on Coronado.</p>
<p>Another San Diego question - I’ve been looking for a place to stay near UC San Diego and wondering I’ll need to rent a car for a one day stay - can I walk from any of the hotels to UCSD? or is there good public transportation? Or will I need a car? I’ll just be going for one night/day and only going to an event at UCSD. I figure there will be a shuttle I can take from the airport to which ever hotel I end up at. Thanks!</p>
<p>The Sheraton La Jolla is at 3299 Holiday Court, La Jolla, CA which is a short distance away - just on the other side of La Jolla Village Drive from the south side of the campus. As I recall there is a Residence Inn not far away as well - on Gilman I believe. You could walk to campus from either of those. However, the campus is rather large, so it could still be something of a hike if the building you need is clear over on the north side of campus.</p>
<p>Public transportation in southern CA is generally pretty lousy. If you really didn’t want to rent a car. I’d take a taxi from airport to the hotel and back. They might have a shuttle, but neither of those hotels is real huge, so if they have one it might not run all that often.</p>
<p>Airport: San Diego Intl Airport / Lindberg Field
Express Shuttle or Cloud 9 Shuttle:
Cost: Approx $15.00 one way per person (subject to change)
Seating/Luggage: 2 pieces of luggage per person
Pick Up: Outside of Baggage claim area</p>
<p>Taxi:
Cost: Approx $35-45
Seating/Luggage: 2 pieces of luggage per person
Pick Up: Outside of Baggage claim area</p>