What sites/activities/places would you not miss for adults and a baby in San Diego?

[Halftime Hope]

I'm planning a family trip to San Diego after the holiday season is over.  We couldn't pull off a Christmas get together, sadly.  (Work schedules.)

I'm putting together a list of activities, and we need to have both paid and free things to see and do. 

Your favorites?  (Insider tips are welcome, too.)

(Mine is to see the tide pools since low tides in winter are not in the middle of the night!    )  

 

 

 

[J-rap]

Oh, that'll be fun!!  I think required family time at Christmas is sometimes overdone...  Family time can be anytime.  🙂

San Diego will be GREAT!!  The two places I'd recommend are the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park.  Lots of things in Balboa Park are free.  The conservatory there is free, for example.  They have several nice restaurants there too, and lots of museums if you're willing to pay a bit.  They also have bike surreys you can rent, beautiful gardens to walk through, outdoor concerts...  We've spent many an afternoon there just strolling.  Highly recommended!

The San Diego Zoo is amazing.  I was hesitant to go because, well, a zoo is a zoo.  But the San Diego Zoo is a cut above all others.  And they have great transportation within the park.  It's pricy though.  

Our favorite restaurant in San Diego is Filippi's in Little Italy.  The line will look long but it moves very quickly.  It's very family oriented and prices are very reasonable.

I can give you more recs too but I'll start with those.  

I just love San Diego.  We spend a month there every year and it's one of our favorite places.  

[Um_2_4]

Look at getting the pass. I got the Balboa Park one last time and it got us into all the museums there. The Space one was a favorite for my kids. 

There is also the go pass for the zoo and the like. If you have AAA, tickets from them are cheaper also.

[DesertBlossom]

The USS Midway is a pretty cool tour.

[GoodGrief]

I like the Cabrillo Tide Pools. You do have to check tide tables to time it properly.

[May]

Seaport Village is also a wonderful place to stroll around🎄

[Frances]

It’s one of my favorite cities. We really enjoyed Balboa Park, the USS Midway, the gliderport at Torrey Pines State Park, and La Jolla Cove. We also enjoyed just walking around different areas including the waterfront, Old Town, Little Italy, and Coronado. Both times we stayed in VRBOs near Balboa Park and loved being able to walk to restaurants through residential neighborhoods and see all of the holiday lights and decorations.

Some our favorite restaurants were the Taco Stand in La Jolla, Carnita’s Snack Shack, the Olympic Cafe (Greek food), Khyber Pass Restaurant , The Mission (for breakfast)

Edited March 11, 2019 by Frances

[Tanaqui]

If you don't mind hiking around, the San Diego Zoo is lovely.

Once when I visited a relative as a kid, we went to the beach. Very different from the beaches in NYC! The water was a different color and, magically to my eyes, it had little flakes of gold something in it! But that's probably not a tourist thing to do 🙂

[Tanaqui]

How funny, we've got a Khyber Pass restaurant in The Village. But I guess it must be a common name for Afghan restaurants! Very good food, Afghan, but heavy on the dairy, so if that's an issue go eat somewhere else.

[Halftime Hope]

Thanks, all!  It's wonderful to hear your input on things I've been looking at all day.  :-)  I'm so excited about the tide pools.  We have an absolutely amazing place booked that, I kid you not, is right across the street from the cove in LaJolla -- stunning view!!   And of course, just a short walk from the tide pools at Scripps Park.  (I'll probably try to finagle the ones at Cabrillo, too, since I may never get to go see them again.)  It's a perfect setting for a family with a baby and a dog.  Even if you're stuck inside with a napping baby, the views out the windows and doors are to die for. 

It will be interesting to see how my daughter handles things with the baby.  I remember changing from a (mostly) nap-at-home mama to a naps-can-be-had-anywhere mama as I had additional children.  Dd has always been a "Go girl,"  trying to do too many things in the time allotted, so it will be fun to see what she does now.  

We are game for just about anything, but the zoo is a given, and I think Cabrillo will be, too.  Fortunately, where we are located, there is a LOT to do for those who want to run around, in case some of us need down time. 

J-Rap, I'd love more suggestions.  One thing for sure, we'll eat out about half the time.  And we have wheels.  :-) 

[Lori D.]

Casa de Pico Mexican restaurant if you'll be near Old Town in San Diego at any time. At peak busy times, a lady makes fresh tortillas and cooks them at a little griddle to hand out as you're waiting in line. 😍

[J-rap]

Other things we've enjoyed...

Taking the ferry to Coronado Island (it's really on a tip of a peninsula).  You can drive there too, but the ferry experience is fun.  Once on the island, I'd recommend taking a bus to the Hotel del Coronado and having lunch or even just coffee and dessert.

Old Town is fun for an afternoon.  Very touristy, but a nice area to stroll and have lunch.  You can drive there, OR you can take the train from the San Diego train station, which is a beautiful old still-running train station.  The first time I went there as an adult, I was flooded with memories from when our family used to take the train every year from California to the Midwest to visit our relatives.  Out train always stopped at that station.

You can spend a couple hours in downtown San Diego too.  They have a nice outdoor mall which is fun to walk around in.  

We've taken some Segway tours in San Diego.  It's the only time we did that, but we always have a blast.  We usually take the tour that takes us both around parts near the downtown, but also along the sea.  That wouldn't work for the baby, but maybe sometime during nap time some of the adults could go.

A favorite seafood restaurant on the water:  C Level and Island Prime

A old traditional San Diego restaurant that's family friendly:  Hob Nob Hill

An interesting neighborhood just a couple blocks from Balboa Park has a very cool old coffee house:  Cafe Bassam, and then a couple (walkable) blocks away from that is a nice little path that crosses the Spruce Street Suspension Bridge into the Bankers Hill area.  The path is very easy, but super interesting.  It crosses a ravine, and then goes into some of the old elegant San Diego neighborhoods.

The San Diego Mission is very beautiful to tour.

If you tired of driving and parking, you can take an Uber or Lyft almost anywhere within San Diego and it runs about $5.00.