Is San Diego Worth a Visit?

The easy answer to the title question is… Yes, of course.

If you have ever seen any of the San Diego vacation ads, you have seen many of the fun things to do in and around San Diego. It’s a beautiful coastal setting, old stuff – new stuff, nightlife stuff – day stuff… The ads cover it well.

But if you throw in a couple of kids (say between the ages of 3 and 10), the answer to the title question becomes… ABSOLUTELY A FABULOUS TIME.

We recently squeezed in a Spring Break, a three-day trip with two girls, 5 and 8 years old. And it was a near-perfect hit.

You know you are off to a good start when the kids were having a blast roaming the terminal while we waited for our flight. Even running down the jetway became fun with them.

We did an Airbnb in Carlsbad, and Day One started at the beach. If a kid can’t have fun at the beach, it is time to look into therapy. Almost any beach will do, but one with waves to play in is a nice plus. San Diego has tons of those beaches to pick from. We threw in a walk to the actually cute town for ice cream (another automatic hit). In our case, there was more beach time in the afternoon, but we could easily have gone to old town San Diego or to USS Midway or…..

Legoland was Day Two. I personally had not been to Legoland before, nor the kids. So we were absolutely normal first-time visitors. My review is short and simple. THEY NAILED IT for the 3 to 10-year-old set. Disneyland/World is bigger and better, but for the under-teens, this would be my first pick. The entire park has been made to fit this age group. Because it is not very appealing to teenagers and because it is expensive, you see almost none of them, which helps the younger kids feel ‘in charge’ of the space, adding an additional level of enjoyment to the kids (and a certain amount of safety/comfort to parents.)

Day Three could’ve been one of many things again. We picked the Wild Animal Park (part of the San Diego Zoo, but physically completely separate from the Zoo). The girls have a great zoo near their home, so the more open setting of the Wild Animal Park made it a different kind of adventure for them. At one point, we stumbled into where they have the Cheetah race, but five minutes after it finished. The trainer and Cheetah were still walking around which was impressive for the girls. We did take the Safari Tram ride, which comes with the main ticket, and again a nice new experience for them.

So a great three days, which I could not more highly recommend to those of you with ‘access’ to kids these ages.