Hi, I'm thinking of going to San Diego for a week at the end of June for vacation. Anyone want to share any tips or ideas? Is there a reasonable place to stay on/near the beach area? Any info at all would be helpful. Thanks!

Are you taking children?

__________________
Jodie....Wife to Andrew (1995)
Mommy to Riley (2000) and Wyatt (2003)

Hi, yes, there will be 2 adults, 3 kids ...I always have a tougher time finding anything reasoable because sometimes the rooms are max 4 people (my kids are 9, 12, 14). So if you live in the area or know of some good places to stay, that would be great....thanks!

I live in the San Diego area. I just stayed at the Pacific Palisades in Carlsbad. It's across the street from Lego Land. It cost about $90 a night for a 2 Queen room. I know you can upgrade to a suite for about $50 more. The hotel was really nice and very close to the outlet mall, restaurants, etc. Although you will need a car to get to them (a 2-5 minute drive). I went there with my good friend for a Mommy's weekend out. The beds were too die for! You fall into bed and want to sleep all day!

Carlsbad is only about 30 minutes from the other SD attractions, Sea World, Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Mission Beach, Downtown SD, etc. And about 50 minutes from Tijuana.

You are only minutes from the beaches of Del Mar and Moonlight State Beach.

I did our reservations through expedia.com.

Other hotels that I have stayed at are:
Wyndham Emerald Plaza Hotel: Right in downtown SD and a 5 minute walk to the beach.
Hilton Hotel Gaslamp San Diego: Right in the Gaslamp District of downtown SD. 5 minute drive/15 minute walk to the beach.

ANother option would be to rent a beachside condo on Mission Beach. They can be kind of pricey...but you are paying for beachfront property. Mission Beach has volleyball courts, a walkway, a small rollercoaster, arcade, restaurants, and shops.

If you'd like some good coupons for local restaurants and for the attractions down here, we have a free magazine called San Diego Family Magazine that I could pick up for you and clip out the coupons and send to you. They always have discount coupons for the museums, zoo, wild animal park, lego land, and lots of restaurants in it.

Just PM me and I can give you my address so you can send me a SASE.

Sandra

You could try doing a priceline room. On average you'd probably get two beds and you could order a roll away. I have found many good priceline deals lately! You can choose the area you want to stay in too. Mission Bay and shelter pointe areas are really good for tourists...Mission bay is really close to sea world ( you definately DO NOT want to go there on a weekend in the summer, it's a ZOO!!!!)

Things we DO NOT MISS when we go there are...Sea World, La Jolla area (it's very beautiful and you can watch the sea lions), YOU MUST, MUST, MUST go into Coronado. It's an amazinly beautiful area! and it has one of the best family beaches in the USA! The beach is located right between Hotel Del and The ocean. It's amazing. We were lucky enough to stay there for our last visit, the hotel is beautiful and worth going into for a visit. They have an ice cream place that is out of this world.
If you want to take a "tour" through a vineyard, go to Orfilia winery in Escondido (justnorth of SD). They let you walk through the vineyard and it's fun to look at the different grapes. They even make their own olive oils and vinegerettes there. It's a lot of fun.
We found a TON of GREAT coupons online at San Diego Reader | Online Coupons – discounts, deals and coupons for San Diego restaurants and services and there are lots of good restaurant coupons.

One thing you'll find when you get there is that the entire coastline is beautiful. There really isn't a bad spot to go along the water. Point Lloma (spelling???) is a very neat place to go, wonderful views and a nice drive. Go there in the morning or late afternoon...they close at like 6 or somewhere around there and won't let anyone out there after it's closed.

__________________
One happy wife and mommy!!!

We moved to San Diego last Sept. and we never got to stay at any hotels. If you're military, you could stay at the inns on the base. The prices are reasonable. But there are a lot of coupons in magazines around here, like the other poster said. I could send you some also. And it really is nice over here. Will you be renting a car? A lot of the attractions are a drive away. Don't know much about the transportation system either. They have trolleys here that seem to go everywhere. Also, besides what the other ladies suggested, Balboa Park is nice to visit. Actually, if you want to PM me, I will send you this magazine, 101 Things to Do in San Diego. It'll give you some pretty good ideas.

Thank you for all this information...surprisingly (for me anyway) when I mapquest some of the hotels, they look really far away from the beaches. I was hoping to be able to at least walk to a beach so that when we are finished with our tours, we can just hang out at the beach for a day or two. We are renting a car, so if we're not that close to a beach, I wasn't even sure if there was parking (on street or lots), or how the whole layout looked. On the mapquest hybrid views, it looks as if a highway runs along the entire coastline. I looked into the Coronado and they are over $350/night...which is waaaaay too much $ for me to spend. Thank you for some of the links, I'll be checking those out today. I'm getting pretty excited planning this trip!

Someone can correct me if they think i am wrong....but i would skip Lego Land since your children are older. I'm not sure they would enjoy it all that much. My kids are 4 and 7 and they had a blast.

Sea World was fun and i think your kids might enjoy the Wild Animal Park.

Food at all the parks is sooooooooooo expensive. If you can get away with atleast bringing in some snacks try to.

IF you do go to Lego Land....the last two times we've gone they had a special if you used an American Express card to pay. You could get two children in free if you paid for an adult ticket. Ask about it when you pay.....IF the clerk says no have them ask another clerk or manager to make sure.

__________________
Jodie....Wife to Andrew (1995)
Mommy to Riley (2000) and Wyatt (2003)

Do you know of a restaurant there that is known for it's amazingly awesome garlic breadsticks? I went there years back and they were incredible and I've always wished I could remember what the restaurant's name was. I do remember you could either sit inside or outside (not that that really differentiates any restaurant there )..

__________________

I don't have any other suggestions aside from the previous posters, but I just wanted to wish you a lot of fun and also say if you saw my ex, you have my express written permission to run him over with your rental car.

__________________