San Diego Vacation

J.,

I know nothing of the hotel. But we went to SD for a week and we got a Go San Diego card for all of us. It is a card that you can use to go to all sorts of different places around the city, and you pay one fee for the card. It did not have Sea World on it, but it did have Legoland, Knottsberry splash, zoo, harbor cruise, all sorts of mesumens. Really I can not remember everything that was there, but you could be busy for weeks with everything that it has. and I want to say it was only about $100 per person for the week. You can do as many things in one day as you can fit. There is not limit!

Good luck! Have a great time

I heard the Bahia is awesome. My friends just stayed there and raved. It sounds like you have all the fun activities too. Have a great time.
J.

What about just hanging out on the beach. My girls love it! I also heard great things about Legoland. Good luck- A.

I am not sure of any other kid related stuff to do, it was pretty much covered. A suggestion for your and your husband is to have dinner in Little Italy. It was a romantic setting and all the restaurants were the best food I had ever had. It would be a nice night out for you two. Also, check out the place called Extraordinary Desserts (google the name for website), they have 2 locations, totally worth it!

When we were there last, we tood our kids to the museum thats located in/by Balboa Park. It was great, not expensive and the kids loved it. Might want to check that out.

My kids also loved Legoland and the Wild Animal Park. I agree with the last comment about the beach. The beach could be a day event and the kids do love it. Have fun!

I stayed at the Bahia years ago and it wasn't very nice. Just got back from a trip in June - stayed at the Hyatt Regency Mission Beach (across the street from Bahia.) It was excellent. I go to San Diego at least twice a year with my kids (2 and 4). A great restaurant to try is Filippi's Pizza Grotto on Garnet. It's been there since I went to college in San Diego (twenty years ago!) Ask the waitress, and she'll bring out a dough ball to keep the kids entertained.

Seaport Village is also nice, though it's located in downtown. The last time we were there, we bought a kite and spent the afternoon flying it in the grassy park adjacent to the area. Very nice and the kids loved it.

Also, you might consider a couple of days at Sea World(instead of one long one.) YOu can usually buy a ticket and get the rest of the year free.

Also, we bought year passes to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park for around $25 each. Well worth it and the pass allows for free parking. We weren't impressed with the Animal Park as it's quite a drive inland, and in the summer it is HOT. I'm sure it would be a much more pleasant experience in the Fall.

And finally, the cove in La Jolla is excellent for kids. I think it's my girls favorite thing to do and it's free!

Enjoy :-)

hi! we just took our 3 yr last weekend. it was a tightly budgeted weekend. we stayed at the dana. which i think is near your hotel. check out the birch aqurium in la jolla. it was great!! affordable and small enough that you hardly need to do any walking. we also visited the children's pool in la jolla which is near by. that was free. we had lunch at point loma seafood. totally yummy! they have lots of choices. it's very causal with a decent kids meal. mission bay park is great. so was mission bay beach. i wish you lots of luck!! have fun and be safe!!

You should check out Wild Animal Park. My niece (3 yrs old) went there & she loved it.

I'm sorry to say we stayed at the Bahia and were extremely disappointed - we will never go back. First the good points: it was nice to walk out the sliding door straight to the beach and you are within walking distance of Mission Beach and the park (I forgot the name) where there's shopping and carnival rides. Now the bad news: the hotel is extremely old and in bad need of updating. What you see on their website is in no way what you will see when you open that hotel door. Also, it's extremely noisy - you will hear doors slamming all night as well as conversations above you, next to you and in the parking lot (which is right outside your door). We were kept up one night by a drunk couple fighting in the parking lot, complete with screaming threats of violence and profanity. Also, there's a tiny kitchenette - which we always need because we bring a lot of our own food - but sadly we had to throw away a great deal of it because it was infested with ants after the first day. The room is tiny and ancient. Restaurant on-site was OK, but very poor service. We gave our feedback to the front desk when we checked out and they basically said it was our own fault for not coming to them immediately and moving our family of 5 into a new room. No apologies, no offers for future visits, no nothing. Also, definitely go to the Wild Animal Park - it's awesome! You can usually get discounted tickets if you are going to Sea World, Zoo and Wild Animal Park. You will need a lot of time there - it's huge like the zoo, but a much more natural setting for the animals - think "Jurassic Park."

HI! I just moved to Gilbert from San Diego last November, and I miss it so much! I'm not sure where the Bahia is, since I never really had to stay in a hotel (except when we were evacuated because of the firestorm), but the Birch Aquarium (Scripps) is an inexpensive way to spend a few hours. Usually during the summer they have additional exhibits and interactive play for the kids as well. It's small, but has a ton of great ocean animals! You can even touch some of the creatures in the tide pool. My kids loved it.

Also, about Sea World, the night shows are AMAZING! Sea World is going to be really busy, so when you get there plan your day around the shows you want to see. You'll need to get to them at least twenty minutes (maybe more)early if you want to get a good seat. It's worth it to go in the morning, spend the better part of the day there, and then grab dinner outside of the park (the food there is expensive, and not great, with the exception of the smokehouse place and the deli in the Budweiser store) and then go back for the night shows. They have fireworks and Shamu rocks is so much fun! The Clyde and Seamore show (sea lions) is hilarious! Oh, and go to the Pets Rule show, it's so adorable, I know you don't go to Sea World to see dogs and cats, but it's worth it. We used to go twice a week to Sea World and we always had to see that show.

Also, there's a place called Belmont Park. It's not far from Sea World, and there's a boardwalk and a little amusement park there. There's some fun places to eat and get Hawaiian shave ice. Ocean beach is great for Tide Pools, and Children's Pool is free and neat for the kids to watch the seals and sea lions come up on the beach. be sure to go in the evening if you want to see them. And parking is horrible, so you may have to walk a little.

I noticed that you're doing a Harbor Tour, while you're downtown there's a cool ship called the Star of India that you can see, and Seaport Village is there. The gaslamp district is neat, but be careful of the one way streets! Since you'll be at the zoo, take a look at Balboa park, there's a lot to do there too.

Ok, sorry for all the run ons, I miss San Diego a little can you tell? This heat makes me really miss it! Have a great trip and feel free to contact me directly if you need any directions or further ideas. I know where all the cool malls are too!

It's been a number of years since we went. Mission Beach is a great place. It has rides, an arcade, etc. My husband and I went there about two weeks after I had knee surgery and I did fine. Good luck!

Hi J.!

I just returned this afternoon from three nights in San Diego and it was amazing. We stayed at the Catamaran, which was fantastic and I highly recommend it. If you are able to change your reservation you may want to keep the Catamaran in mind, I booked through Expedia and with the car rental got a great deal! Anyway, my son is only 14 months old so our trip was probably a little different than yours will be with 2 & 8 year olds. We had to keep our son entertained (beach, pool, walks along the boardwalk), but you'll have to find entertainment for your kids... We've stayed at the Bahia before, and if I recall there were a couple restaurants within walking distance. I would be able to give you so many more pointers if you were staying in the area where I just was! I would definitely go to Balboa park, there are rides and arcade games, shops, beach etc. ENJOY!