Highlights of our San Diego/CA trip! What we did day-by-day *PICS IN MY ALBUM*

Hopefully this will be helpful if anyone is planning a trip there. We had a great time! Possibly our favorite vacation ever. Took a TON of pics & posted some of my favorites in my album.


DAY 1... Flew out of JFK the morning after Christmas. Not a bad flight, a little over 5 hours. Picked up our rental car from Hertz & headed to our hotel on Hotel Circle South, which to us was the perfect location to stay. Convenient, centrally located & close to the highways. Nothing luxurious, but we weren't looking for pampering, just a comfortable, clean place to sleep. First stop... La Jolla... beautiful! My first time dipping my toes into the Pacific. We went to the coves, saw the seals, and an amazing sunset, then walked around the village. Then we drove over to Old Town, walked around, and had dinner at a little Mexican food place I can't remember the name of.


DAY 2.... Downtown San Diego... we parked in the gaslamp quarter, walked over to PETCO park, past the convention center, along the harbor, had breakfast in Seaport Village, up to the USS Midway, and back through Gaslamp again to our car. Then we drove to Balboa Park... parked & walked around the grounds, museums, rose garden, and cactus garden. Then we drove to Coronado Island... walked through the Hotel Del Coronado (gorgeous!), they have something called "Iceskating by the Sea" which we found hilarious because the ice was melting since it was 75 degrees out & people were ice skating in shorts! We watched the sunset from the beach at Coronado, then walked over to the harbor side & saw the San Diego skyline all lit up at night.

...keep reading..........

Message edited 1/14/2012 3:28:12 AM.

Re: Highlights of our San Diego/CA trip! What we did day by day VERY LONG

DAY 3.... excursion to Los Angeles/ Hollywood.... Left our hotel early (around 7 am) and got on I-5 heading toward LA. We then drove the Pacific Coast Highway through Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach, making stops along the way. Beautiful beaches & nice areas to explore! Hung out at Venice Beach and of course the Santa Monica Pier, then up to Malibu, just to check it out. Then we headed inland to Beverly Hills & drove through Bel Air as well, to see the mansions.... we ended up on Rodeo Drive by accident! Walked along there a while, I was trying to see if I could spot any starts (but I didn't see any!). Went shopping at The Grove & bought a detailed map of LA....happened to park on the top level where we had a perfect view of the Hollywood Sign (spotted it totally by accident, I was so excited!) Saw the La Break Tarpits... so cool! Then drove along Mulholland Drive, the view from there is amazing!!! After we headed back down to Hollywood & had dinner at In N Out Burger (had to try it!), we drove along the Sunset Strip, parked on Hollywood Blvd... and walked down the street to see the Walk of Fame, Chinese Theater, Kodak Theater. Then drove back down to San Diego, got back around 11 pm.


DAY 4..... First we drove to the border & walked over into Tijuana, took pics of the arch & walked down Avenue Revolucion. It was interesting to see! Then got on the VERY long line to get back into the US. Once we got back, we drove up to Mission San Diego, which was just a fascinating, peaceful place. Walked through the grounds & church which are really beautiful. Afterward we saw Qualcomm Stadium, then took a road that took us through Mission Park, and swung around to head back toward the coast and headed to Torrey Pines.... views from here are truly incredible. I wanted to hike through it down to the beach but I have an injured foot so I couldn't make it all the way down. We watched the sunset there. Then the fog started to roll in, but we drove through Pacific Beach & parked near Mission Beach & walked through their amusement park called Belmont Park. Very cute & lots of fun!


....keep reading.......

Message edited 1/14/2012 3:31:43 AM.

Re: Highlights of our San Diego/CA trip! What we did day by day VERY LONG

DAY 5... excursion to Joshua Tree National Park & Palm Springs... Left our hotel in San Diego around 7 am & got to Joshua Tree around 9:30 am. Stopped at the California Welcome Center on the way & got lots of maps & visitor guides. I'd never been in the desert before & it was really interesting for this nyc girl! Drove through small desert towns & felt like we were in the wild west! Once we got to the park, we saw some of the major attractions there such as Quail Springs, Hidden Valley (walked the 2-mile trail through it), Barker Dam, Cap Rock, Skull Rock, and lots of other cool rock formations. We went to Keys View Mountain, from the top there is this awesome overlook where you can see the actual San Andreas Faultline in the earth's crust, and the Salton Sea. On the way out of the park we stopped at Oyster Bar, the Oasis of Mara, and Indian Cove (where we walked the 1-mile trail).
After we left the park it was almost twilight, we drove to Indian Wells & since we are huge tennis fans, stopped at the tennis center where they hold the BNP Paribas Open each year. It was really cool to see & we got lots of pictures, since the grounds were open even though nobody was playing tennis there & our car was the only one in the parking lot.
Then we drove to Palm Springs. We parked the car & walked along the two main downtown streets, Palm Canyon Drive & Indian Canyon Drive... lots of cool restaurants & shops. And we saw the Palm Springs Walk of Fame, which we thought was actually a lot nicer than the one in Hollywood! After we hung out in Palm Springs, we drove back down to San Diego, again got back around 11 pm.


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Re: Highlights of our San Diego/CA trip! What we did day by day VERY LONG

DAY 6..... was supposed to be our last day in San Diego... we were SO BUMMED!!!! & wished we could stay any extra day but knew it would be impossible.
First we drove through La Jolla to see Mount Soledad, which had a cross monument & a war memorial. Very beautiful to see, and gorgeous views of La Jolla down below. We then went to Presidio Park and the Junipero Serra Museum (the religious founder of California). Then we drove to Old Town & checked out the Historic Park which has the Fiesta de Reyes & tons of museums... it is a historic site & shows what the first schoolhouse, courthouse, jail, inn, stagecoaches, etc... very informative & cool to see. Afterwards the fog started to roll in as we headed towards the coast, but we went up to Point Loma anyway, to see the Lighthouse & the Cabrillo Monument... couldn't see much though because of the fog! Then watched the waves & surfers at Sunset Cliffs along the shore of Ocean Beach, which is a rock beach. It was time to head to the airport, so we got there.... and waited around (watched the ball drop in Times Square in NY from our laptop at the airport because it was midnight NY time!).... only to find out the fog caused our flight to be canceled! I asked if I could get on the same flight for the following night, which we did, so we could have another whole day in San Diego.... YAY!!!! we were THRILLED our wish was granted & we'd have another full day to spend in California!!!! Headed back to Hertz to get a car for the extra day, found a hotel on Hotel Circle that had a vacancy.... and as we were checking in, we heard people scream because it was the New Year! We missed it... oops!!


DAY 7...... LAST DAY IN SAN DIEGO.... In the morning, we went back to downtown Gaslamp area for a little bit, and drove through "little Italy" (which was much smaller than the one in NY). Then we wanted to check out San Diego Harbor a little more from different viewpoints.... so we went to Harbor Island & Shelter Island to check out the views of the San Diego skyline during the day. Next we went back to Point Loma & since the fog was gone, saw the amazing views!!! We took a nature walk on the Bayside Path (which was several miles long down to the beach & back). Then we drove to & parked on Mission Beach, walked all the way down along the beach, took one last dip in the Pacific & watched the surfers... then walked across to Mission Bay & explored the various coves there.... soooo beautiful & peaceful there! Then we drove to Ocean Beach again to watch our last sunset in San Diego at Sunset Cliffs. I was soooooooo sad to leave!!!!!!!

We then went to the airport, boarded our 9pm flight, and headed back to NY...... both talking about how much we can't wait to go back to California again-- and next time we will do a ton of running there (after my foot heals)!!! AMAZING TRIP!!!! Saw so much & did so much, one of the most fun trips we've taken!!!


THANKS FOR READING!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Highlights of our San Diego/CA trip! What we did day-by-day *PICS IN MY ALBUM*

Thanks for such a great review!
We are going in July but with a 3 year old so our trip will be a little different but thanks for some suggestions that aren't the Zoo, Legoland, and Sea World!

Can't wait to go now!!

Re: Highlights of our San Diego/CA trip! What we did day-by-day *PICS IN MY ALBUM*

Sounds like a great trip!! Thanks for posting...

Re: Highlights of our San Diego/CA trip! What we did day-by-day *PICS IN MY ALBUM*

WOW...looks like you did so much. Sounds like a great time. And great pictures too.

Re: Highlights of our San Diego/CA trip! What we did day-by-day *PICS IN MY ALBUM*

Great review!! I've been to San Diego twice for work, but would love to take DH one day. We want to start in San Francisco and make our way down to San Diego. Some day!

Re: Highlights of our San Diego/CA trip! What we did day-by-day *PICS IN MY ALBUM*

WOW----you saw SO MUCH! Sounds perfect!!