tidy

We may do a last minute trip to San Diego in early April with grand kids. Is Mission Beach area the best area to stay with kids or should we stay a little away from the beach (possibly less expensive) and then drive to the beach, Is parking a problem if not staying on the beach?

nanabee

How old are your grandkids?

Mission Beach in April will have a lot of college kids on spring break depending on the university. Even with/out spring break it is a place for the college age drinking/bar set. South Mission on the bay side is more family friendly and the kids can play on the side right in front of your place if you have a bay front property.

Mission Beach has basically one street. (Two lanes going south and two lanes going north). Parking is horrific. So make sure you have assigned parking with your rental.

It can be a little dangerous at night, so just make sure your kids don't wander around by themselves.

Even if you stay away from the beach (lets say in Pacific Beach) and try to drive to the beach it will be extremely difficult to find parking. I would rent bikes and bike to the beach. That's very doable.

nanabee

and the kids can play on the NOT SIDE - should say sand right in front of your place if you have a bay front property.

Tomsd

Check the other/recent posts in here about staying in San Diego. Also check out Paradise Point - a nice compromise - close to the beach - and on the bay with sandy beaches. It's walking distance to Sea World and fairly easy access to the freeways, SD Zoo, etc.

Also check out the Capri condos - where you can easily walk down the slope to the beach.

Tomsd

And you can find parking - but it might be a block or two+ from the beach. You might have to drive around a bit.

tidy

Grand kids are 2,3, and 5

nanabee

Unless you have to be in the Mission Bay, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach area I would consider thinking about Carlsbad. Many others have recommended the Carlsbad Inn Beach Resort. It is right on the beach, has activities, a workout room, pools, and you can walk to all the restaurants, shops, etc in Carlsbad. It's a safe, lovely small town and if your kids are interested in LegoLand that's close by. It is a drive (40 minutes) into the downtown SD - but with such small kids this might be less stressful and the kids would enjoy playing on the beach and playgrounds.


http://www.carlsbadinn.com/photogallery.aspx

jpie

We are renting a house right now in SD in Pacific Beach and really like it. Like others, I would rent a place either on the Bay side or if you want access to the ocean beach then I think you would be lots happier north of Grand Street and South of Loring. That gets you more out of the dense college age area. There is one pretty nice resort that fronts on the bay side but also just a block from the Ocean called the Catamaran:

www.catamaranresort.com

It has nice grounds and is nicer for young kids I think because of being bay side versus ocean side.

A few years back our family from France came with small children and stayed here at the Bahia Resort and enjoyed the location:

http://www.bahiahotel.com/

They have a cool old ship, a Mississippi stern wheeler you take cruises on. And it is near SeaWorld.

Another place to possible consider would be Coronado if you don't mind the harder access.

nanabee

Actually the access to Coronado IMHO is that it's much easier. If you are out doing touristy stuff you have to access the freeway and it takes you to the bridge where you cross and are in Coronado were there is only one street with traffic lights. There is little traffic there. To get from Coronado into downtown or Balboa Park/Zoo takes 10 minutes.

Pacific Beach is difficult to get into and out of for freeway access. It takes about 10 minutes from most neighborhoods in PB to get to the freeway on ramp. PB is more crowded and congested traffic wise.

nanabee

jpie,
I can recommend some places. If you love good coffee (organic, free trade, farm to cup, etc) just slightly north of you is Bird Rock Community Roasters on 5627 La Jolla Blvd. It has taken on Starbucks which is across the street!

We also like the French Gourmet on Turquoise near Cass.

And our favorite for breakfast & lunch
http://figtreeeatery.com/

Down in La Jolla there is Burger Lounge which has pricey burgers but they are delicious and worth every penny! The meat is free range and they have organic & healthy choices.

http://figtreeeatery.com/

A nice place for breakfast & lunch is The Cottage but get their before they open or you'll have a long wait - it's very popular.

http://www.cottagelajolla.com/

tidy

Thank you much

jpie

nanabee-thanks so much for the suggestions! I wish I had seen the coffee one earlier-I just trekked over to North Park to Calabria to buy ground coffee but next time I will check out Bird Rock. We lived many years in Seattle so coffee is a priority.

We actually have been to French Gourmet-we went there for restaurant week. My husband is French and we are on our way back to live in France again in the spring, so we always love this place. We haven't tried the others-but I will add them to our list. One of our new neighborhood favorites is the Fishery on Cass-we really like the mussels with linguica there.

And we actually really like Rubicon Deli down past the Catamaran on Mission Blvd.

I guess what I meant about "harder" access was if they want to be near Seaworld-I would agree that Coronado is actually easier for areas like downtown and Balboa Park.

nanabee

jpie,

We go to The Fishery often as well.

If your husband if from France you might be interested in Tapenade on Fay in downtown La Jolla. The owner/chef is from France and moved here (I think his wife grew up here):


https://www.tapenaderestaurant.com/c...n-michel-diot/

nanabee

Will have to try Rubicon Deli. Thanks!

jpie

Thanks-we will definitely check out Tapenade! Just FYI at Rubicon, the portions are really big-if you order what they call a "half sandwich" it is really 2 halves-just a smaller loaf. To give you an idea, my husband and split a half sandwich and share a salad and I am a totally big eater! Also every meal comes with a token mini-chocolate chip cookie and they bake all their breads-really nice.

tidy-excuse me for hijacking the thread over to my favorite subject-restaurants! Let us know where you decide to stay.

Tomsd

Dang it - just lost this post. Anyhow - Tapanede is my favorite French restaurant in SD and Chef/owner Jean Michel is very nice and they have a great cocktail hour with some bargain food offerings.

There is a new restaurant in Ocean Beach - Bo Beau (replaced Thee Bungelow) by the Cohn group which is quite good and of course the French Gourmet is wonderful and they did a very good Christmas dinner for our (USC)Trojan Club of San Diego.

I had an office in the Village of La Jolla for years and also loved the French patisserre/hot offerings/sandwich place called Girard Gourmet - and their big chicken salad sandwich was my favorite.

nanabee

I love the Girard Gourmet as well tomsd.

BTW! Go Bruins

Tomsd

LOL Nana. The "ruins" have improved in Football - thanks to the tremendous/initial recruiting of the new coach - but SC is headed back to the top - having pulled in a couple of former "ruin" recruits on signing day.

As one of our Club members says - Don't "ruin" your day.

jpie

Thanks so much for Bo Beau and Girard Gourmet suggestions. We just made reservations for lunch later this week at Tapenade when my sister arrives from Seattle to spend our last 5 days in SD!

Today we are going to head to Chula Vista to cehck out Super Cocina and we also want to go to Bonita to Romesco's before we waddle out of town

Tomsd

If you want a classic old style restaurant - with good food - reasonably priced - check our Cafe La Maze in National City - which goes waaay back to the times when celebs from Hollywood used to stop there for a break on the way to the racetrack in Tijuana starting in the 40's.

If you go to www.groupon.com, I think they even have a special deal?

And here is the webpage for Cafe La Maze. www.cafelamaze.com,