I'm researching tonight to get an estimate of what a four day trip would cost in San Diego, incorporating the zoo, sea world and a whale watch cruise.
HELLO! Is this expensive for a family of five or what?
Any insider tips on discounted tickets for these places? Travel would be during Christmas break, actual days we are flexible.
Also, if you were to pick either the zoo or the wildlife park, what would you say? DH hates zoos in principle, but maybe this zoo is really exceptional?

what aspects of your trip are you finding most expensive? accomodations? attractions? price per gallon of gasoline?
let's start there.

Attractions!

Zoo or Wildlife Park
Aquarium
Whale Watching

Don't know ages of kids in your family, but we just returned from 5 days in San Diego with family including 2 teenagers. As with many larger cities on either coast, hotel will be costly - you can shop around and decide what compromises you wish to make. We did zoo only for major attractions - no Sea World, no Wildlife Park, no whale watch. This decision was NOT primarily a financial one - we found much to do in the city that was not as expensive as above.

We took a harbor cruise - pleasant way to spend the morning. Drove to several neigoborhoods and explored - Little Italy, Seaport area, for example. Drove to Coronado for part of a day and spent some time at the beach (still an option in December, but obviously not for swimming). Took a short trip to Tijuana - just to see what it was all about (would not repeat that part of the trip). Went to Padres baseball game (I know, they do not play in December) and got cheaper seats and had a great time.

We do not travel on the real cheap - we all like nice hotels and real food. However, we stayed in hotel suite which included a full kitchen - had breakfast in the room; one night got rotisserie chicken, salad, bread, and ate on the balcony.

Maybe it is because we live near Boston, another real expensive city, that we did not feel sticker shock. I would not write off San Diego - it is a wonderful city - but you might want to do a little more research on what you will spend your time and money on while you are there.

Hi, llissa!

Here are a few prices:

San Diego Zoo
adults $19.50 Deluxe Tour $28.50
3-11 $ 9.50 $16.50

Seaworld
adults $42.95
3-9 $32.95

As between the Wild Life Park or the Zoo, definitely the zoo, which has a lot more animals to see. Also very rare exhibits, such as a huge albino boa constrictor (hope it's still there!). This is not a run-of-the-mill zoo, but a zoo with very rare species.

Have never taken a whale watch cruise so can't comment on that.

There are plenty of things for children to do in Balboa Park: there's an Aerospace Museum, an Automotive Museum, an Exploratorium, a Model Railroad Museum - there is also a Children's Museum that our family never got to in all our trips to San Diego.

There is also the Maritime Museum with the tall ship, the Star of India.

In addition, there are the other places that Gail mentioned: Coronado, Seaport, etc.

You will find a wide variety of hotels, some with family prices, i.e., allowing a family of 4 or 5 to stay in one room. Some will allow children under 12 to stay free.

Hope this helps! And have a great trip! San Diego is a wonderful destination!

Another place your children will enjoy, most interesting and unforgettable, are the harbor seals on the beach in La Jolla. Great place without the expense. (Children's Pool Beach.)

Having three kids of my own I can agree that taking them to the Zoo, etc can be very expensive. Quite frankly, I don't think $19.50 is expensive for what you see at the Zoo - this Zoo is exceptional - and if you're only here for four days, I think you could miss the Wild Animal Park. Try to avoid eating at the Zoo because that's really expensive. The newly born baby Giant Panda may be on exhibit by then.

You can see lots of whales without going on a cruise. If you drive out to the Cabrillo National Monument, there are telescopes and a great view of the whales. Unfortunately, this is not a secret and so other people will be there too! But, if you really want to get closer, a cruise is the only way to go.

If you're looking at the week after Christmas, you may find hotels are more expensive than before Christmas. This is because the Holiday Bowl is played here on Tuesday, December 30. On the other hand, if you are here at this time, and you like football, this is always a great game and always sold out.
www.holidaybowl.com.

The museums in Balboa Park are terrific and they all have entry fees. The Children's Museum is closed temporarily.

Seaworld is not an aquarium. There are aquariums in Seaworld, but it is a theme park and it is very expensive.

As Gail said, there are a lot of things to do and see in San Diego that don't cost much, if anything.

Wentto San Diego last summer. I went on line and joined the zoo as a member and got free tickets to the Wildlife Park. It was cheaper to join as a member and receive the extra 2 free tickets and wildlife tickets plus is a tax write off .

Check it out.

I also found it cheaper to join the zoo in advance. Went with my family of 4 and my father; bought memberships for the family and got free "guest" admissions that we used for my dad, so that also saved. In addition, no lines to get in! I would definitely go to the Wild Animal Park as well as the zoo. There's a little tacky theme park stuff, but every time I go on the monorail and hear about preservations efforts, I'm close to tears.

There's a hotel loop that has cheaper accomodations (but the one we stayed at didn't have a great pool). Rates were about 1/2 of the more prestigiously located hotels, and they often have discounts there for Sea World and Zoo/Wild Animal Park, so you may want to ask about that in advance fo joining the zoo.

One year we stayed at the El Rancho Motel (?) across the street from the Coronado. There's a restaurant there that can get noisy in the evening, so if you stay there, ask for a room not so close to it. We got a reasonable suite -- bedroom, living room with fold out couch, kitchenette (I believe) and breakfast area. It was too long ago to remember the price, but I'm cheap so I'm sure I didn't spend too much. It was also fun to walk around the Coronado.

By the way, almost no restaurants are open on Xmas (the day we arrived one year), so if I do that again, I'll be sure to go to the zoo that day, where I believe at least the concession stands are open!

Go to Balboa Park on Tuesday. Between 2 and 5 museums and attractions at Balboa Park are free on Tuesdays on a rotating basis. It's usually for the permanent collections, and any special exhibits would still need to be payed for.

The exception is when there is a 5th Tuesday in the calendar month.

Call (619)239-0512 for a schedule.

I second the idea of going out to the Cabrillo monuement. Go during low tide, and you can take the kids down to the tide pools on the ocean side.

A little trivia: You'll hear most people pronouncing Cabrillo as "ka-bree-yo", even many of the park attendants and so called 'locals'. Well, it's actually pronounced ka-bree-LO as he was Poruguese, not Spanish.

if cost is an issue then just choose one attraction to go to. sea world is very expensive but i love it and worth the cost if you've never experienced a similar thing. the zoo is very good too but someone in the family doesn't like zoo's i don't know that i'd go. you'll do a lot of walking there. i don't think the whale watching is that expensive. some people do get sea sick on these treks.
spend one day or a half down at mission/pacific beach area. you can rent bikes or blades and cruise along the boardwalk along the ocean side and then cross over to the bay side.
most of my family that have visited say they should have done less attractions and just hung out at the beach which is where the kids wanted to be.

Being a zoo meber for nearly 20 years, it is definitely not a tax write off, unless you add a donation on top of your membership.

Torrey Pines State Reserve ($6/car I think) is a great way to spend a day and maybe see some whales.

My entertainment book for Hawaii has coupons for several of those spots. When we went almost a year ago Sea World had a special where you could come back again the next day for $5. There was also a passport for all of the museums. I thought the pandas made it worth it. And the polar bears and koalas. I'm sure the dept of tourism or someone would have coupons. There were many coupon booklets at the hotels too. We did have to pick the zoo over the animal park this trip. I figured my daughter was too young anyway. She still talks about Sea World though.

if you are an AAA member, you can save 20% on the deluxe admission to the zoo.

The albino boa is still there (at least it was a month ago)

I found a package deal offered through our motel (Super 8 Bayside) that included the zoo, harbour cruise, and sea world tickets plus a shuttle around town and continental breakfast. We didn't rent a car and used the shuttle or our feet. The room had a fridge and microwave so we had spaghetti from little Italy and pizza and brought lunchables for our lunches. We had a camelback for water and packed our lunchables for the days at the zoo and sea world. Taking lunch allowed us to splurge and get ice cream!

I think there are ways to make it cheaper but any time you go to theme parks it is expensive. The zoo was worth it to me, we spent a long day there and it was great but we do like animals. (It is a long day of walking! 5 miles and we were very effecient, no back tracking) I was a tad disappointed at Sea World, they have exhibits of the animals but no labels so I don't really know what I am looking at. We did have a good time though and would go back.

The motel was not fancy but it was clean and certainly served our needs, the breakfast and shuttle really paid off for us. I would probably even go back again if I were on a budget like we were.