About how many days would you recommend spending? Just to get a nice little overview of the area.

La Jolla also has a fine aquarium with an amazing display of jellyfish. If you're a reader, there's a lovely little bookshop in the center of town.

Wherever you stay I'd make sure to drive the coast in SD County. You can start in Mission Beach and drive up through Pacific Beach, Birdrock, La Jolla, and you can continue on up the coast through Solana Beach, Del Mar and on up to Carlsbad or Oceanside. It's a nice relaxing drive of a few hours.

The book store that I like to recommend is in La Jolla on Girard Ave. It is called Warwick's. And has been family owned for over 100 years. One street to the west (on Fay Ave) is The Cottage a nice restaurant (serves breakfast & lunch), or on the same street is Sugar & Scribe (serves B, L, and early dinner).

In Bird Rock I recommend Bird Rock Coffee Roasters. Small independent coffee roaster, which has been recognized as one of the best independent coffee roasters in the US. Bird Rock is about 6 minutes drive south of the Village area of LJ.

http://birdrockcoffee.com/

http://www.cottagelajolla.com/

http://www.sugarandscribe.com/

http://www.warwicks.com/

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In Coronado, we just rediscovered a little French restaurant called Chez Loma (it's been there since the 70's)
The food is good but the ambiance is very nice and relaxing and quiet.

http://www.chezloma.com/

http://www.miguels-cocina.com/

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...alifornia.html

But we don't go to Coronado too often so these are suggestions from places we been but are not familiar with a lot of newer places in town.

Thank you, nanabee. We will be in San Diego the end of next month, and love to visit those areas. :)

Thanks for all the recommendations. Do you think three or four nights would be about right?

Jestset, hope you have a great time! The weather should be nice (but hopefully not too hot).

volcanogirl, I think 3-4 nights would be fine. A long weekend getaway is always just about right!!

Stay on the bay side of Coronado Island with views across to San Diego. You can take a ferry over to the city as well as drive over the bridge.
Visit La Jolla but I would stay closer to downtown San Diego, but I am a city lover.
Little Italy in San Diego has good restaurants, and not all are Italian.

volcanogirl - 3 or 4 days makes for a nice visit. I'm sure you'll enjoy it ! And there's no need to change hotels. Let's say you stay in Coronado this visit. Next time you can stay in La Jolla.

Spend a little time on the Downtown Bayfront. It's also where the Ferry and the Harbor Cruises are and the USS Midway.

Websites for Coronado

http://coronadovisitorcenter.com/

http://www.ecoronado.com/page/corona...and-activities

Great, thank you! We'll plan on 3 or 4 days. I took a look at a few hotels - wow, a little sticker shock. :) This must be a nice area.

Thanks nanabee. Nothing was as extreme there as Sept. 2013. We went for our son's Marine Corps graduation, and the humidity made me feel like a melting Nazi in Indiana Jones, ha ha

Looking forward to the Miramar air show!

We're interested in going whale watching - is that something you can do year around in the area?

Also curious, has anyone been to Tijon, the make your own perfume store? It gets rave reviews. Thought it might be fun to try!

You can look at Oceanside Adventure's sighting log to see what they've been seeing lately http://www.oceansidewhalewatching.com/

You may see migrating gray whales between November and April. In summer, there's the possibility of seeing blue and humpback whales.

In general, whale watching in Southern California is not as productive as up in Monterey Bay.

Thanks, Patty. I'll check it out.

Any recommendations for good fish tacos? What about good Mexican food?

I don't see where you've mentioned the time of year you are considering. Old Town is fun for Mexican food. Also, I personally love Sea World and also the Wild Animal Park north of San Diego. We also thoroughly enjoyed two theatre nights at the Old Globe Theatre (in SD's Balboa Park) last summer. We saw "Into the Woods" the Stephen Sondheim musical one night and two nights later saw Othello in the open air theatre that featured Richard Thomas as Iago and Blair Underwood which was fantastic. Not that these same programs would be showing but this gives you a sense of how good their programming is. (Just pick a date that doesn't conflict with the Gay Pride Parade as Balboa Park will be jammed)

We stayed in La Jolla and found it very easy to drive into SD. Also, that Glider Park is fascinating.

Thanks for all the help, everyone. We decided we want to stay right on the beach, so we're going to stay on Coronado. Definitely will want to drive to La Jolla and over to SD as well. Glad everything is close together!

Just wanted to thank everyone again for the help. We ended up staying at the Hotel Del Coronado, but we drove in to eat in the Gaslamp District and also visited La Jolla. We loved all of it!

We're now thinking of making a return trip. My husband wants to go to Petco Park to see the Padres play. Would the Hotel Indigo be a good spot to stay in? How close would that be to the park? Is it in a pretty safe area? We have enough points that we could stay there for free.

The Omni and a Marriott (Courtyard??) are the closest. We have stayed at both, both were very good.

Thanks, Debit. The Omni looks great. I don't think we can use our points there though. We were thinking a couple nights at the Indigo and then maybe some time in La Jolla.