We arrived in San Diego the day after Thanksgiving for a quick budget family trip. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express La Jolla. We liked the Holiday Inn Express, it was clean, we were treated very well and it has more of a resort feel to it than a typical Holiday Inn Express. You definitely need a car when staying there though. I don’t think I would stay in La Jolla again. It just felt to far away for me and my kids preferred the Coronado beaches.

We arrived early afternoon, picked up our mini van, and grabbed some lunch at Wahoo’s Tacos in La Jolla before checking into our hotel. I had never had a fish taco before and Wahoo’s food was very fresh and tasty. We made a quick stop at the grocery store for drinks and snacks, and checked into our hotel an hour early. I had checked the tides online and knew it was going to be a low tide soon, so the boys put on swimming suits and sandals and we headed to the beach. Tide pooling was fun, the temperature was in the upper 60’s, so we were done in about an hour when the kids started to get cold. My kids by the way are 11, 11, 17 and 24.

The next day I had planned to go to Coronado and explore the Del and shops and restaurants on the island before spending time at the beach. Unfortunately, there was a big rivalry football game between BYU and Utah on TV at noon. Since my daughter had to give up her ticket to the game to come on the trip, she wanted to watch the game before heading to Coronado. So we spent the morning at the Birch Aquarium. the aquarium was small, but the exhibits are well done, and we enjoyed the morning there.

We decided to watch the game in a sports bar in La Jolla, The Shack Bar & Grill, which was near our hotel. We ate lunch there, which was just okay, but the staff was great and switched the game on for us.

After the game we headed to Coronado. It was late afternoon at this point, and we only had enough time to hang out at the beach. My husband and my boys loved playing in the ocean and digging for clams. I never got to see the Del or any of the shops, so I’ll definitely have to plan another trip. I can definitely see the attraction of staying on Coronado.

Sunday we had tickets to a Chargers game. I got a great deal on tickets on ebay – six tickets for $200. We were up pretty high in a corner, but had a really good view. I had done some research before going and decided to take the trolley to the stadium and park the car at the Old Town station. We had time to explore Old Town for an hour before we headed out on the trolley. The kids had fun exploring the shops, especially the candy store.

We had been craving an In and Out Burger since we arrived, so instead of paying stadium prices for lunch, we hopped off the trolley a couple of stops early and grabbed a burger and fries for lunch. After the game, we ate dinner at Old Town at the Coyote Café. The food was very good.

Monday we went to Sea World. I love Sea World and we headed straight to the dolphins and waited there until feeding time. The twins loved seating in the soak zone at the shows. By late afternoon they were freezing and we didn’t think to bring a change of clothes, since when we’ve been in the past it has been summer and you dry up really quickly, so we ended up buying the sweat pants at the gift shops.

We stopped at a Pei Wei for an inexpensive dinner and headed to the Gas Lamp District to Ghirardelli for dessert and to shop the shops.

Tuesday our flight left late afternoon, so we spent the morning at Balboa Park at the Reuben Fleet Science Center. This museum was really nice done; the kids and the grownups had fun with the exhibits and we watch a 3D IMAX movie about the ocean.
We ate lunch at the Corvette Diner, which everyone enjoyed.

We arrived home from our trip to sunny San Diego to the first really big snow storm of the year. It made me wish I’d planned a much longer trip.

Sounds like a great trip. I love Coronado too and have always wanted to stay at The Del, but never had the budget for it. A few years back a friend and I stayed at the Marriott on the other side of Coronado - we got a deal through Priceline - it was nice to stay out on Coronado at least. We treated ourselves to a couple spa treatments at the Del while we were there.

I'm glad you enjoyed the Coyote Cafe and Corvette Diner - we like those two places a lot too

I'm glad you had a great time in San Diego.

How smart you were to take the Trolley to the football game! And what a game!

You could have gone more easily and quickly from your hotel to the great beaches at Torrey Pines and Del Mar.

It's been chilly here since you left, and we've had quite a bit of rain.

We stayed 3 nights at the Del last December, very nice! Sounds like you had a great trip,we also enjoyed SeaWorld very much. ***kim***

Thanks for the replies. It's too bad I didn't know about the beaches at Torrey Pines and Del Mar earlier, but thanks for posting that, maybe it will help someone in the future. I know I got great information/help planning my trip from this site - thank you to all who post!

The Chargers' website recommended using the trolley and we were sure glad we took that advice. It was a great game!

Glad you had a good time in SD..
Holiday Inn Express is off the beaten path on LJ blvd and I can't believe you went all the way to Coroando..
Del Mar/LJ Shores and Torrey have great beaches and 15 minutes away.
Sorry to hear you wouldn't stay in LJ..even the next town down is PB and they have some great beaches and would of taken you about 10 minutes..
Charger game was a great game and the Trolley is the way to go..

Don't get me wrong, I really did like La Jolla - it's a beautiful community. My husband and I left the kids sleeping most mornings and had some lovely walks by the ocean. The restaurants were just expensive and the shops a little too upscale for my budget.

BarbaraS:

We were also in San Diego over Thanksgiving. DH and son who we went to visit also went to the Chargers game.

I was interested to read about the Birch Aquarium and hope to visit on our next trip.

Thanks for sharing your trip - helpful information for others.

Sandy