We are heading to San Diego next week and are looking for the best beaches in San DIego and places to eat. We have 5 kids (11, 8,8,6,4) so are looking for a beach that is fun for them to play around in and swim. As for restaurants - they need to be relatively kid friendly and not too pricey - but I'm NOT looking for fast food only. Our kids are decent eaters. Any suggestions? Thanks!

babyflower - San Diego is pretty big - it is helpful if you let us know where you are staying and I know I can go from there.

Beaches: La Jolla Shores, Torrey Pines State Beach, Del Mar beach (15th Street), Coronado Beach.

Restaurants: California Pizza Kitchen - a chain, but IMO great food and loved by most kids, Fillippi's Pizza, Rubio's (fish tacos, etc).

Coronado would be ideal for a family of 5. It is a safe island and great for family biking around town (as it is very flat). There are tons of great family friendly restaurants within walking distance of each other. In fact you can walk the entire island from one end to the other as it is only a mile wide. There are many kid friendly parks, a wonderful library with a great kids section. Tennis courts around town for free. A great community pool.
Coronado beach is always ranked one of the top beaches in the country. It is clean and well maintained and has good lifeguards.
The Hotel Del Coronado is the most famous and historic but there are tons of other hotel choices - all of them good.

The nice thing about Coronado is you don't need a car - you can very easily take a passenger ferry over to San Diego's Embarcadaro at the foot of Broadway and spend an entire day. If you did rent a car you could spend the day at Balboa Park (where the San Diego Zoo is).

If you have kids who are interested in the military - you occasionally might see the Navy Seals (not to be confused with the ocean seals in La Jolla ) out early in the morning practicing on the beach or in the water.

Best beaches are Coronado..La Jolla Shores..Del Mar and Carlsbad..
Great kid friendly would be Sammy's pizza with the messy sundae that feeds 10..
Cheesecake factory, CPK, Claim Jumper, Bucca de Beppo,
Fish Market, The Shores restaurant, Piatti's, Jeff Burger/Cheese shop in LJ shores..
Belmont Park in Mission Beach has some fun arcades and roller coaster on the beach.

Love Piatti's and Jeff Burgers in La Jolla Shores!!

ooooh, love that messy sundae at Sammy's, ksucat.... though I have to say that I can devour it singlehandedly! Beyond the best already described, I also like Moonlight beach in Encinitas but the waves can get a bit big for the little ones.

The new Sunset Grill at Del Mar plaza has a great lunch and happy hour menu. Sunday is happy hour all day and their burger is great!

Coronado is perfect,there is a nice Mexican restaurant there called Miguel's Cocina where you could go for a meal. They have a great outdoor patio area, it is located in the heart of the El Cordova Hotel. ***kim***