Week after next, we are going to California for a family reunion. It ends on the Monday. We are flying out on a redeye on the Tuesday. This gives us a bit over 24 hours in San Diego.
Activity suggestions?
I cannot walk or stand for too long; I’ll have a cane/stool combo with me for occasional use. If we did Sea World or the zoo, I gather there are places to rent scooters, which would be an option.
Any other suggestions? Cool places to dine? We’ll likely have a hotel near-ish the airport, and will have a rental car.
It’ll be me, @Typo_Knig, Dweezil and Moon Unit (both adults).
Depends on what you are interested in. SD has pretty much everything. Personally, I take visitors to Balboa Park and either hit the zoo or all the museums/galleries. Plenty of scooter rental options there. Food-wise, from where you are going to be staying I’d hit places in Old Town. There is also the USS Midway, the Star of India and others on the waterfront by City Hall.
The USS Midway was pretty damned awesome, but if you can’t walk for very long it might not be a great choice. Being from a land locked state, I was most interested in going to look at the sea. There are places where you can go watch the seals which I found perfectly delightful. I always ate at a restaurant on the beach and was able to observe dolphins playing while I ate my lunch. Good times. Balboa Park is nice, the zoo is world class of course (scooter rentals are available), and the weather was beautiful. I visited in July and when I felt a cool breeze I thought witchcraft was involved.
I haven’t lived in San Diego for 20 years and I’ve only been back once since then for a family trip to Legoland, so I can’t really say much for what’s worth doing there these days, but Ocean Beach is nice if you want to see the ocean, and you can get a pretty darn good burger at Hodad’s on Newport Ave.
Cabrillo National Monument might be an option. The visitor center is a short walk from the parking lot and the view overlooking the bay is fantastic. The lighthouse is also a short walk and you can drive down the hill for some more coastal views. Lots of good places to eat In the vicinity of Rosecrans St.
We enjoyed the Patriot Boat. It’s a speed boat that’s been purpose built to want to turn 360s. I’m not sure whether the fact that you’re sitting the whole time makes that a reasonable option, if you have some mobility issues, or horrible, but maybe it would be good for some of the family if not all.
Mitch’s Seafood (harbor) and La Puerta (Gaslamp-ish) are both good taco shops. I’ve never done it but I’ve heard tell that the brunch buffet at Bali Hai is worth doing.
Liberty Station is fun to tour with a great food court and there’s some fun activities like Pinot’s Palette and The Hot Spot, if you want to sit down and get artsy.
There’s a super-mini miniature golf course and arcade at Belmont Park. There are some nice picnic spots in Mission Bay, and you can rent kayaks, jet skis, etc.
The weight limits are pretty tiny, so you can only do it if you’re under ~150 lbs, but it’s still worth visiting the Torrey Pines glider port, for pictures and watching people flying around in the sky.
If you want the true San Diegan greasy spoon Mexican food experience, what you want to look for is a yellow and red brick hut with a drive-thru and a walk-up window, with stone picnic tables in front, ideally with a name that ends in “berto’s”.
If you’re into outdoors stuff, you can go see the seals at the Children’s Pool and the sea lions at La Jolla Cove nearby. There will be a decent low tide in La Jolla on the 11th (if that’s the Tuesday) at 3pm, so you can do seals/sea lions/tide pools in one swoop. If you don’t feel comfortable walking on the rocks, it’s still a very scenic area or you can check out the nearby shops in the Village.
The top of Mount Soledad has a very cool panoramic view of the city.
Go to Windansea beach to watch the surfers.
A great breakfast/lunch place is Kono’s Cafe in Pacific Beach. Decent prices (for being right on the beach), healthy portions and a terrific view. Caroline’s Seaside Cafe has its own terrific view right next to Scripps Pier. It’s a light lunch kind of place. Point Loma Seafood is a nice casual place for lunch/diner. It’s right next to Mitch’s. Con Pane at Liberty Station and Bread & Cie in Hillcrest are 2 good cafe/bakeries for lunch. If you want Mexican food, you can do the -bertos thing, but since you’re only in town for a day I’d recommend the Taco Stand. Their California burrito is just about the best California burrito out there (and California burritos are about as authentic a San Diego experience as you can get).
You can take a ferry to Coronado. If you want to see the beach there and the Hotel Del Coronado, they are on the other side of the island so you’ll probably want to take the bus/taxi/rideshare to get there. But the ferry landing area itself has some nice shopping and a (yet another) terrific view this time of the downtown skyline.
Also, if you are flying in and its in the daytime, you might want to sit on the left side of the plane because there is a great (wait for it) view of downtown, the bay, and the Coronado Bridge during the landing approach.
I misread that, thinking you meant jet-skis were only for those 150 and under, LOL. That would mean Dweezil and nobody else in the family!!
IIRC, back in 2002 we went somewhere (likely Torrey Pines) where we could see hang gliders but there were none that day. Bummer.
Is “…Bertos” kind of like “the original Ray’s Pizza” in New York City? (bunch of places unaffiliated but each claiming to be the original one), or “the original Calabash seafood” in Calabash NC?
Pretty sure we’re on the right side of the plane coming in. Bummer. I don’t recall which side on the flight out, but it’ll be dark, so the view won’t be as good.
Luckily, my issues aren’t so much mobility-related, as orthostatic hypotension; my blood pressure tends to drop, a LOT, if I need to stand for a long time. Walking long distances isn’t great for the same reason, and hills can do me in: I scared a bunch of friends last year when I had to walk up a steep gangplank exiting a tour boat, and had to collapse and rest several times before making it back to the car. I’m better off now than I was then, but it’s something I need to take into consideration.
Lots of great suggestions, everyone! I’m going to forward a link to the family and we can figure things out over that weekend.
I suppose that I’d say that it depends on what you’re going for.
Like, if you wanted a fancier McDonalds, you could go to In-N-Out and that might actually be better, given how cheap we’re talking. But, likewise, you could get something actually approaching good at a Red Robin, while still cheap, or go to a proper place like Craft Kitchen and really experience some luxury while still not breaking the bank.
The Taco Stand looks to be $3.50 a taco and, in the price range, maybe they are using meat from parts of the animal that you’re willing to talk about but the sauce is water and you’re not getting anything past meat. You gain a lot by going up to $4.50 at Mitch’s, and even more by going up to $6 at La Puerta. I guess it depends on your budget.
I’d suggest skipping the Waffle House, if anyone or anything suggests it.
The original is a chain called Roberto’s which started in the '60s, and over time a lot of other independently-owned restaurants copied their menu and picked similar names like Alberto’s or Rodolfo’s or Rigoberto’s or so on.
Roberto’s also has locations in Vegas these days so you may have chanced upon them there. Up here in WA we have a small chain called Aliberto’s that serves the same style.