San Fran vs San Diego?

[loves_disney]

Thank you all for your replies! Think we are now set on San Diego!

Thanks for the advice re Tijuana - I was surprised how close it was but after my childhood days watching the OC and 90210 it’s clear nothing good ever comes from visiting Tijuana 😂😂

Think we will fly in and out of LA and probably do 4 or 5 nights in SD.

I was reading about the Amtrak and cost of parking etc and I’m thinking we won’t hire a car?
I think the savings made from the parking and car hire would cover Ubers and the Amtrak for us to get to SD from LA and then up to Anaheim?

Libby - I’ve just finished your trip report and have a list of things to do - so thanks for that!

Amy/Aims - thank you for that wonderful thread - currently using it to look at all the hotel possibilities! ☺️
Thank you for the offer of assistance - currently trying to find a good hotel either in Mission Bay Area or seaport perhaps, that’s not too ridiculous with its nightly rates! 😂

I think we will plan a bigger trip in the future to include San Fran, Yosemite and take advantage of the long drive with lots of stops and make sure to do it justice - which I don’t think we could with a slightly shorter trip this time!

I’m away to dive into more trip reports - thank you again for your help - I’ll be a frequent visitor on this section in future as flights are being booked tonight! 🎉

[Lola]

Been a few times to both. I like San Fran and hopefully will be there next May. San Diego is great too though and is more relaxing as said. La Joya is good

[landandword17]

We found Amtrak very convenient loves_Disney. We left the car back in LA and took Amtrak down to Anaheim for one night at Disney and then onto SD. On a previous trip we took it from LA up to Santa Barbara. The trains were clean, on time, both stations are quite beautiful architecturally. There is a bus between Union Station and LAX airport.

[Aims]

Originally Posted by loves_disney

Amy/Aims - thank you for that wonderful thread - currently using it to look at all the hotel possibilities! ☺️
Thank you for the offer of assistance - currently trying to find a good hotel either in Mission Bay Area or seaport perhaps, that’s not too ridiculous with its nightly rates! 😂

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I'm happy that you are finding the SD thread helpful I should warn you though since you are visiting in April when Easter and spring break happens, hotels do increase their prices around those holidays. It won't be as big an increase as it is over the summer months, but hotels will cost more than they do during non-holiday times.



Hotels in downtown and in the beach areas (including Mission Bay which is a hop, skip and jump from the beach) will be more expensive than other areas that are not as tourist-populated.



Be sure to choose the Santa Fe station on Amtrak to get into downtown San Diego, and not the Old Town Transportation center which is not within walking distance to downtown. There is a nice Residence Inn Bayfront San Diego hotel across the road from the Amtrak station, and an Inter-Continental hotel there, too- if you want the absolutely closest to the train station. My favorite hotels right by Seaport Village are the Marriott Marquis and the Manchester Grand Hyatt. There is also an Embassy Suites Bayfront hotel across the road from Seaport Village- an all-suites hotel with free hot breakfasts and a reception hour each evening (free snacks and drinks, including alcohol). All of these hotels by Seaport Village will be around a 15 minute walk from the Amtrak station. There is a lovely Hilton Bayfront hotel a short distance from Seaport Village (and across from the baseball stadium), but it will be a further walk from the train station than the others.



I would recommend you also take a look just outside downtown in the Point Loma area, right next to the airport. There are a couple of very nice hotels on a strip of peninsula called Shelter Island. The Humphrey's Half Moon Inn and the Best Western Island Palms next door are both lovely hotels with very reasonable prices and are within a short drive to downtown. If you aren't planning to drive, then you could use Uber to get around from Shelter Island- it's only about 10 minutes into downtown. There are a handful of restaurants on Shelter Island, and both the hotels I mentioned have nice restaurants on their properties, too. Liberty Station is a community that is only five minutes from Shelter Island and it is filled with a lot of restaurant choices, as well. Shelter Island is scenic, located right on the bay and as it is outside of downtown, the atmosphere is more peaceful and less hectic than it is in the city center. The airport is right across the road from Shelter Island, but I have never had an issue with airplane noise at night when I have stayed in these hotels.



Gosh, I could go on and on with info but I will stop blabbing here and let you absorb these bits for now LOL

[jdouds]

Hi I think I’m going to go against most of the advice. If Yosemite is definitely in the plan then I would leave San Diego for another time.
Fly to San Fran 2/3 n. Disney museum, cycle bridge to Sausalito, Alcatraz, city tour, harbour area.
3.5 hour drive to Yosemite 2 n. Tioga pass dr, glacier point , tunnel view, walk to El Capitan base, have walk up vernal falls and down JMuir trail.
3.5 hour dr to Monterey 1/2 n and do whale watching if time allows, one of the best things we have ever done, 17 m dr, pebble beech if your sporty.
Drive down the coast perhaps 1 n Santa Barbara
This leaves 2/3 n Disney etc
If you could add a couple of days it would make the trip that little bit easier to spend time at each stop.
The drives from San Fran to Yosemite and to Monterey while 3.5 hours means a full morning or afternoon. Monterey to Santa Barbara via the coast is a days drive due to the fact there is so much to see.
Hope this doesn’t add confusion

[kateb78]

Originally Posted by Aims

I would recommend you also take a look just outside downtown in the Point Loma area, right next to the airport. There are a couple of very nice hotels on a strip of peninsula called Shelter Island. The Humphrey's Half Moon Inn and the Best Western Island Palms next door are both lovely hotels with very reasonable prices and are within a short drive to downtown. If you aren't planning to drive, then you could use Uber to get around from Shelter Island- it's only about 10 minutes into downtown. There are a handful of restaurants on Shelter Island, and both the hotels I mentioned have nice restaurants on their properties, too. Liberty Station is a community that is only five minutes from Shelter Island and it is filled with a lot of restaurant choices, as well. Shelter Island is scenic, located right on the bay and as it is outside of downtown, the atmosphere is more peaceful and less hectic than it is in the city center. The airport is right across the road from Shelter Island, but I have never had an issue with airplane noise at night when I have stayed in these hotels.



Gosh, I could go on and on with info but I will stop blabbing here and let you absorb these bits for now LOL

See more...

Just to chip in to this - we stayed on Shelter Island and loved it! We stayed at Best Western Island Palms and had a room facing the marina. It was a fab location (with free parking across the street if you decided to drive); so peaceful yet just a hop, skip and jump from everywhere we wanted to go. We noticed a huge difference in the prices of hotels on Shelter Island compared with downtown so it was a winner for us. It’s definitely worth a look