San Diego Trip Planning Guide

[TinaP]

Thank you Aims I have booked that BW and requested a high floor.

[Aims]

Originally Posted by TinaP

Thank you Aims I have booked that BW and requested a high floor.

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That’s great, Tina! 👍 The reviews I have read about this hotel are very positive. Hope you have a wonderful stay in San Diego!

[Tinkermom]

Hi Aims

We’ve decided to extend our stay and are now doing five nights in San Diego, though I’m sure that’s still no where near enough! We’re staying at the BW island palms and we arrive on Memorial Day (driving from Anaheim) could you suggest somewhere lovely for dinner that first evening not too from from the hotel. We are traveling with 5 of our children (13,12,10,7 and 2) will we need to book somewhere with it being Memorial Day?

Thanks 🤗

[Aims]

Originally Posted by Tinkermom

Hi Aims

We’ve decided to extend our stay and are now doing five nights in San Diego, though I’m sure that’s still no where near enough! We’re staying at the BW island palms and we arrive on Memorial Day (driving from Anaheim) could you suggest somewhere lovely for dinner that first evening not too from from the hotel. We are traveling with 5 of our children (13,12,10,7 and 2) will we need to book somewhere with it being Memorial Day?

Thanks 🤗

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Hi Tinkermom! Nice to hear you will be staying five nights True, you could easily spend longer than that in San Diego, but five nights is a good amount of time, too.


Memorial Day will mean most restaurants will be a little busier than usual. I have a few suggestions for your first evening meal in town- some of them don't offer reservations though, so if you choose one of those, just try to get there early in the dinner hours (between 4-5 pm if possible).



First off, the hotel you are staying in has a very nice restaurant on it's property called the Blue Wave Bar & Grill. It's a good option if you decide to stick close to the hotel that evening and you can book reservations. You can check out the menus here:
islandpalms/dining#gref


The hotel is about a five minute drive from the neighborhood community of Liberty Station. There are a lot of places to eat in that area. I have two places that come to mind that are casual and family friendly...
Corvette Diner, which is a 1950's diner themed restaurant where the wait staff dress in 50's costumes and spontaneously burst into song and dance numbers (on occasion lol). It's a fun atmosphere, kids love it, the food is nice (mostly burgers, sandwiches, shakes and diner type food), but it's not the place if you are wanting a quiet, relaxing meal But if you are all up for someplace that's noisy and filled with kids, this is the place to be! I've taken a few out-of-town guests here and they all enjoyed the experience. They don't take reservations though, so try to go as early as you can for dinner- it's a very popular place and long waits are common. https://www.cohnrestaurants.com/corvettediner

Another good place for families in Liberty Station is Oggi's Brewouse & Pizza. It's a casual sports bar type place, so there are televisions set to whatever sports are on, the menu has a nice variety of pizzas, sandwiches, pastas and more, plus a decent beer menu too. They don't take reservations, either. oggis/point-loma-liberty-station/about-us/


One other place I could suggest is the Old Spaghetti Factory. It is just a little further away in the Gaslamp Quarter area of downtown (the city center). It's really not that far from the hotel, about 15-20 minutes drive, but because it is downtown you would have to pay for parking in one of the public garages- or perhaps take an Uber to and from. The closest parking garage to the restaurant that I would recommend is the 6th and K Parkade- it's only a block away from the restaurant. parkdowntownsd/garages/6th-k-parkade/ The Old Spaghetti Factory is a great place for families, all the entrees come as three course dinners that include soup or salad, an entree and a scoop of ice cream or spumoni for dessert. Prices are very reasonable and you get a lot of food. It's not gourmet Italian food or anything, but it's very nice and the restaurant is uniquely decorated and has a good atmosphere. This restaurant is always very busy, but they do take reservations- so I would recommend that if you decide to go. osf/location/san-diego-ca/


Let me know if you have any other questions, food or otherwise, that I can help answer.

[Tinkermom]

Thank you so very much Amy! This is so helpful ☺️ Think we’ll try theCorvette Diner, sounds like somewhere our children will love.

Xx

[tocpe321]

Originally Posted by Aims

Hi Tinkermom! Nice to hear you will be staying five nights True, you could easily spend longer than that in San Diego, but five nights is a good amount of time, too.


Memorial Day will mean most restaurants will be a little busier than usual. I have a few suggestions for your first evening meal in town- some of them don't offer reservations though, so if you choose one of those, just try to get there early in the dinner hours (between 4-5 pm if possible).



First off, the hotel you are staying in has a very nice restaurant on it's property called the Blue Wave Bar & Grill. It's a good option if you decide to stick close to the hotel that evening and you can book reservations. You can check out the menus here:
islandpalms/dining#gref


The hotel is about a five minute drive from the neighborhood community of Liberty Station. There are a lot of places to eat in that area. I have two places that come to mind that are casual and family friendly...
Corvette Diner, which is a 1950's diner themed restaurant where the wait staff dress in 50's costumes and spontaneously burst into song and dance numbers (on occasion lol). It's a fun atmosphere, kids love it, the food is nice (mostly burgers, sandwiches, shakes and diner type food), but it's not the place if you are wanting a quiet, relaxing meal But if you are all up for someplace that's noisy and filled with kids, this is the place to be! I've taken a few out-of-town guests here and they all enjoyed the experience. They don't take reservations though, so try to go as early as you can for dinner- it's a very popular place and long waits are common. https://www.cohnrestaurants.com/corvettediner

Another good place for families in Liberty Station is Oggi's Brewouse & Pizza. It's a casual sports bar type place, so there are televisions set to whatever sports are on, the menu has a nice variety of pizzas, sandwiches, pastas and more, plus a decent beer menu too. They don't take reservations, either. oggis/point-loma-liberty-station/about-us/


One other place I could suggest is the Old Spaghetti Factory. It is just a little further away in the Gaslamp Quarter area of downtown (the city center). It's really not that far from the hotel, about 15-20 minutes drive, but because it is downtown you would have to pay for parking in one of the public garages- or perhaps take an Uber to and from. The closest parking garage to the restaurant that I would recommend is the 6th and K Parkade- it's only a block away from the restaurant. parkdowntownsd/garages/6th-k-parkade/ The Old Spaghetti Factory is a great place for families, all the entrees come as three course dinners that include soup or salad, an entree and a scoop of ice cream or spumoni for dessert. Prices are very reasonable and you get a lot of food. It's not gourmet Italian food or anything, but it's very nice and the restaurant is uniquely decorated and has a good atmosphere. This restaurant is always very busy, but they do take reservations- so I would recommend that if you decide to go. osf/location/san-diego-ca/


Let me know if you have any other questions, food or otherwise, that I can help answer.

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We ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory on our last night in San Diego and had a very nice meal.

[Aims]

Originally Posted by Tinkermom

Thank you so very much Amy! This is so helpful ☺️ Think we’ll try theCorvette Diner, sounds like somewhere our children will love.

Xx

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You're very welcome, Tinkermom! Your kids will have a blast at the Corvette Dinner, the adults will too Just be prepared for lots of noise and a bit of silliness It's all good fun.

Originally Posted by tocpe321

We ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory on our last night in San Diego and had a very nice meal.

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I have always enjoyed the Spaghetti Factory, tocpe. It's such a great value for the money, and the atmosphere is so cool and unique.

[Edinburger]

Hi!

We are lucky to be coming over from Scotland with our family for a 2 week holiday at the start of April. The first week we are going to be in Carlsbad as my husband is visiting one of the offices in the company he works for. I'm intending to spend the days with my three kids (10, 8 and 8) in SD doing many of the activities I've read about on this page. The second week we are free and will have my husband with us! We kind of thought we might go somewhere else for the second week, but can't quite decide where! I think we probably need to be within a 3-4 hour drive from SD, although we are flying from LAX so we could go north and come back. We have (pre-kids) had a couple of amazing sw USA touring holidays, and I think having the kids is preventing me visualising what we might do as a family! Any suggestions would be so gratefully received - I realise this is not strictly a San Diego question :-)

[Aims]

Originally Posted by Edinburger

Hi!

We are lucky to be coming over from Scotland with our family for a 2 week holiday at the start of April. The first week we are going to be in Carlsbad as my husband is visiting one of the offices in the company he works for. I'm intending to spend the days with my three kids (10, 8 and 8) in SD doing many of the activities I've read about on this page. The second week we are free and will have my husband with us! We kind of thought we might go somewhere else for the second week, but can't quite decide where! I think we probably need to be within a 3-4 hour drive from SD, although we are flying from LAX so we could go north and come back. We have (pre-kids) had a couple of amazing sw USA touring holidays, and I think having the kids is preventing me visualising what we might do as a family! Any suggestions would be so gratefully received - I realise this is not strictly a San Diego question :-)

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Hi Edinburger I love the Carlsbad area! Make sure you take some time to visit Carlsbad State Beach, it's really lovely and you can often see dolphins from the shore.



Since you are leaving from LAX, have you considered moving your hotel location for that second week? Traffic is so heavy around Los Angeles, that if you were to stay in Carlsbad and try to see places in LA, you would be spending a lot of time in the car. Universal Studios in LA would be a great place to visit with children. There is always Disneyland in Anaheim, if that interests your family. Disneyland is about 1 1/2 hours from Carlsbad, so if you were to decide to spend a couple of days there, it would also be a good idea to get a hotel in Anaheim. Knotts Berry Farm is a family theme park located in Buena Park, which is next to Anaheim and only 20 minutes from Disneyland. Long Beach isn't too far from Anaheim either, you can make a day trip to tour the Queen Mary ship which is very interesting, and the Long Beach Aquarium is nearby and it's a very fine aquarium.



Of course, I don't know if the theme parks are what your family is interested in doing, but if they are then I would suggest staying in Anaheim for a few days to cover Disneyland, Knotts and Long Beach (if you were to do all three)...then move to Los Angeles near Universal Studios to see that and onto to LAX for the flight home. Let me know if this is not what you were looking for, as far as places to see and things to do with your second week.

[kateb78]

Hi Aims

Thanks so much for your amazing thread!

My husband and I are coming to San Diego next March. We'll be finishing our drive down Highway 1 with 3 (or maybe 4) nights in San Diego. Currently we like the look of Pacific Terrace but am just sorting through the choices as there are so many! My question is whether we should keep the car once we arrive in San Diego? I don't really have any concept of how much travelling we'll need to do to see everything in such a short time. Will a car hold us back? We're flying on to Las Vegas after San Diego so would happily drop the car off in advance if that would be beneficial.

Thanks again for all your help