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Top Things to Do in San Diego With Family

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Family-friendly San Diego needs no introduction. A year-round destination, the urban center and its surrounding environs offer everything from beaches and hikes to animals and Legos. That's what makes it such a popular destination for families; there are countless amounts of fun things to practice in San Diego with kids. Whether you're in that location for your first visit or fifth, these are our top picks.

Fun Things to Do in San Diego
Giraffe feeding time at the San Diego Zoo

x Family-Friendly and Fun Things to Practise in San Diego

San Diego Zoo

Spread across 100 acres, the San Diego Zoo is home to iii,700 rare and endangered animals, with some 700,000 plants creating the lush habitats surrounding them. Well known for its animal care and conservation efforts (the zoo employs 300 creature care staff!), the zoo is a tiptop priority for most San Diego-bound travelers.

Given its sprawling size, it can exist a lot of basis to comprehend, especially for footling legs. Families may want to consider upgraded experiences such as the two-60 minutes Inside Look tour with a driver guiding visitors through the zoo on a golf cart and stopping at several beast enclosures forth the manner. Aye, the tour comes at a premium, but information technology is well worth it to make the almost of your 24-hour interval and time. You'll acquire incredible facts near the animals (e.g., koala babies are the size of a jellybean when they are born), and gain behind-the-scenes access. During a recent visit, our family of iv was able to see the penguins so close-up we could take touched them, visit the elephant care and kitchen surface area, and even feed lettuce leaves to Harriet the giraffe. Both our 5-yr-old son and 9-year-former daughter fondly recollect the tour as an enriching and enjoyable highlight.

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Whale Watching

Don't come all the style to the Pacific Ocean without looking for whales, dolphins, sea lions and birds on a whale watching cruise off San Diego'due south coast! Watching a whale fluke or breach is truly a majestic sight, and from wintertime to jump, migrating gray whales can often exist spotted in the surrounding waters. Come summer, you're likely to run across blue whales and humpbacks. Hornblower Cruises is one of the most popular whale watching operators in San Diego, with volunteer naturalists from the San Diego Natural History Museum on board for some sailings to characterize and share facts. The 3.5-60 minutes cruise is best suited for families with older children and teens.

Fun Things to Do in San Diego with Kids
New York City rendered in Legos

Legoland California

In the northern San Diego suburb of Carlsbad, the Legoland theme park attracts brick-loving kids and adults akin. With rides, shows, exhibits and even a small aquarium, the 128-acre park offers something for all ages, making it a gem amongst the many amusement parks found in southern California.

A favorite of ours is Miniland The states, where visitors can walk around and look at remarkably precise models of several Usa cities — including San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans — consummate with landmarks, moving vehicles and Lego people. In Fun Town, which is geared toward younger Lego masters, toddlers and preschoolers can ride a Lego train and play with Duplo bricks. From a fairy tale-inspired gunkhole ride to a dinosaur rollercoaster, there's plenty to entertain older kids too.

Legoland also operates an adjacent water park, which is especially popular during the summer months. And should you want to stay the dark, book a room at the park's onsite hotel, where y'all can sleep on a bed congenital from bricks, of course.

Our family travel advisors would be happy to help your family book a fun-filled accommodation parcel.

Great Eats

From the Piffling Italy Mercato Farmer'due south Market on Saturdays to some of the land's best craft breweries and taco joints, San Diego has groovy food. Spots like Tribute Pizza and Galaxy Taco are family-friendly and tasty enough to satisfy everyone. Plant-based eatery Donna Jean is delicious, a major hit for our vegetarian family. Subsequently, seek out i of 3 Bobboi locations for a scoop of stracciatella or pistachio gelato. It is not to be missed!

Fun Things to Do in San Diego
Entranced by koi in Balboa Park's Japanese Friendship Garden

Balboa Park

In the center of downtown San Diego, Balboa Park is 1,400 gorgeous acres of green infinite. (By comparison, New York City'south Primal Park is 842 acres.) In 1915, Balboa Park was the setting for the Panama-California Exposition celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal and securing San Diego'south place as a port, which is why several of the city's oldest and most ornate buildings can be institute hither. Many of those celebrated buildings at present firm robust museums such as the San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego Museum of Fine art and family-friendly San Diego Natural History Museum (theNAT).

Aside from its 16 museums, the park also boasts a serene Japanese Friendship Garden (kids will love strolling through the grounds and stopping to lookout man koi fish) and the intricately detailed 200-foot-tall California Tower, which visitors tin can climb for stunning views of the unabridged San Diego Bay expanse. To help visitors get around, the city runs a gratuitous tram with 5 major stops throughout the park. Information technology's worth noting that the San Diego Zoo technically resides inside Balboa Park as well.

TIP: If you beloved amazing views and nature, be sure to carve out fourth dimension to visit the Cabrillo National Monument and the nearby tide pools. Much like Balboa Park, information technology's the perfect mix of nature park and history.

Torrey Pines State Nature Reserve

No trip to San Diego would be complete without fourth dimension on the beautiful hiking trails. If you tin only do i, this is our acme pick. Spanning 1,750 acres, Torrey Pines State Nature Reserve sits on dramatic cliffs above Torrey Pines Country Beach; in fact, early Castilian explorers called the area " Punto de Los Arboles ," or Indicate of Trees, since it was so rare to run across groves of trees along the southern California coast.

Comprising sandstone canyons and pine forests, including the namesake and rare Torrey pine, the reserve offers 8 miles of trails. The easier, more family-friendly paths include the 0.seven-mile Guy Fleming trail or one.4-mile Razor Point loop. Several trails crisscross, so it's possible to start on one and return on the other. Bound brings lots of wildflowers among the coast chaparral; volunteer docents are frequently onsite also, sharing the reserve'due south history and handing out nature bingo cards to children. Next to the reserve, the Craftsman-style Lodge at Torrey Pines is a stunning 170-room property with direct access to the trails (the Lodge even set ups a trail mix bar for guests every forenoon).

Rest those tired legs past watching hang gliders take off and land at the Torrey Pines Gliderport. It'south at the far southern cease of the park and is the elevation paragliding and hang gliding spot in the United States. Tempted to effort a tandem flight? At that place's no historic period limit — fifty-fifty toddlers tin can bring together in.

Fun Things to Do in San Diego
Seals at La Jolla Cove

La Jolla Beaches & Cove

Golden beaches and hidden coves are synonymous with the seaside hamlet of La Jolla. Stretching for 7 miles, the coastline hither varies between dramatic and tranquil. For sandcastle building and splashing around, caput to La Jolla Shores, a mile-long stretch of sand that attracts all sorts of beachgoers. The parking lot fills up in summer, so arrive early or be prepared to circle for a bit. For snorkeling, try La Jolla Cove, where it's common to come across Garibaldi fish and thousands of leopard sharks during the summer. Nearby, spot friendly seals and sea lions at the Children'due south Pool, a minor cove originally intended as a swimming area for kids, but at present home to dozens of seals and sea lions and their pups. In fact, there are so many of the adorable marine animals in this expanse, look to odour them before you lot see them!

Padres Baseball game Games

Baseball-loving families will desire to head to Petco Park to picket a game when they visit San Diego. The park has fabricated a concerted effort to attract families, and there's actually a park within the park for kids. During all Sunday home games, the area is tricked out with bounce houses, face painters, balloons and more. While it's a flake harder to follow every play from this green space, information technology does let immature children freedom to move. Kids can also run the bases, play take hold of on-field and participate in ball signings as function of the gratis Compadres Kids programme. Wander the surrounding Gaslamp Quarter before or later on the game for a full 24-hour interval of fun.

Fun Things to Do in San Diego
Whammock! by Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam at the New Children'southward Museum. Photo by Brandon Colbert

New Children's Museum

Originally in La Jolla, the New Children'southward Museum opened in its electric current calorie-free-filled downtown space in 2008. Inbound the multi-story, 50,000-foursquare-human foot space, it'southward immediately evident that a lot of thought and imagination has gone into the museum'south design. Off the bat, a room lined entirely with mattresses invites kids to literally bound on the bed. Both vivid and uncomplicated, the playful space gets those wiggles out and then kids can embark on sculpting with clay or creating with recycled materials in the Innovators Lab with all the more than focus.

Upstairs, the Whammock, a colorful rope climbing sculpture, is as inspiring every bit it is fun. Canada-based creative person Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam spent an entire year hand-braiding and crocheting the "textile playground." Other museum features such a chalk wall, a sandbox room and plenty of wooden parts downstairs give kids the freedom to explore and engage with materials that appeal to them.

Apple Picking in Nearby Julian

A celebrated mining town in the nearby Cuyamaca Mountains, Julian is an hour's bulldoze from San Diego and a popular day trip for families. With cows grazing on hilltops and roadside stands selling produce and jams, the quaint town is a welcome escape from frenetic urban center life. Stroll Primary Street, where old-fashioned stores sell quilts, candles, jewelry and more. Kids will enjoy visiting during the fall apple season when several farms offer apple picking and cider-pressing, including Apple tree Starr and Crosscut Subcontract & Orchard. Selection up pies at the famed Mom's Pie House. Tired parents tin sample beer at Nickel Beer Co. or grab some hard cider to go from Julian Hard Cider.

Where to stay in San Diego: We beloved Park Hyatt Aviara, and our family travel advisors can offer sectional perks if you book your stay through our bureau. Attain out to us here.

The one thing you lot'll never hear kids in San Diego saying? "Nosotros're bored." It is why this town remains a house favorite on the family unit vacation destination list!

Relevant Links:

Scan all family-friendly accommodations and activities in San Diego on Ciao Bambino

A grand oasis outside San Diego at Park Hyatt Aviara

L'Auberge Del Mar: An intimate beachside resort well-nigh San Diego

Kids get the VIP treatment at San Diego's Rancho Bernardo Inn

Multigenerational fun on a San Diego Safari Park caravan safari tour

Editor'southward Notation: Photos by Tanvi Chheda except where noted.

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