San Diego sites worth it?

[melmel]

We are starting our planning for our DL trip the end of September, and I'm trying to figure out where all we want to go. I've found what appear to be great prices with the LA and San Diego city passes. They would get us 3 hopper days at DL, plus Legoland, the SD zoo and Universal. Then I started looking at the map and realized that's a lot of driving. I had already planned to do 1 day at Universal, what I want to know is, is it worth the drive to San Diego for the zoo and Legoland. I have 2 boys, one will be just shy of 7 the other just shy of 3. We're already renting a car so it's not the cost just the distance that worries me. Anyone who's been crazy enough to do this, would you recommend it?

 

[Lynne G]

Not sure how long your vacation is, but 2 years ago, we flew into LA, drove the rental car down to SD, and stayed at the beach for 3 nights and enjoyed the Zoo, and the beach and a ball game at the stadium downtown. We also drove over to Coronado Island to see the famous hotel and see the Navy planes fly over. Then we drove to Universal and stayed 2 nights, then we drove to DL for 6 nights. 2 years before that, I stayed at DL and drove to Legoland 2 days during our DL stay. The ride was about an hour in the morning, and longer in the evening. Both vacations were at the end of August. I went to Legoland during week-days. My kids are teens now, so we may spend some more time in SD, still go to Universal, and spend less time at DL and skip Legoland.

If it was me, with the kids ages, I'd make DL the home base, and drive to Legoland and Universal. I'd skip the Zoo, as that's the furthest, or stay a couple of nights in the SD area, then move to DL.

I like to drive, and used the HOV lanes when I could to cut down on the traffic. There's a HOV lane exit to DL when you are traveling south to north. I was happy to see that.

Have a great vacation!

 

[kamik86]

I just got back Sunday from a trip to CA where we did 3 full days in San Diego (the zoo and seaworld mostly) 1/2 day to drive up to anaheim and did 3.5 days at disneyland.

The drive wasn't bad at all. I think probably 2 hours of driving at most and part of that was just being stuck in traffic a bit on I5 out of San Diego. (We were stupid and left around 8:30 if you didn't do this at a time where everyone was trying to go to work it would probably be faster). We didn't even use the HOV lanes either (our GPS wasn't set to use them so we just stayed in the lanes it told us to)

It might be a bit of a drive if you were staying near disneyland the whole time... but there are alot of places you could stay in San Diego. Legoland is on the way between San Diego and Disneyland (I remember passing signs for it) so you could even put that as your transition day to make the driving in two parts.

 

[Camonkeygirl]

One thing to keep in mind with the City Pass is that the Zoo is an upgrade, and can only be purchased through the City Pass website. The City Passes purchased at the parks does not include the Zoo

 

[zshellmatt]

We went to SoCal last summer for a two week stay. We started out in San Diego and stayed 3 full days Sunday thru Wednesday morning and headed to Legoland then the Disney/Hollywood/LA area.. I wished we would have stayed longer in San Diego (we are going back this summer)... We went to Belmont Park, which the kids loved its on Mission Beach. We also did Seaworld. We purchased the SD City Pass and the LA Go Card, which I loved both. We were able to do Universal Studios,Disneyland, Six Flags, Legoland, Knottsberry and Knotts Soak City , Hollywood attractions and a bunch of museums and tours were available. After San Diego we went to Los Alamitos and stayed there for the rest of the time. The drive was not bad and was pretty centrally located. On the way is when we went to Legoland for the day. We had so much fun. This summer we are spending 6 nights in San Diego and going to the Zoo and Safari Park, Belmont Park, Sea World and exploring the beaches. Next we are heading to the Disneyland area for 5 nights and doing Disney and the Beach, then we are driving down to San Francisco for 5 nights and finally staying 2 night on the Grand Canyon on the way home. The drive to each location was not too bad, but we are used to driving from Oklahoma

 

[melmel]

Thank you all for the help. You've made me feel better about the drive involved. I think we'll do San Diego after all.

 

[Girlie1]

Any suggestions where to stay in San Diego other than Hotel Del Coronado? I am looking for a nice hotel/motel near the beach that does not break the bank. We will be spending three nights in the area.