July Itinerary

[kymom99]

Anyone care to give my itinerary a look and comment? Our family includes me (47), husband (51) and son (13).

10 days in SoCal (July):

1) Fly into SAN at 12:45-drive to Anaheim-Staying at HOJO
2) DL
3) DCA
4) head to San Diego via PCH-check in at BW Island Palms on Shelter Island
5) Son's 13th bday-LaJolla coastal bike tour (birthday request)
6) Coronado/Cabrillo Monument
7) Zoo
8) Segway Tour/ Midway
9) Safari Park
10) Julien (?)
11) home

The 5th day is a Saturday. From what I gather, that weekend is Comic Con. I am assuming the downtown area will be busy and should be avoided. Any thoughts on that? Open to suggestion for the last day. Interested in seeing different landscape and heard Julien is a nice drive.

Any suggestions are welcome and appreciated!

 

[rtfelt]

Safari park will be VERY hot this time of year. It's much further inland, and therefore, much hotter. Just be prepared. If the Segway tour is around Mission Bay, that should be fabulous. My husband and I went to the Midway a couple years back and loved it. If your husband and son are like most men, seeing that huge ship should be a treat. They have a flight simulator inside, so if you want to do that, give yourself some more time. It's extra though.

I don't know anything about Julien, but you might want to go to San Diego Old Town. They have some incredible Mexican restaurants along with shops and sites.

If you're going to Coronado for the ocean make sure to check the water reports. They get a "red tide" a lot there, which eliminates ocean entrance. If you're just going there to site see the Hotel Del Coronado is way cool.

If I were you and didn't get to S CA very often, I would probably do a 3rd day at DLR and do Seaworld, but if you're not that into amusement parks, then maybe this doesn't matter.

 

[kymom99]

YAY! 85 views and finally a reply!
Thanks!

We have been to WDW a number of times and our main destination is San Diego. I just decided that we needed to see DLR since we are coming so far for our very first trip to California. My son and I love Disney but my husband merely tolerates it. He loves to lounge by the pool so I figured our time in SD should have some leisure time built in.

My son chose the Wild Animal Park after researching various places. He wants to zipline but they require a guardian to go along and neither my husband or I are up for that! This is the one thing in our plan that is still a maybe. I may discuss it some more to see if we want to do Seaworld instead.

My husband did a segway tour in Epcot and loved it. He has always been fascinated with segways. This time we all are going. The company I am looking at is Another Side Of San Diego. They have several choices, and I am leaning towards the tour that goes downtown around the Gaslamp area, Petco Park, etc. It is 2 hours at $99 per person.

Thanks for the heads up on Coronado. I will check the water reports before we venture over. I am hoping to hear more about Julian. A friend went there and had a great time, but her son is younger. I did want to take a drive to that area just to see the different landscape. We'll see.

Thanks for the input!

 

[kymom99]

Another thing, my BIL travels a lot for work and has a lot of downtime. (Lucky guy) He told me about Ruby;s Shake Shack along the PCH. He said it is just a neat little place right on the water where you sit out and look over the fabulous view. One of those little things that you tend to remember. He strongly suggested taking the time to drive down the PCH, so we are dedicating a day to making the scenic drive from Anaheim to SD.

 

[llump41]

If you can do another day at the DLR then I would. 2 days there simply is not enough time.
Sea World is open late during the summer and it might be possible to double dip one of those days. Julian is a neat place but I don't know if it is worth a day trip out there unless your really into that kind of place.

 

[kymom99]

I may consider the Seaworld idea. We will have to talk about it some more. Does anyone recommend the Go San Diego card in this case? I already bought the DL tickets. It is unlikely that we will add a DL day because we already have our hotel arrangements to accomodate 2 days there. Our goal is to see the things that are different from WDW. Also, my son has never had the nerve to ride Tower of Terror, so we will do that. I think DCA will be super crowded and we don't want to fight crowds more than 2 days. We will be happy to walk through and see Cars Land and try to hit a few attractions. We have park hoppers.

I am interested in the culture and history of the southern California area as much as I am in seeing popular attractions, if that makes sense. I am interested in seeing the Cabrillo Monument, the tide pools, Hotel Del, etc.

 

[rtfelt]

He told me about Ruby;s Shake Shack along the PCH. He said it is just a neat little place right on the water where you sit out and look over the fabulous view. One of those little things that you tend to remember. He strongly suggested taking the time to drive down the PCH, so we are dedicating a day to making the scenic drive from Anaheim to SD.

I totally agree. Going down PCH is totally a California experience. It will take longer, but it will be worth it. There are several Ruby's along the way. Some are right on PCH and others are at the end of piers. If you tell me about where you'll be when you go there, I'll recommend which one. It's 50's themed hamburgers and fab shakes.

 

[kymom99]

The one he told me about was Newport Coast. It is a yellow little building with outdoor seating. How would you suggest I go from Anaheim to get to the PCH so that I pass by that location?

 

[rtfelt]

If you take the 5 south to the 55 south all the way until the freeway actually ends in Newport Beach. Continue on Newport Boulevard (this is what the 55 turns into) then take a left at PCH. When you pass the Crystal Cove Trail intersection look for the driveway on the right. There are others though. There's one with outdoor, deck seating in south Laguna Beach right past Terry Road on PCH. It's on the left. There's also Johnny Rockets (a lot like Rubys) that looks right out onto Main Beach in Laguna Beach on PCH at the 200 intersection.

 

[endy]

Interesting. I'd never heard of Julian before.
While it looks like a place I'd like to go see there isn't much my ds15 would be interested in. We tent camp and there's lots of camping in the area.
A day when the farmers market is on would be good. The landscape would be nice to see too as it's not the desert I was expecting it would be.
We drove out to El Campo a few years back to do the steam engine train tour. It was sooooo hot, a hilly, boring drive.
Thanks for mentioning even if I wasn't of any help.
I may consider going there this summer. We spend 2 weeks in SD and have done and seen a lot of the area usually costal not inland.