We weren't planning to do anything big for our honeymoon... Maybe spend a long weekend at Wisconsin Dells or something. But my new MIL surprised Justin and I! She travels a lot for work and has a lot of traveler's miles saved up. She got us both round trip tickets to San Diego, CA! PLUS, she paid for 5 out of 6 nights at a very nice hotel AND our rental car. So... We are going to California August 6-August 12 and I couldn't be more excited!!! Now... What do we do while we are there? Oliver is staying home with my mom, so it will just be Justin and I.
We will be arriving in San Diego at about 1pm on Monday, so I think we are just going to spend the rest of the day exploring. We know that we are going to each get a 3-for-1 pass which will allow us to go to San Diego Zoo, San Diego Safari Park, and SeaWorld. So that takes care of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
So what do we do on Friday and Saturday? I know that Justin REALLY wants to go fishing, but we are still looking at the prices for that. I'm debating between Universal Studios or DisneyWorld as a possibility too. Which one would you do? Justin seems to think that DisneyWorld is going to be "lame" without our son there. I, however, am a HUGE Disney fan and would love to go. Plus, I have heard that they have a lot of adult friendly things there as well. I'm not sure about Universal Studios. I'm not big on scary rides, and I know that Universal Studios is all about their scary rides! But Justin might have more fun there than he would at Disney World. I don't know. If it was just you and your husband/wife, would you go to Universal Studios or DisneyWorld for a day?
After zoo, safari park and sea world, Disney may be fun but I would go to Coronado Island. Have a low key day. There are places to walk. The beach is beautiful.
Wow, what a jam-packed honeymoon! I LOVE San Diego! We honeymooned there too.
You've hit most of the big attractions, as far as amusement parks, however, there is more to do there than just that.
Right on the bay downtown is the USS Midway, which is a really awesome experience to tour. You can also take a harbor tour on one of the Hornblower boats.
Old Town has some really cute stores and great restaurants.
Go across the bridge to Coronado Island and you'll get to one of the top-rated beaches in the US.
You can take a bike ride from Mission Bay to La Jolla, eat lunch, snorkel, and bike back to Mission Bay. (We did this, but hubby's butt hurt him for a week :)
Go up to Loma Point where the lighthouse is, and then to the tidepools where enormous waves come crashing in.
I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE San Diego! If we could swing it, financially, I'd move there tomorrow!
Congratulations!!
I would not go to Disneyland as it's NOT in San Diego. It's about 3 hours north in Los Angeles (on a good day). And it's traffic - so you might be tense after getting there.
The San Diego W. Animal Park is great!
Mission Bay is (or was when I lived there) LOVELY!!!
Coronado Bay and the Coronado bridge are nice too for sight-seeing.
La Jolla (pronounced La - Hoy-Ya) beach is nice too.
If either of your are military buffs - there is Miramar Naval Air Station - they used to have a museum on base. This is where Top Gun was filmed.
If you are into baseball - check to see if the Padres have a home game and go to Qual-Comm stadium.
Congratulations!
I don't know how old you are but I would personally skip the amusement parks. We did Disney in FL with daughter over 8 times so I am amusement parked out and glad we are past that stage.
We were in SD for a conference this past April and enjoyed ourselves a lot.
We had an AWESOME dinner (one of our best ever) in LaJolla at the Crab Catcher
I went on a trolley tour of the city on a special charter trolley but anyone can go on these tours. You can get on and off when you like at certain locations you want to explore. LOVED it.
Hotel de Coronado was a beautiful place. When you are airborne, you can see the manmade sand dunes saying CORONADO!!
I went on a special tour of the zoo which included backstage to feed giraffes, etc. FUN!
Hubby is a golfer and he played at Torrey Pines which is a HUGE treat for a golfer to be able to get on that course. As they played golf, the scenery was beautiful and people were gliding in kite like contraptions over the cliffs and course.
The weather was much cooler than we expected but we still had a great time. We enjoyed a lot of walking, dining and chilling out.
We did have a friend attending the conference from LA. She said her drive was unknown... anywhere from 2.5 to 5 hours to travel between LA and SD depending on traffic. You might think about that.
PS.... We stayed at the Hilton resort in Mission Bay. It was very nice but I've been to nicer places more convenient to restaurants, etc. as I said, we were at a conference. I'd book Hotel del Coronado in a heartbeat!!
Enjoy!
Just a heads up, if you're staying in San Diego and intend on driving to Disney in Anaheim, plan on a minimum of a 2 - 2.5 hour drive. If you plan on going to Universal, plan on a 3 - 3.5 hour drive from San Diego. Might even be four hours to Los Angeles from San Diego, I swear it gets worse each time we do it. :) And you're going to be awfully tired from the Zoo, Safari Park and Sea World. That's a lot of walking! Food for thought. I'd stay local in San Diego and do the beach scene and hit the great restaurants, maybe take in a concert at Humphrey's by the Bay, etc.
Spend at least an afternoon at the Embarcadero, the port is there with museums and ships and Seaport Village with lots of shops and places to eat is right there:
http://www.sandiegocoastlife.com/communities/san-diego-ba...
Check out Balboa Park, all the museums there offer certain free days every month, you might get in an a few:
http://www.balboapark.org/
You have to drive over the bridge to Coronado Island and check out the Hotel del Coronado. We had drinks outside one evening (you don't have to be a guest), it was breathtakingly beautiful!
http://www.hoteldel.com/
And I wouldn't do Disneyland or Universal Studios, way too far away. There's so much to do in San Diego you won't miss them ツ
We lived in San Diego for a few years, so I think I can answer this adequately. It sounds like you have lots of fun sightseeing activities planned, which is great, but San Diego has a beautiful natural environment! You will regret it if you don't plan to spend some time relaxing at the beach! I highly recommend walking around and lunch on the beach in La Jolla or Del Mar, and you could easily spend an entire day hiking around Torrey Pines nature preserve, which is also directly above a great beach. Drive down to Coronado and have a drink at the Hotel Del Coronado bar on the beach. All of these things were our favorites and, since it sounds like you are on a budget I will just add that they are much cheaper than the theme parks.... I would pick the beach over Universal Studios any day, especially coming from WI! Have a great time!
Its your honey moon! enough with the theme parks already. They are exhausting you know: lots of walking, lots of hassles with parking and shuttles, and tick lines, screaming children, and long lines in summer for rides end result- no energy for love making. I strongly suggest narrowing it down to two.
How about strolling old town San Diego and getting some margaritas and mexican food?
Spend a day at the world class La Costa Spa (in Carlsbad in north San Diego Co) getting treatments and enjoying the facilities- steam and sauna, they also have shared male and female (no kids allowed) pools and hot tubs and outdoor showers, not just the same sex ones in the locker rooms. Order lunch and eat it in your cosy white robes. Ahhh, I've been there and just thinking about it makes me relaxed. Can't imagine a better place to spend with my lover. And it would probably cost about the same as a theme park.
Plan a beach day. Aug is a perfect month for beach going. Does the hotel have a nice pool? If its a nice hotel make sure to enjoy some time at the hotel. You have to lounge some one your honeymoon. (also don't underestimate how exhausted you will be after the wedding)
Both the zoo and the wild animal park are wonderful, but pick one or the other. I may be too local and just taking this stuff for granted, but there are zoos all over the place, I strongly recommend skipping the 3 in one pass. See world is relatively unique and offers a few fun rides (not many mind you) to get that bug out of your system. I say make Seaworld your only theme park day and find something more adult and relaxing for your other days. If you want to make your second one Disney Land, go for it. I find that a little romantic and I'm super nostalgic about Disney. I've also been to Universal studios, its a bit of a rat race. If I were going to go to two theme park i'd go to Sea World and Disney land. While the zoos are more low key and relaxing than Sea World, its not hard to get a zoo experience at another time in another place.
Love San Diego! If it were just me and my husband it would definitely not include Disney or Universal after having done the zoo, safari park, and Sea World. We love Coronado Island! The beach there is fabulous! If you like going out on the town you might like exploring the Gaslight district. Old Town for Mexican food is a must. Point Loma is beautiful too. Take time to relax. I would recommend doing one of your big things and then spending a day at the beach or doing something more relaxing the next day. We were at Sea World (with two kids) for 8-9 hours and only saw half of it. Same with the zoo. And we were exhausted the next day. Take time to relax!!
Are there historical sites around there, museums, wine country? I know Troy and I would be all over the microbreweries. I would imagine the restaurants around there are amazing.
Maybe we are just old fuddy duddies but we tend to seek out what we cannot find anywhere else in the country or closer to home. Like there was a Mc Donalds in Rome, we didn't eat there.
You also have to consider your husband is quite a bit older than you, perhaps he would like to do some grown up things. Everything on your list are things that kids like, you don't have your kid, ya know?
Congrats! I'm from that area. It is a 2+ hour drive from SD to Disneyland (Disneyworld is in Florida) and then add another 45min to an hour to get to Universal Studios, which is in Los Angeles. Don't bother to go to Legoland, which I noticed you didn't mention, but it is for smaller kids. Also, Mexico is right there so you could also go to Tijuana if that is something you might like to do (but you need a passport, fyi). Of course the beach is there to. I would plan to spend an entire day just sitting on the beach. I'm glad you are getting a honeymoon and some time away. Enjoy!
If given the choice between the 2 I would pick Disneyland over Universal any day. You can do Universal in about half a day at most, there isn't a lot there. Disneyland does have a lot of things to offer adults. Blue Bayou is great for a romantic dinner as are a couple restraurants in California Adventure. There is a desert package offered with prefered seating for Fantasmic. There are many attractions that are enjoyable for adults, and not all thrill ride type ones. I know many of our friends that do romantic trips without their kids to Disneyland and they completely enjoy them. They offer honeymoon packages and wedding packages so they know they are not just catering to the kids with their parents just dragging along because they have to.
DisneyLAND is only 1.5 hours from San Diego. I wouldn't want to go without my kid, though. Def. go to Coronado for the romance. I would steer clear of Mexico. Do Balboa Park, but you can't get the free days at the museums unless your a resident. Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla has beautiful views and it's cheap. Have a nice meal at Jakes in Del Mar. Enjoy!
