Visiting San Diego is a must on your bucket list, we were amazed by how much there was to see and explore. It truly is a great destination no matter what your age is or whether you are traveling solo, as a couple, in a group, or as a family. You will see what I mean when you see the variety of options there is to do below.

I would recommend renting a car if you can. While everything is accessible within 20 to 30-minutes and you can certainly take Ubers, having a car definitely made it more convenient to pack up for day trips and get to all the fun locations when you wanted. As far as length of stay goes, I’d recommend spending a full five days in San Diego if you’re able to. It will give you the perfect amount of time to both relax a few days and also take a few day trips.

Below, organized by location in San Diego, is what Joey and I did along with other ideas we collected from our community! Thank you again to everyone who messaged us and shared their experiences in San Diego when we were planning.

Downtown San Diego

We stayed downtown San Diego at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. We thought this location was excellent for our first time in San Diego because it was central and walkable to fun restaurants and entertainment at night. If we were to visit again, we definitely would stay at Hotel Coronado for a different, more beach experience. Grand Hyatt Hotel was still a great experience though. They have a rooftop pool, access to bikes to enjoy and a Starbucks within their lobby – making it convenient if you want to grab a coffee right when you wake up!

While in downtown San Diego, the main things to do include exploring Seaport Village, walking around The Gaslamp District, watching a San Diego Padres MLB Game and visiting shops and restaurants.

Restaurant to try: Born and Raised, the most amazing steakhouse located in Little Italy. Their website isn’t fancy, but everything else about this restaurant is! It took everything in us to try other restaurants and to not go back every night for dinner (we did go back for dessert and drinks another night though!).

Coronado:

Coronado is a 20-minute drive from downtown San Diego and you go over a really high, fun bridge to get there (that’s an experience in itself).

Things to do in Coronado:

• Visit the famous Hotel del Coronado
• Relax and walk along Coronado Beach

Restaurant to try: Call us crazy, but for this trip we just ate right at Hotel del Coronado because of their casual. outdoor restaurant that overlooked the beach. They had amazing food and wonderful drinks. When you get there, you will see why we chose to just stay there; the views from Hotel del Coronado just couldn’t be beat for lunch. HOWEVER, at the bottom of this page, I do list out other restaurants that were shared with us. Next time, we do hope to explore a bit more in Coronado.

Pro tip: Chipotle is located two blocks away. For an easy lunch, go grab that and bring it back to eat right in your beach chairs! We did this our last day and it was perfect.

La Jolla:

La Jolla is about a 30-minute drive from downtown San Diego and definitely worth visiting.

Things to do in La Jolla:

• Sea Kayaking! We did this and it was fantastic. You even get to go through a little cove where the Sea Lions play and sleep for an up close view of them (beware, it is a little smelly, but still worth the adventure and memories!).
• Watch the seals from the sidewalk overlooking the ocean
• Rent a picnic with seaside views – there are a few rental companies you can find online that set up cute picnic areas for you so you can enjoy lunch with the best view in town.
• Swim at the beach! The waters in La Jolla are gorgeous.
• Shop! La Jolla has so many great shops and it’s just fun to stroll the streets and hopefully find a few things to bring home.

Restaurants to try: Puesto! It’s a local chain restaurant, but everyone local we asked kept recommending it and now we know why! The tacos are to die for! We had the shrimp and steak tacos and honestly, wish we had room to eat twice as many. Definitely make sure you go to Puesto one night while you are in San Diego (there is one near Seaport Village as well).

Drinks: Go to George’s at the Cove to grab HH on their rooftop for sunset.

San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo is incredible and only a 13-minute drive from downtown San Diego. No matter your age, it is a must do! One fun thing I’d recommend here is trying out the Aerial Tram, it is such a neat way to view the animals and gain a different perspective of the zoo and the exhibits.

Olympic Training Center

The Olympic Training Stadium, located in Chula Vista, is a 23-minute drive from downtown San Diego. It is 155 acres of state-of-art-venues for the athletes. We took the tour while we were there and it was pretty awesome to see some of the athletes practicing on the fields. It also is kind of a neat see the facilities they stayed in throughout their training.

Restaurant recommendations from others we didn’t get to:

• La Jolla
  • The Taco Stand
  • Galaxy Taco
• Downtown San Diego:
  • Rustic Roots for Steak Frites
  • Cafe 222
  • Fig Tree Cafe – they have a Nutella Latte!
  • Juniper & Ivy – didn’t make it here, but we wanted to! Located in Little Italy and it’s supposed to be incredible
  • King and Queen Cantina for amazing enchiladas and cheesy sauce
  • The Baked Bear for Ice Cream Sandwiches
  • Holy Matcha
  • Crack Shack for Fried Chicken
  • Extraordinary Desserts
  • Starlite bar for a fun night bar
  • Morning Glory
  • Donut Bar
• Coronado:
  • Villa Nueva
  • Coronado Brewery – the pub pretzel is supposed to be amazing!

Now, have a blast on your trip to San Diego!

Thank you again for stopping by! I hope this guide helps you plan a fun trip to San Diego! To stay in touch and to receive updates when new content and opportunities are added, be sure to subscribe to my email list. I send one monthly newsletter and would love to have you in the community!

Love, Bri