San Diego Vacations. So Many Options, So Little Time!

If you’re considering a San Diego vacation there is good news and bad news. Actually, the bad news is the good news. The fact is, there is so much to do in San Diego that you’re guaranteed to have a great time regardless of your favorite activities. That’s the good news; plenty to do. The bad news is that you could literally spend weeks visiting all of the worthwhile landmarks, theme parks, museums, beaches, etc. How can you fit it all into a week or a few days? The difficulty in knowing what to do on a limited schedule is the bad news.

In an attempt to provide some local wisdom, we can divide up many of the major San Diego destinations by how much time is needed to feel satisfied with your visit. With a couple of exceptions, most of these spots are not too far from downtown.

What activities could require at least one full day and maybe longer? The first thing that comes to mind is Sea World. Unless you’ve been there recently, you need to block out a pretty full day for that great marine theme park. If your group includes die-hard fans of ocean life, dolphin shows and the whole ambience of Sea World, you could spend at least a part of a second day. But if you’re short on time, allow one day.

Another one-day trip would be Legoland, up in northern San Diego County. It’s a 45-minute one-way trip if traffic is reasonable. If you have little kiddos, you could spend a full day unless the weather is really hot. In that case, get there when the park opens because the real heat will hit you in the afternoon. A few people might want to spend longer than a day at Legoland, but one day will do the trick for most of us.

If you love museums, San Diego is the place for you. There are tons of great museums in this city and you could burn a couple of days on this activity alone. Decide if your preference is more conventional art museums and history museums, or if you’d like to visit the Surf Museum or the USS Midway aircraft carrier as a living museum.

Of course you could easily spend a couple of days wandering around the historic Gaslamp Quarter near Downtown or Historic Old Town or the San Diego Zoo (you could spend a full day at this world-class zoo).

We’ve just about filled in a full week and haven’t talked about golf, the beaches, Coronado Island and the famous del Coronado Hotel or nearby Tijuana, Mexico. Nor have we touched on sport fishing, historic Julian in the foothills east of town or the 59-mile drive through the county. Most of the activities just mentioned could be enjoyed in a half-day of your San Diego vacation. So you could schedule in two or three shorter activities in one day. But don’t cram activity into every day as that will wear you out and lower the fun element. Build in a day or two to lay around on one of the several beaches.

If you get more detailed and assign times to the couple dozen most irresistible activities, you find that you’d need a month to feel that you’ve hit all the major opportunities. Since the typical vacationer does not have that much time, look at the many options and list those things that are most unique, or that you’ll feel cheated if you miss, or that appeal to the greatest number of people in your family. It’s nice to have so many choices but it does mean you should spend some time planning your San Diego vacation in advance.