I went to San Diego for my friend's bachelorette party back in April and it was an action packed weekend filled with fun games, food, plenty of site-seeing, and tons of wine =). I love San Diego and it's been well over 10 years since the last time I went so being able to go back this year was great and I got to do a lot more than expected. When you only have 3 to 4 days for a trip, you want to get the most out of it without being overwhelmed. Today, I wanted to take some time to give you all a few tips and suggestions to help plan your short weekend stay if you do decide to venture into SoCal!
1) Reserve a day or half a day for the beach.
Chances are, you're going to San Diego to enjoy the beautiful weather and as weird as it may sound, planning your schedule/itinerary for relaxing is very useful. Depending where you stay at (we stayed at a beach house rental right on Mission Blvd!), the beach may be in your backyard or a short drive away. If you do have a chance to, check out Coronado Beach!
At Coronado Beach - hotel in the back! |
2) Save some time and eat around the area you're staying at.
Living right on Mission Blvd. there was an abundance of food and grocery stores so we didn't have to go far for food. There was a taco shop right across the street where we took food to-go for tacos on the beach and further down the was a cute ice cream shop with some delicious cake batter ice cream!
3) For whatever reason you're there for, if you're of age and enjoy wine, then I would highly recommend checking out a few wineries out in Temecula.
Temecula is basically wine country of San Diego where they allow you to try a flight of 6 in your tasting. There are companies that will even bundle a couple or more wineries in one trip and drive you around. We did a mini tour of 3 wineries so we had a whole lot to drink, haha. The ones we went to were Carter Estate Winery & Resort, Monto De Oro Winery & Vinyards, and Bel Vino Winery.
3) Pick a few sites that interest you and plan your day around there such as: Belmont Park or Balboa Park.
Both places have a lot to do and see and you will spend a good chunk of time at both. Other places of note that we didn't get a chance to go to that you may also be interested in are La Jolla and the San Diego Zoo. It's a good time to check out a few places to eat between venues to make the most of the time instead of spending too much time figuring out what you want to eat!
BALBOA PARK
BELMONT PARK
4) Enjoy a night out in the town at Gaslamp Quarter.
This area is filled with clubs, bars, lounges, and food! We came here twice but were a bit tired to do too much after eating to hit the town, but everyone else was definitely out and about.
We definitely wanted to hit up In-N-Out (it was my first time there ever!) and another one of the girls really wanted to try out these ice cream flights (yes, ice cream flights!) at Hammond's and of course we couldn't pass that up. We ended up using our last day to fit in all the foodie items as we had a later flight at night.
Hammond's Ice Cream
In-N-Out
6) My last tip would be to try and schedule your flight back home to be able to have a whole day to do any additional site seeing.
This works best for 2-3 hour flights back home, more so if you don't have to work the next day. That way, you save on an extra night at your hotel/rental and you don't have to miss out on major sites. Our last day, we checked out of our rental by 10 AM and had a day filled with adventure and food before we had to check in at the airport for our 8 PM flight.
Those are my suggestions and tips for a fun weekend trip to San Diego! Have you been to San Diego before? Any other places you'd recommend, especially for first timers?
-Kirstie