San Diego with Kids
Beach Fun
A pail and shovel can keep kids entertained for hours at the beach—Coronado Beach is especially family-friendly. Be liberal with the sunscreen, even if it’s cloudy.
If you’re visiting in summer, check out Imperial Beach's Sun and Sea Festival. This sand castle competition in July even has a kids’ contest.
Drop off the tweens and teens for a morning surf lesson and enjoy some guilt-free grown-up time. Or rent bikes for a casual family ride along the Mission Bay boardwalk. If that’s not enough of an adventure, take your daring offspring on the Giant Dipper, an old wooden roller coaster at Mission Bay’s Belmont Park, also home to a huge arcade and the Beach House.
Top Attractions
LEGOLAND California is a full day of thrills for kids 12 and under, while the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Safari Park satisfy all age groups and every kind of kid, from the curious (plenty of educational angles) to the boisterous (room to run around and lots of animals to imitate). They even have family sleepover nights in summer.
Winter Sightings
If you’re visiting in winter, try a whale-watching tour. Even if you don’t see any migrating gray whales, the boat ride is fun. La Jolla’s Birch Aquarium has enough glowing and tentacled creatures to send imaginations plummeting leagues under the sea.
Museums Geared to Kids
An afternoon at the museum might elicit yawns until they spy all the neat stuff at Balboa Park’s San Diego Air and Space Museum, which celebrates aviation and flight history with exhibitions that include actual planes. The Fleet Science Center inspires budding scientists with interactive exhibits and its IMAX dome theater. The San Diego Model Railroad Museum features miles and miles of model trains and track, including an incredibly detailed reproduction of the Tehachapi railroad circa 1952.
Downtown’s New Children’s Museum appeals to all age groups. With installations geared just for them and dry and wet art-making areas (less mess for you), kids can channel all that excess vacation energy into something productive. While they color and craft, you can admire the museum’s ultracontemporary, sustainable architecture.
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Baseball buffs will have a blast at Petco Park, where the San Diego Padres play all spring and summer. Petco’s Park at the Park, a grassy elevated area outside the stadium, offers stellar center-field views—plus all the action on a big screen—with a sandy play space if your kids get bored after a few innings.
Treating Your Tots
With locations in Pacific Beach and Carmel Mountain, The Baked Bear ( www.thebakedbear.com) offers customized ice-cream sandwiches that are sure to please. If toys trump sweet treats, check out the classics at Geppetto’s (www.geppettostoys.com), a family-run business with 10 locations throughout San Diego, including Old Town, La Jolla, and the Fashion Valley Mall.
