Day trip to San Diego - any tips and advice? (Los Angeles: rental car, rental)

[htnguyen504]

Hi CD'ers! I will be taking a week vacation to Los Angeles and flying into LAX with my girlfriend. We are 30 and have no kids with us and will be having a rental car. Looking to drive to SD for a day trip from Los Angeles in the middle of the first week of September and needing ideas for what to do, eat, and see in SD. I already have hiking to potato chip rock in Ramona on my list, as well as Balboa Park, and checking out Hotel Del Coronado. We love to eat (tacos, sushi, Vietnamese food, burgers but open to anything) , hike, site see, beaches. Not big on drinking and bars. Possibly may stay an extra day if warranted in SD. Any tips would be appreciated!

[moved]

You can't do all of that in a day, you'll have to choose.

[loveautumn]

That’s quite a lot to do in one day. San Diego is a huge county and that’s a lot to cover, just driving from place to place can eat up a chunk of your day! I’d say pick an area, downtown/urban areas, North County beach towns, etc. and take it from there.

[TacoSoup]

Oh geez, where do I start. You’ll need to stay an extra day if you plan on doing just the things on your list. Potato chip rock is in Poway, not Ramona, and you can plan on half your day being spent there. I haven’t hiked to it since I was a kid in the 80’s, but my mom use to like to go to it whenever we went to lake Poway, which was often as we lived there. Plan on a good 4-5 hours, not including the time to get back to the city center if you choose to go there.

Unless you start your day really early going to the rock you won’t get much of a chance to truly take in Balboa Park. That will take a good half day as well just to scratch the surface. If you like museums, or want to go to the zoo, plan on a full day.

The Del, and Coronado is a great choice. With the water still being warm in early September you’ll want to go during the day to take advantage of the great beach there.

With that being said, snorkeling at La Jolla cove would be worth your time with the warm water. While you’re there you can check out the seals at Children’s Pool.

If you come on a Tuesday every place in town does a taco Tuesday special, even Petco Park for the Padre games. A lot of sushi places do 1/2 off rolls on Monday and Tuesday as well, Zen 5 in PB has been my go to for years on those days. I’m not big on Vietnamese food, but do like a good bowl of pho, and there seems to be a pho place on every corner these days.

I can go on about what to do, as I’m sure everyone else will too, but your time is very limited. Seriously plan on 2 days if you want to really enjoy your time here doing just the 3 things you want to do. I own a club at the beach and I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met over the years that came down from LA for the day and wished they stayed longer, decided to stay longer, and most commonly, decided just to come back to San Diego, and skip LA, for all future trips/vacations.

[Jenkay]

If you go from the 67, it's only a 4-mile round trip to potato chip rock (albeit steep and less scenic than the 7.5-mile trip from lake Poway). Someone who's in shape and used to hiking should easily be able to complete that in 2 hours, and if you start early, you'll still have plenty of time to go hang out in Balboa park and get a nice meal with a stop at the Hotel Del on the way out, maybe at sunset?

Keep in mind that potato chip rock is one of the best known, and thus one of the busiest, trails in the county, which usually means lines of people waiting for a photo op at the chip and folks blasting music out of their phones and just basically not having any idea about trail etiquette. If you go early on a weekday it should be OK, but I'd recommend against it on a weekend unless you don't mind crowds.

[Tdecel]

One day only?

Fist off, to drive from LA to SD: 2 (very min) to 3 hours depending on where you start and time of morning. 7 to 10 AM, expect 4 hours if inside LA or by LAX. Drive back from SD to LA: Another 2 (very min) or 3 hours if later in the evening.

One day only: I would drive down, go to Coronado. Walk for an hour or two, or beach. Visit the Del and go back stopping in downtown. Spend the early evening in the Gas Lamp Quarter, the water front, Balboa Park or drive on to La Jolla.

San Diego traffic from 3:30 PM to 6 PM is stop and go bumper to bumper on one end, and I would personally not be on the road after 1 AM in SD or LA on the other end.

[spoonman1]

Sounds like one of those “convince me why I should visit your city” posts.

[htnguyen504]

Y’all convinced us to do a TWO day trip in SD now! Woohoo! We are looking forward to seeing and enjoying everything SD had to offer! Thank you so much!

[cruitr]

Here's the best way to cover a lot of San Diego turf in 2 days.

Day 1:
1. Park in Old Town San Diego. You'll find plenty of free parking if it's a weekday. If it's a weekend or holiday, you may need to pay to park.
2. Buy 2 tickets of the 1-day tour for this trolley (the 2-day tour ain't worth it):
https://www.trolleytours.com/san-diego/tickets
3. Get off at every stop and walk each stop area a bit.
4. Take a few notes and addresses of places you'd like to see more of.
5. Don't spend too much time at each stop or you won't finish the tour by the end of the day.

Day 2:
1. Go back to the places you liked from the 1-day tour.
2. Parking can be a real pain in San Diego. Consider Uber or ask the trolley people how best to get back to the places you liked.

My wife's niece and their family stayed with us last March. It was their first time in San Diego.
We all took the 1-day trolley tour on Day 1. I drove them back to the places they wanted to see more of. By the end of the week, I christened them 'San Diego Natives.'

[cruitr]

If you want a do-it-yourself tour of San Diego, check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALKJ19Kk5z0