What should I do in San Diego?

[JayPowHound]

Surprised no one has mentioned getting naked and jacking it yet..

[bodywhomper]

I knew an old vet that lived in a house loaned by a friend above blacks beach. There was a canyon out his back gate that led to the beach. He used to hang out nude at blacks and occasionally hook up with others looking for random sex. Twas one of his things. He was a pretty cool guy. Ate lots of drugs. Hung out with college kids.

[billyk]

The del Coronado hotel is an interesting place to visit and have a meal, even if you don’t end up staying there.

If there are kids involved, depending on age, Sea World and the San Diego Zoo are possibilities. There are also whale watching tours, but not sure if the season is right for that. The aircraft carrier midway museum is cool.

[bagtagley]

How old are your kids? Gaslamp for 5 days might be a bit much unless you like to party. Highly recommend Padres game if they are in town and you are already in the Gaslamp. Easy walk or shuttle to Midway.

I have never stayed at the Del, but judging by the lobby & pool would never want to. But it is an awesome location.

I'm going for a conference, we just decided a few days ago that the family is going to tag along, so we're gonna cram into my room. The wife is pretty familiar with that part of SD and has ideas of what to do. My kids are older (12 and 16) and I think will really enjoy the people watching at night, but agreed which is why we're shooting for a change of scenery. The second half is when my vacation starts, and I'm leaning towards beach time. We're deciding if we just want to stay at the same hotel the whole time and travel to cool locations, or stay somewhere else.

I've only seen the Del from the outside, and thought it looked cool. We're not necessarily resort people, but we're not necessarily not.

[The AD]

Something that's pretty interesting just south (I guess southeast if you want to get technical) of the Gaslamp in Barrio Logan is Chicano Park. It's an art installation under the freeway interchange between I-5 and the freeway that crosses the Coronado Bridge. Many of the concrete piers supporting the freeway have been painted with a predominantly Chicano/Latin theme. https://www.sandiego.org/articles/pa...cano-park.aspx

I visited last year and thought it was pretty cool. Certainly worth an hour or two. There's also an interesting commercial area along Logan Avenue nearby.

[dcpnz]

Go out to Point Loma, the Cabrillo National Monument is worth a bit of time, the hill top military cemetery is vast.
Check if there’s horse racing scheduled at Del Mar racetrack while you’re there.
And the Midway aircraft carrier is definitely worthy of a visit.

[Cruiser]

We had a nice stay at the glorietta bay inn across the street from the del. Easy access, affordable prices, free beach chairs, umbrellas, sandcastle stuff, etc and free breakfast (yes, in classic tgr tradition I did stuff breakfast meats into my pockets for later). The beach was super easy to access and hang out plus we saw some cool military ships and aircraft coming and going.

[The AD]

Anywhere on or near the beach in Coronado is going to be pretty nice. Rent bikes for the week and you can tool around the "island" to your heart's content. Fun spot for sure.

[bodywhomper]

If you end up closer to La Jolla, take them to marine street or windansea beach so they can learn about bodywhomping (bodysurfing in the shorebreak). Tom Wolfe wrote about bodywhomping at windansea.

The snorkeling at La Jolla cove or the marine room is usually rad. The San Diego zoo safari park is pretty great and an activity in a warmer part of the county.

I used to love eating at pokez at 10th and e in the gaslamp and jimmy Carter’s on 5th near balboa park.

[The AD]

Windansea is cool. Another place that's not exactly a secret, but one that gets a lot fewer tourists that other locations nearby, in this case La Jolla Cove and the Children's Pool. You might even find a parking spot reasonably close to Windansea!

I think La Jolla is a must see in any case. If you're there Torrey Pines is also nearby and driving to the top and taking in the view from Mt Soledad is also sort of neat.