city guide

Things to do in San Diego during the summer with kids

 in Travel  tagged city guide / family / san diego / travel tips by

visiting san diego kids

There are so many things to do in San Diego with kids during the summer months! San Diego is filled with kid-friendly attractions, hotels, and restaurants. This makes it a great destination for a summer trip with the entire family. Love!

In the middles of July, we took a road trip to San Diego. It is a favorite California destination for me. I have family in San Diego, so I have road tripped down there many times throughout my life and have always loved all the activities I was able to do as a child. It was always so much fun! So, there was no question we would road trip to San Diego for a week to not only visit family, but to show our kids all of the fun things to do in San Diego with kids in the summer.

Below I have listed the four activities we did as a family during our vacation. These are great things to do in San Diego with kids over summer vacation.

LegoLand

legoland california

If your kids love Legos, then Legoland is a must! There are amazing pieces of art throughout Legoland made from various sizes of Legos. It is absolutely amazing. In addition to incredible Lego art, there are rides for small children, as well as older kids. There are even rides adults can enjoy. I loved the boat ride, and the new Ninjago ride is a huge must. Since the Ninjago ride is brand new, make sure you get there when the park opens and go directly to the ride first. This way you can avoid the 45 minute line which forms by mid-morning, and lasts throughout the day.

There is a great, healthy marketplace for lunch which is located by the car ride. It is a great buffet-style lunch spot where your kids can avoid pizza, hots dogs and the like. I made a yummy salad. It is a little on the pricier side for theme park food, but it is worth it for the healthy food. Yum!

If you have a daughter, there are shows put on by Lego Friends which are fun to watch. A daily show schedule can be found at the main gates of the park.

You can learn more about Legoland online here.

San Diego Zoo

san diego zoo panda

The San Diego is world famous; and the perfect place to bring kids! It is hard to see the whole zoo in one day, but if you get there when the zoo opens, you can do it! The pandas are adorable, and I loved the polar bears! You can learn more about the San Diego Zoo online here.

Seaworld

sea world san diego

Sea World is a fun place to bring your kids. It doesn’t require as much walking as the Zoo, so it is a good place to go the day after visiting the zoo since you and your kids might be a little fatigued from the zoo. Sea World has a large selection of shows to watch, where you can sit down and relax, so it is great to do when your vacation is making you a little bit tired!

Be sure to catch the Dolphin show, Killer Whale shows, and the Comedy Sea Otter show; which is fabulous! Some of the rides have water, so you will get wet. Be sure to wear clothing that dries quickly, and you won’t mind getting a little bit wet. You can still have a great time if you choose not to go on the wet rides.

You can learn more about Sea World online here.

Mission Beach and Belmont Park

Mission Beach is a great beach to relax on. The parking is also free! Love that!

We arrived around 9am to enjoy the beach, and then at 11am we walked over to Belmont Park which is a boardwalk of sorts. It has rides, laser tag, and an arcade. It is a lot of fun!

If you have a sweet tooth like me, check out the ice cream shop which has the yummiest homemade fudge! You can learn more about Belmont Park online here.

Where to Stay and Eat

family friendly hotels san diego

Family friendly restaurants san diego

We Stayed in La Jolla at the La Jolla Sheraton. It was perfect for families. They have suites which feature two queens beds, a sofa bed, refrigerator, and microwave. It was very spacious, and my kids found it to be extremely comfortable. Love that!

The swimming pool was a great treat after spending the day outside in the sun, walking around. My kids loved cooling off in the pool.

Our favorite restaurants in San Diego, which were family friendly and yummy, were as follows:

Our Hotel restaurants featured delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus. The Mickey Mouse pancakes were the cutest children’s pancake meal we have ever seen! My son was in pancake heaven. We also enjoyed WaveHouse Beach Club which is located on Mission Beach at Belmont Park. They had tables in the sand, and you could watch people surf while you dine. Love it!

Our favorite restaurant of the trip was Su Casa Restaurant. It is family owned, and the food was a-ma-zing! My kids loved it, and the food was so good! We definitely need an excuse to return to San Diego so we can eat at Su Casa Restaurant again. You must try it when you are in the area!

Travel Tips

We purchased the 4-day Go Diego Pass which was a great way to pay for our activities in advance, and save quite a bit of money along the way. You can purchase a Go San Diego Pass online here. We purchased ours through Costco, so if you have a Costco, or similar warehouse club membership, check to see if they have a good deal on the Go San Diego Pass.

These were our favorite places to go in San Diego with kids for our summer vacation. There are many more places to go, but these were our favorites. If you get the Go San Diego pass, you will find more places to visit. I recommend seeing the Safari Park in the winter, not the summer, as it gets VERY hot in Escondido.

Have a great vacation and thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Cathy

New York Fashion Week travel guide

 in General Fashion / Travel  tagged city guide / instagram / lifestyle / restaurants by

restaurants near skylight clarkson

New York Fashion Week has come to an end. In addition to seeing all the new collections on the runways for next season, attending New York Fashion Week also means travel for those of us who are not from New York. This means rushing from show to show, stopping for a bite to eat at a restaurant, and having fun! So I decided to make a little New York Fashion Week travel guide for you!

One of my favorite things about traveling, is having an excuse to eat out! Although some moments during fashion week mean eating snacks instead of a full meal, or grabbing something fast to-go, there are moments when I can indulge in a sit down meal at a fabulous restaurant. I have four favorite restaurants to eat at while in New York for fashion week. Pictured above, are the meals I enjoyed at each of them over the past week.

From top left:

  1. Trattoria Bianca: They have the best Italian food! I ate there in September, and again last week. The ravioli is to-die-for, and so is the soup!
  2. Lauduree Paris: I always wanted to try Laduree, so when my friend Laura from Have Need Want suggested we enjoy brunch at Laduree, I was game! I had a fabulous mushroom crepe, which I highly recommend, green tea, and a yummy dessert. Of course, I also left with a gift box of macarons. Highly recommend!
  3. Sushi Samba: This place is amazing! They serve, get this, Peruvian, Brazilian, and Japanese fusion! The result is amazing flavor, and an unique dining experience. You must try it! I’m thrilled my friend Rita suggested we eat there, it was perfection.
  4. Westville Hudson: This restaurant was really close to the Skylight Clarkson, and our hotel. They serve fabulous farm to table food. We ending up eating dinner there twice! My apologies for the poor photo quality, the lighting wasn’t iPhone friendly 😉 This is a great spot for vegetarian, and vegan options. I loved every meal I ate there. I highly recommend the grilled salmon, and the pesto mashed potatoes. Yummy!

These are a few moments during fashion week which were especially memorable. From top right:

  1. Vivienne Hu’s after-party. Vivienne Hu is one of my favorite designer collections shown during New York Fashion Week. Her fall 2016 collection was especially amazing. It was an honor to be invited to her after-party, and to have the chance to speak with her about her collection, and the new “see it on the runway, buy it now,” concept which is starting to emerge at fashion week. This photo of myself, Laura, and Vivienne Hu reminds me of this special event.
  2. Monique Lhuilier’s collection was dreamy, nostalgic, and beautiful. I intended to post this photo on Instagram while I was waiting at my seat for everyone to enter the room and sit down, but I never did. This is what my lap usually looks like before a show. I read the run of show materials placed at my seat in order to get a sense of the designers inspiration of the season, observe the crowd, and wait patiently for the show to begin.
  3. A cronut! I never had a cronut before. My fabulous friend Rita and her husband picked one up for me and brought it to my hotel room knowing I had a full schedule. It was such a special treat, and a big help in getting some breakfast inside of my tummy! Ha! This moment also reminds me what a beautiful friend I have in Rita.
  4. This is the outfit I wore on day four of New York Fashion Week. Laura and I did not have a chance to snap our outfit photos that day. We were too busy attending shows, meetings, and working. We tried to take a few pictures in our hotel lobby, but the lighting was not my friend. My coat is by Rebecca Taylor, and it is sold out; but you can find  more fabulous coats by her online here.

If you are traveling to New York Fashion Week in September, or just want to stay in the area, I can recommend three moderately priced hotels which are modern inside, offer great service, and are walkable to the shows!

If you would like to stay on 33rd street by the Skylight Moynihan, I highly recommend the Marriot Fairfield. It is right across the street, and offers free breakfast. They do not have a restaurant onsite, but it is walkable to Hell’s Kitchen, and several yummy places to eat; including Trattoria Bianca mentioned above.

If the Skylight Clarkson is the location you would like to walk to, then there are two choices; which are both considerably less expensive then the Fairfield. The Courtyard by Marriott SOHO and the Four Points Sheraton SOHO are both an easy walk to the Skylight Clarkson. The Four Points Sheraton has a restaurant onsite too which is handy.

You can find great deals on hotels online here.

I understand boutique hotels might be preferable when traveling to New York, but fashion week is a full week, which means several nights in a hotel. This can mean a large hotel bill. The chain hotels I recommend are easy on the wallet, by New York standards, they are clean, offer great service, and hey, you might even be able to use your points and/or earn points! Love that!

Stay tuned! I have more coverage from New York Fashion Week coming up this week.