7 Activities in San Diego’s Mission Bay that Locals Recommend

by Travel With Kids

San Diego is a fantastic family vacation destination and if it’s your first time, the many big ticket diversions like LEGOLAND, SeaWorld, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Wild Animal Park and Balboa Park (with its amazing museums) can have you running all day. This year, we wanted to find some activities that would keep the kids busy, but keep us well grounded in Mission Bay… kind of like a local San Diegan might do with their family in the summer. Here are a few ideas:

1)  First we needed to book a hotel that meant NO DRIVING…so as the old adage goes, it was location, location, location. One look at a map showed two great choices: The Catamaran and The Bahia Resort Hotel. We chose Bahia, and boy were we glad! We got a bayfront suite with plenty of room for the whole family to spread out. The kids had their own bedroom, as did we, and our patio was steps from the beach. It also overlooked the bay, where many of our soon-to-be activities would take place, so if a parent wanted to duck out, we could still be close by.

2)  How would we get around? Well, we certainly weren’t driving anywhere, so with the motto “when in San Diego, do as San Diegans” in mind, we biked it. The boardwalks on both the beach and bay sides of Mission Beach offer plenty of safe bike riding and sprawl for miles in either direction. If you are driving, you can bring your own bikes. Or, you can rent bikes for about $10-15/day or $50/week. There are lots of places to rent all up and down the board walk and in the city.

3)  If hiking is more your speed, there are some great trails out on Point Loma. Now mind you, if you are sticking to the no driving, you may have to walk a couple miles on busier roads, but the hiking along the point is worth it. SanDiegoHikers.com has some great maps and reviews of trails.

4)  Sailing. With its contained space and low winds, Mission Bay offers calm waters for beginner sailors or head out onto the Pacific Ocean or over to San Diego Bay for a bit of a challenge. We love renting a boat and heading out for the day, tying up at Anthony’s Grotto in San Diego Bay for lunch and back again. It can be a short trip, or you can turn it into an all day affair.

5)  SUP. No, I’mnot asking “What’s up?” in a super cool way…SUP is Stand Up Paddleboarding, and Californians are out paddleboarding in the droves! And, Mission Bay offers the perfect calm waters for it! Action Sports Rentals, with an outlet on the beach at Bahia Resort Hotel, offers Stand Up Paddle Board rentals along with sailboats, kayaks, motorboats, and much more. Our boys rented for two hours and had a blast the whole time. At first, they tooled around the bay checking out anchored sailboats, beaches and more. Then, they, and their friends, started playing games like “King of the Board” (trying to knock each other off the boards), pirates (trying to board each others’ boards), and a “Survivor” like game with all the boards attached in a circle and you had to crawl around and try to catch the person in front of you. It’s amazing what kids can come up with! Moral is they had a super fun day and as a bonus, got a great core work out!

6)  You can’t come to San Diego without riding the waves! Plenty of shops offers surf board and Boogie board rentals. CheapRentals.com offers boards for about $5-$15/day as well as a pamphlet on how to surf. Or, there are plenty of places that offer group and private surf lessons. Boogie boards are cheaper. If you are planning on boarding for more than a day, it’s best to invest in buying one…they start as low as about $15. An interesting lunch option, and a great way to hone your surfing and Boogie boarding skills, is WaveHouse – home of the FlowBarrel, a giant wave-producing machine that will help you learn to ride like a pro!

7)  In the evening, kids will love the high-flying fun of Belmont Park. With a giant rollercoaster: The Big Dipper, which was built in 1925, and the more modern Beach Blaster, which swings riders 60-feet into the air, as well as ton of smaller carnival type rides, it’s got family fun written all over it. All-day wristbands run around $28 or ride just a couple of rides on individual tickets, which range between $3-$6.

A nightly bonus staying at Bahia: we ended our evening watching fireworks over SeaWorld from our hotel!

OK…you can’t live like a local in San Diego, California without hitting the waves! And there are plenty of family activities in San Diego that will get you out on the water.

About Travel With Kids: A travel guide show for families to get inspired and learn about destinations around the world! Filled with educational fun facts and parent travel tips, Travel With Kids is seen on PBS Member Stations in the USA, on DVD, iTunes, Hulu, Roku and internationally in over 30 countries. Find out more: TravelWithKids.tv, on Facebook: TravelWithKids, Twitter: @Travel_WithKids