Taking the Kids: Visiting San Diego

Sunshine and exotic animals … theme parks and miles of beaches and museums to please everyone. San Diego is our pick for Pacific Coast beach areas. Even if lay-in-the-sun weather doesn’t cooperate, you can’t do better than San Diego’s world-class zoo and safari park, SeaWorld and LEGOLAND California in nearby Carlsbad.

February is the 34th annual San Diego Museum Month when more than 60 participating cultural institutions offer half-priced admission. (You can download a digital pass for up to four people.)

There are 18 major museums and entertainment venues at Balboa Park, 1,200 acres that locals say is San Diego’s backyard with gardens, museums, hiking trails, restaurants, a miniature train and even a rare original menagerie carousel. The entrance to the San Diego Zoo is here, as is the Spanish Village Art Center, home to artists’ studios and art-making activities housed in an early 20th-century depiction of a Spanish village.

Visit Sefton Plaza where you will find a huge statue depicting horticulturist Kate Sessions, considered the “Mother of Balboa Park”. The surrounding gardens are filled with plants she brought here. Check out the Hong Kong orchid trees! (Stop at the Visitors Center to find the latest park information.)

You obviously could spend days here, as well as the chance to see many different performances from puppets at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater to young dancers at the San Diego Civic Youth Ballet. There’s children’s theater at the San Diego Junior Theater, the San Diego Youth Symphony and the world-famous Spreckels Organ Pavilion, the home to the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world. (There are free Sunday concerts at 2 p.m.)

You’ll find art and science museums, as well as those catering to special interests — cars, photography, model railroads, the Comic-Con Museum, even the Museum of Us that is dedicated to inspire human connections, telling stories that may have been ignored. (How much do you know about the Kumeyaay people, the indigenous peoples of Southern California? The museum actually sits on their ancestral homeland.)

As with any sightseeing trip to a new city, it’s wise to include the kids in the planning, especially when there are so many choices! Take a virtual tour of the museums and theme parks you hope to visit and make sure everyone gets to see their top picks.

If you don’t make it in February, there is a Balboa Parkwide Pass that offers admission to the participating museums over seven consecutive days for $67 for adults; $43 for kids 3 to 12 – a good deal when you figure admission to just one museum can be $20 or more.

If you also plan to hit the theme parks and the San Diego Zoo, consider either GO City or CityPASS that bundle more attractions in one discounted pass.

Downtown museums are also offering half-price admission in February, including the USS Midway Museum, the Navy’s longest serving 20th-century carrier, the Maritime Museum of San Diego with its collection of historic ships, the New Children’s Museum and the California Surf Museum in Oceanside.

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