Tips for Traveling to San Diego on a Budget

Do you love to travel, but have a budget that you need to stick to? I am definitely all about saving money and doing things in a budget friendly way! Last time my husband and I traveled to San Diego, we made it our mission to find things to do that were free or pretty cheap! We found some awesome things to do and had so much fun on this trip. So many great memories were made! I learned you don’t need to break the bank to have a good time. A little creativity was all we needed to find some fun things to do! I hope these tips for traveling to San Diego on a budget helps you in some way for when you travel there!

Beaches In San Diego

The first thing I think about when I think of California is the beach! In San Diego there are so many great beaches that you can go to! This is a great thing to do that is free! You can bring along some food and drinks and set up camp on the beach! It is a great time and it is so fun to see the beauty of the ocean. Of all the tips for travelling to San Diego on a budget, this is the one we do each trip! There are three beaches that we love to go to and each one for a unique reason!

Mission Beach

This is our go to beach and has been for years! My husband always went to this beach when he lived in San Diego when he was younger. This beach can get pretty crowded though, especially on the weekends. When we went to this beach on our last trip, it was a bit difficult to find parking. Once we were able to find parking, it was so worth it! We had such a fun day!

The cool thing about this beach is that there is a small theme park, restaurants, and shops right along the beach. It is fun to just walk around and take in all the sights! However, if you want to get onto a ride it’s pretty cheap to get a ticket! We always like to walk over to this part of the beach and get some kind of dessert! The ice cream shop there is so good!

Coronado Beach

The beach is right outside the Hotel Del Coronado, which is also a neat place to check out! We went to this beach at night, and there was something just so calming about walking along the beach where you can’t really see too far into the distance and just hear the waves crashing. The beach wasn’t too crowded either!

There is also a dog beach on Coronado that is definitely a must if you bring your pup on vacation with you! We have gone here a couple of times and the dogs love it. We live in Arizona, so our dogs had never seen anything like the ocean before and it was so funny to see their reaction to the waves!

La Jolla

We have driven through and around La Jolla several times, but had never gone down to the beaches until this last trip. I don’t know why either because it was so fun and beautiful! The cool thing about La Jolla is that there are a bunch of cliffs that are right along the ocean. When going to the beach, there is a walkway that goes along these cliffs, and there are several places where there are stairs where you can go down to the water. The water here was so beautiful and pretty clear!

There are also seals all along this beach. You can actually walk down onto a rocky ledge right along the ocean and there are seals everywhere. It looked like they were all sunbathing! It was cool to be able to get so close to the seals! Also, it is really cool to be able to watch the waves as they crash into the side of the rocks right there. Beautiful pictures can be taken here!

Coronado Island

Coronado is an island that is right across the bay from downtown, in the heart of San Diego. The island itself is really cool to drive or walk around! There are so many extravagant houses there! I like to imagine myself living there! 🙂 There is also the Hotel Del Coronado, which is a really old hotel which I have heard maybe haunted. But anyways, you are able to go into parts of the hotel even if you are not staying there and have a look around. It’s pretty cool and is very old fashion, which makes it so authentic! Also, right outside the hotel is a walkway where you go walk right along the beach.

Coronado Ferry Landing

There is also this cool little area right along the San Diego Bay with a bunch of shops and places to eat. It is called the Coronado Ferry Landing Park and is right along the water! We like to stop by here because there is a Cold Stone and it’s our favorite! (We really like ice cream!) There are also some really cool and unique shops here if you want to buy a souvenir to remember your vacation by. We always buy a magnet from every place we travel to put on the fridge! It is a fun little tradition we have!

This last trip we bought tickets to ride the ferry boat from Coronado Island to downtown San Diego. This was really fun! We sat on the back of the boat, and there was just something so relaxing about watching the city fade away as you went along the water. The cool thing about the tickets you buy for the ferry is that it is a round trip ticket. We actually started downtown, rode over to Coronado Island and then we had as much time as we wanted to explore before going back!

Balboa Park

Balboa Park is a really neat place in San Diego that has so many different things to offer in one place. The architecture here is so amazing, and we loved just walking around looking at the different buildings around the park. You can get some really cool pictures here! We actually saw a wedding party taking photos here when we were walking around.

Within the park, there are different museums that you can visit, ranging from history, science, and air and space. There is definitely something there to spark everyone’s unique interests, and it’s not too expensive to get tickets. There are also different gardens within the park that are so beautiful! As you are walking around the park, there is a pond full of lily pads that is unlike anything I had ever seen before. This place is just so unique and fun to check out!

They also have events at Balboa Park that always differ. When we went they had an event where there were so many different food trucks lined up on the street! There were so many yummy options, and it was awesome to have so many different options from different types of cuisine! Since we are dessert people, we got some beignets that were delicious!

Seaport Village

We love going to Seaport Village! Almost every time that we visit San Diego we go here. This is an area of shops and restaurants that is right along the bay downtown. This is also a really cool place to walk around! I’m noticing most of my suggestions include walking! But hey! It’s free and enjoyable and good for you too! Anyways, the only thing you would have to pay for at Seaport Village is parking and if you purchase anything in the shops or restaurants, you can get your parking ticket validated! One less expense!

If you walk down the bay in front of Seaport Village, it leads to another area where there is a statue of the sailor and the nurse who are kissing in Times Square after WWII was over. This is a really large structure and is so cool to see in person! In this area, there are also always little stands where people are offering unique items for sale. When we went someone had a parrot that you could hold on your arm! Every time you go you never know what you are going to find! It makes Seaport Village such a cool place to check out when traveling to San Diego!

Downtown

There are so many things to do in downtown San Diego it’s crazy! These are just a few of our favorite things to do while trying to keep to a budget while traveling! Of all the tips for traveling to San Diego, traveling to downtown offers the most unique and beautiful views in my opinion! (That are budget friendly!)

San Diego With A View!

San Diego is such a beautiful place! To see the city from a bird’s eye view you can go to the top of the Hyatt hotel that is located downtown right next to Seaport Village. This is one of the tallest hotels in downtown San Diego! You do not have to have a room at this hotel to go inside and go up to the top, which is pretty cool! We like to go all the way to the top floor and look at the city. There is floor to ceiling windows which makes looking at the view so easy and enjoyable for all ages!

Watch Airplanes Take Off and Land

Go on top of a parking garage for a small fee to watch airplanes take off and land. We went to the Laurel Airport Parking garage. This is one of the coolest things we have ever done while in San Diego! We went to the parking garage at night and it was so awesome to be so close to the planes when they took off and landed! It was also really loud! So if you plan on doing this, you may want to bring ear protection of some sort!

Food!

Downtown San Diego has plenty of food options! So many it can be a little overwhelming trying to figure out where you want to eat! While we like to try new things, we always end up going to a restaurant called Lolita’s. This is a Mexican food restaurant that is so good! We have been going here for years and I have never been disappointed! Lolita’s is right by the Padre’s Stadium and it’s usually pretty easy to find parking close to the restaurant! Win-win! I know other parts of downtown, parking can be a little tough!

What we always eat at Lolita’s is a California burrito! If you have never had a California burrito, I definitely suggest trying one! I thought it was a little weird the first time I had one. Like why are there French fries inside of a burrito?! It is actually really good!