By Suzi Barrett | Posted: Jan. 31, 2025

Dolphins and roller coasters and panda bears, oh my! Free suite upgrades, free flights, and free park tickets, oh my! If a family trip to San Diego, California, is in your future, have I got the skinny for you! I took my husband and four kids to San Diego and learned a thing or two (or 20) about traveling with kids and saving money. (If you want more tips on traveling with kids, check out my 10 tips here).

We took this trip back in 2019, but to make sure this is relevant to you now, I’ll reflect current savings and costs as if this trip were booked today.

Places we went:

Legoland
SeaWorld
USS Midway
Harbor Cruise
Belmont Pier Amusement Park
Mission Beach

Where we stayed:

Holiday Inn Bayside

How we got around:

Rented a minivan from Hertz

Before I tell you what we did, I must share with you my number one tip for traveling with young kids: Get a pass! A multi-day, multi-attraction pass has been the single most valuable travel tip I’ve discovered next to points and miles. It saves both time and money, but more importantly, it adds options and bonus experiences to your trip at no additional cost. For short attention spans groups with different interests, this is a game-changer!

The pass we chose in San Diego is called the GoCity Pass. With one pass, you get access to Legoland, SeaWorld, and the San Diego Zoo, plus loads of other places.

Legoland

Legoland was the original reason we planned this trip. My kids love Lego! We spent an entire day at Legoland. My son was in heaven, and we were all astounded by the massive displays made entirely from Legos. Mind-blowing. The Lost Kingdom Adventure was my, and my older kids’ favorite, and the Royal Joust was my little ones’ favorite.

The rides were pretty fun and there were unique things to see and do, but my favorite thing about Legoland was the lines! You read that right, in the queues for the rides, they had designated Lego building areas. Instead of crabby kids being bored and sick of waiting in line, they were having a great time creating! It was brilliant! A few times, they were actually sad to leave their builds to go on the ride! Every theme park should do this.

I’d say it’s worth a day trip if your kids love Lego, but it wasn’t my favorite amusement park. It felt a little small and a bit dated, but my kids didn’t care about that! I give it a solid 7/10. My son would give it a 12/10.

Also, bring a Lego person for each of your kids! They can trade with any employee in the park, and there are some super cool little Lego dudes and dudettes. Your kids will love this!

San Diego Zoo

The zoo was amazing! The pandas, tiger trail, and reptile walk were really fun and interesting. The zoo is huge, but it’s laid out brilliantly, and there’s a gondola and a bus, so you can really see the entire place in about two hours.

We planned a whole day at the zoo, but the kids were done before noon. Here’s where the pass saves you from yourself. When the kids were bored/tired/done, we left! There was no need to stay until closing or see every single thing.

I read the pass options to the family, and they picked three more adventures to go on to next. Remember, we’d already saved money from the three places we’d planned, so these additional three adventures were essentially free.

USS Midway + Sunset Harbor Cruise

We used the pass to tour the USS Midway, a massive aircraft carrier used in the Persian Gulf, and Cold Wars. This thing was so huge and super cool. My son was obsessed with boats at the time, so he really loved it. I’m a really proud American and thoroughly enjoy historical museums like this.

The Sunset Harbor cruise was totally my favorite. The boat takes off from the USS Midway dock, so it’s really convenient to do both, and of course, they’re both on the pass, so it’s all included. We cruised around the harbor for about an hour and out to the Coronado Bridge. The tour guide told us about the military ships as we passed, and the sunset on the water was stunning.

Plus, it was so peaceful that two of my kids napped on the boat so they had energy for the next escapade.

Belmont Pier Park

Belmont Pier Park is an amusement park on Mission Beach that was surprisingly awesome. This was another gem that we hadn’t planned to go to, but the pass provides! There was a great roller coaster that my daughter and I rode at least 10 times and a really fun ropes course that we all enjoyed. There were big thrill rides, little kiddie rides, decent food, and cheap drinks. I probably wouldn’t spend a full day there, but it was a great way to spend an evening.

The pass tickets were only good until 5 pm, and that’s when the harbor cruise was, so in order to make it to both, we got our Belmont wristbands earlier in the day and then went back out after dinner.

SeaWorld

SeaWorld was surprisingly awesome. I had low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The shows were 100% my favorite, especially the show with the dogs and pig. Who knew? The dolphin and whale shows were incredible, too.

Plan your day around the showtimes because the exhibits and rides are open all day, but the shows only happen one to three times daily, and those animals are amazing.

The rides were fun, and the exhibits were awesome. We loved the walk-through shark tank and the Electric Eel ride the most.

Mission Beach

Instead of having dinner at SeaWorld, we grabbed dinner and spent the evening at Mission Beach. The beach wasn’t in the plans, but it was so close to SeaWorld, we had to go! It was cold in January but still makes for a peaceful and beautiful dinner spot.

Hotel, Airline, and Car Rental Review

Hotel Review

IHG Holiday Inn Bayside was a great budget, family hotel. IHG cardholders get a free night when they buy three nights, so that was an awesome perk. It had a cute little mini golf course, a pond, ping pong, and a pool, so there was plenty to do on-site. They also had a free breakfast which is a win with my kids. We used points for three nights and got the fourth free, so we paid $0 for our stay.

Free hotel suite upgrade: Always ask for an upgrade! You can look online before you arrive to see if there’s availability or email the hotel a week or two before your stay to ask. I did neither of those things for this trip, but I asked at check-in if any suites were available, and they upgraded us to a two-room premium suite for free for the entire stay!

The hotel was really clean, and in late January, we were some of the only people there. It was really close to the harbor, and it was fun to see the boats. I give it four out of five stars for a budget hotel.

If you’re staying at a luxury hotel, upgrades are usually not free, but upgrading can be significantly fewer points or cash than booking the luxury room at full price.

**Airline Review**

Southwest Airlines is a great budget-ish airline, but the one thing that sets it apart is bags fly free! I always check a stroller when flying Southwest with littles. We used Southwest points and only had to pay $11.20/person in taxes.
**Price**: Economy on points was a good redemption, and we sat together thanks to family boarding. (Southwest currently does open seating but will start assigned seating in early 2026). Southwest’s points and cash prices used to be really low, but now they’re pretty average.
**Seats**: Seats are a bit small, but more comfortable than budget airlines. I likely won’t book these seats for longer flights, but for two hours, it was fine.
**Other**: No onboard entertainment is a bummer, but we bring our own, and they give you access to a selection of movies. Be sure you download the app before you get to the airport and sign in before you board the plane.

Car Rental Review

We used the Capital One shopping portal to book our rental car from Hertz. It’s very easy to use the portal, and you can save a lot! We used Capital One points to cover the cost of the car for the five days. Hertz was great, the minivan was like new and we had no complaints.