Travel Diary: La Jolla

As most of you know J and I ventured to California at the beginning of October. Our friends were getting married and if you’re going to travel across the country you might as well make a vacation out of it. We spent most of our trip in La Jolla, which is just outside of San Diego. Today I’m going to share all the places we ate and things we did during our time in La Jolla.

Getting there

We flew in on a Wednesday to San Diego airport and stayed the night in San Diego. The next morning we rented a car and made the short trip to La Jolla. Literally like 15-20 minutes.  If you want to make a little road trip out of it you could fly into LAX. It’s about 2 hours from La Jolla but I’m not sure if that’s with or without LA traffic. 

Food & Drink

Duck Dive- This was the first place we went to when we got to La Jolla. We had some time to kill before checking into our Air BnB, and some friends were having drinks here. They have a great HH and I had the Cucumber Lemonade, which was amazing!! We were there on a Thursday so it was pretty quiet but, I’m pretty sure this place gets a little crazy on the weekends. They also have food, but no one in our group ate so I can’t speak to that.

The Taco Stand- This was recommended to multiple people in our group by many people, and I will say it lived up to the hype. It’s a tiny little place so the line is always long and there’s not a lot of seating however, I promise it’s worth the wait. Between everyone in our group we probably tried all the tacos and I don’t think I heard one negative comment. The chips and gauc were also really good. If you’re questioning the line when you get there I will leave you with this… we ate there twice in two days. If that doesn’t tell you how good their food is idk what does.

Brunch Republic- I think I found this place by searching on instagram, but again it did not disappoint. I felt a lot of pressure because our whole group joined for brunch here, and everyone raved about the food… and the bloody Marys! Being from FL people only use Zing Zang so; it can be weird going other places that don’t use that. This one was so good though. I’m pretty sure I had two! Also you have to get their pancake flight. We got cinnamon roll, lemon coconut and Oreo cookie! We split it with the entire table and still didn’t finish!! (The Oreo was my favorite! You have to try that one.)

Waterbar- This place is AHMAZING! The restaurant itself is gorgeous but the views are great too! It’s right on the boardwalk overlooking the water so you really can’t beat it. Also the DRINKS!! The drinks were so so good. We didn’t eat here but I got the Ganga and Merlion (frozen) and they were some of the best drinks I’ve ever had. We also went here twice if that says anything.

We also ventured to some random bars in the downtown area. We didn’t go anywhere that was a disappointment. There were tons of other places I would have liked to try as well. I’m sure you can’t go wrong. 

What To Do

Torrey Pines- There are two parts to this one. First is the golf course. We didn’t do this but, all the guys said the course is great. If you are traveling with a golfer you should definitely look into playing. If golf isn’t your thing there is also a Torrey Pines Nature Reserve that you can hike. This is what we did with a big group one day. It’s a super easy hike, and it gives you some amazing views. Once you get to the top you can hike down and walk the beach back to your car. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Kayaking- A few of us decided to go on a kayak tour one day to see the seals and the caves. I will say it was a little disappointing because we didn’t get to see caves or seals. The water was really rough that day, so they couldn’t take us close to the caves for safety reasons. As for the seals/sea lions, I’m not sure if the girls that booked misheard or what, but, we definitely didn’t get close to those either. There’s a bunch of different places you can go if you just google it. I’m pretty sure we did La Jolla Kayak. I will say our guide was super cool and very informative.

Seals & Sea Lions- WARNING! The sea lions and seals do not smell the best! Since we didn’t get to see them on our kayak tour the following day we went down to La Jolla Cove and walked along the water. There were TONS of them. It was cool to see them, but I promise you won’t be able to stand the smell that long.

Downtown La Jolla- The downtown area is so cute!! There are tons of shops and restaurants that you could spend the day just wondering around, popping into shops and grabbing lunch. This is where we went to a few bars at night as well. It’s a great area!

Lime/Bird- If you are wondering what the heck I am talking about I will tell you I had never heard of these things before this trip. These two companies are scooter companies that leave scooters all over the area. Think citi bike in NYC but a scooter and no docking station. These things are awesome! You just download the app, find a scooter, scan the QR code and you’re off!! When you get to your destination or you’re over it you just scan the QR code to end the ride and take a photo for the app. Easy as that!  They are great for exploring the city and zipping all over the place. We rented these the first day and went up and down the boardwalk. I will say I was a little nervous at first with all the people but it was so fun and I quickly got the hang of it. It’s also really cheap. I think it’s like $1 to rent and then like $0.15 a minute. I don’t think I ever paid more than $8 and we rented them for 20-30 minutes at a time. Highly recommend at least checking these out.

Belmont Park- This is your quintessential boardwalk park. While we didn’t go this time the day we left I was texting my mom and realized this was the place we went on my 10^th birthday and I rode the roller coaster 10 times… once for each year obviously! If I had done that now I probably would have puked. If I would have realized sooner I definitely would have rode it at least once.

Crystal Pier- This pier was really cool because you can actually rent cottages to stay in right on the pier. While we didn’t do that we did walk out on it. There were a couple little shops and a ton of fishermen. I wanted to stay in one of the cottages so bad when I saw them. Maybe next time. If you are planning a trip I would definitely look into it. 

Stay

I can’t speak to this much because we stayed in an Air BnB. There were about 12 of us so it was a pretty big house. There is no shortage of hotels if that’s more your style. (I would check out those pier cottages.)

I hope you enjoyed this travel diary. If you are planning a trip and have any questions please feel free to reach out. I had so much fun and can’t wait to get back to California! Be sure to check back in 2 weeks for my San Diego travel diary. (Ideally it would be up next week but with Thanksgiving I know that is NOT realistic.)