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 10th 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.)
