San Diego information- rental car, hotel, zoo

[skittl1321]

We just got back from the Carnival Spirit and a 3 day pre-cruise, 1 day post cruise stay in San Diego.

 

We stayed at the Quality Inn on Adobe Falls. It's not "near" the pier really, about 10 minutes away, but we found it to be very convienent for everything we went to. We never felt like we were spending much time in the car. Since we had a rental, the extra distance meant we could go for a hotel with a great rate. ($65 a night for a king size bed). The hotel had a small breakfast (toast, cereal and danish), a refridgerator and microwave in the room, and FREE high speed internet. It was in a safe area, close to lots of places to eat (5 minutes, or a walk to one Italian place), and close to a grocery store (for Coke and Wine).

 

Right next to the Quality Inn is Nicholosi's which was an Italian place. The portions were HUGE but we thought it a bit expensive. I didn't love what I got, but the calzone my husband got was good. Good for a lazy walk to eat.

 

The two other times we ate out we had sushi. Once at Sushi 4 U and once at Toro Sushi. We found Sushi 4 U to be INCREDIBLE but expensive, and Toro sushi to be slightly less incredible but still fantastic and very inexpensive. I'd go back to Toro, if only because I could eat there twice for the same price as the other place. We went to these places because we saw them first :) We had a recommendation for a place downtown but parking was so expenisve we didn't try it.

 

Our main san diego plans- other than a short driving tour was the zoo. If you are going to both parks GET A MEMBERSHIP! For less than $100 (I think it was $90?) my husband and I got a dual membership. So we had unlimited admission to the parks. We went to the wild animal park twice (we had planned to go hang gliding, but he changed his mind, and this was free.) And the zoo twice. While a long day at the wild animal park will due, I'd definetly break the zoo into two days. There are SO many hills that it is incredibly tiring trying to get around the zoo- we found that we missed a lot of things, and are glad we went back again. Each zoo day was about 4 hours for us, and we spent about 7 hours at the wild animal park the first day (the other was a short day because it was post cruise and we were exhausted). As members you get a free ride on the wild animal park tram, the zoo skyfari, and misc. discounts (in december it was 10% off merchandise). Plus we get a magazine all year! Just a warning- if you have young children- it's going to be a LONG day. The hills were hard, and we saw lots of exhausted parents from pushing strollers. If you are in a wheelchair pay close attention to the signs- there were many hills that were marked to NOT use if you were in a non-mechanical chair.

 

We used two different rental car companies- Alamo and Thrifty. Both have a shuttle to/from the airport, but neither to the cruise port. For us- this wasn't a problem at all. They are both less than a mile and a half to the cruise terminal. On embarkation day, DH dropped me off with all our luggage, dropped the car off, and ran back to the terminal. On debarkation day, DH and I both walked to Thrifty. It was a nice day and an easy walk- this way he didn't have to fight the traffic back. Between us we had 2 large roller bags, a small rolling bag and two backpacks. It wasn't cumbersome at all- and going to either Alamo or Thrifty (or any of the rentals in that area) the walk is through a safe area, with sidewalks. Of course, you might not be so cheap as to skip a taxi :)

 

Hope all this rambling helps someone out!

[mjbearit]

Excellent! Thanks for posting! Since I live here people ask questions all the time and it's good to know what a stranger to the city has to say because we'll see things differently living here. The hotel feedback is always great! Since I live here, I have no idea what hotels are good! I don't use them! :) It would be nice if more people would do this!

Thanks!

Mike

[goodml]

Did you prefer one of the parks over the other?

[skittl1321]

Did you prefer one of the parks over the other?

 

If I could only do one- I'd do the Wild Animal Park. It is SO different from any zoo you've ever seen, and it is just BEAUTIFUL. It was like seeing animals out if africa, because their Africa exhibit is all mixed together - you'd see a gazelle being chased by a wildebeast or what ever. Very cool! They had a fantastic gorilla exhibit, more elephants than i'd ever seen in one place and a TON of giraffees. Their tram ride was informative and fun, and you got great views with it.

 

However, the San Diego Zoo was fantastic. They had tons of animals the Wild Animal Park didn't (since it really focused only on Africa, with a few Asian animals). They have the koalas, polar bears, and of course Panda's. Seeing the pandas was really a great opportunity- because very few zoos have them. But the park is older, darker, and the enclosures are smaller. So if you are a "sad for animals in zoos" kind of person the wild animal park would be better. I also thought the walking at the zoo was more hilly and difficult.