San Diego Summer: My Vacation + Travel Guide.
Hi friends! I am still coming out of vacation mode, and if you’ve been following along on Instagram, you know I recently came back to St. Louis from a week in San Diego and LA. My dream is to one day live in California, so it is always incredibly inspiring and exciting to visit. Each time, I come back refreshed and energized! Today I wanted to share a little about our time in San Diego, as it was my first time ever visiting the city. I was so pleasantly surprised to discover that the city was so friendly,
The past several trips I’ve taken have been solo trips but this time was different.
The first half of my trip was spent in San Diego with my dad, brother, grandpa, aunt, uncle, and two cousins. We definitely had a full house. Speaking of house, we stayed in a gorgeous HomeAway that was located two blocks from Pacific Beach. There is nothing like being able to wake up, roll out of bed, and be on the beach all in a matter of five minutes! If you are looking for a recommendation of where to stay in San Diego for a group of people, I would highly recommend this location. Just comment below or message me and I’d be happy to send you the link if you’re interested in staying there. I mean, just look at how beautiful it was designed and decorated:
On the very first day that we arrived, my Dad, Christian and I got to San Diego around 9am since we opted for a super early morning flight. As soon as we arrived in the Pacific Beach area, we made our way to Breakfast Republic for some of the best coffee and food (I highly recommend the veggie tostadas!!) of the entire trip. It’s a hip, quirky spot that even boasts an open air second story of seating, which looks out onto Pacific Beach Blvd. and…a perfect view of the beach! 🙂
My cousin Ian and I had a lot of computer work to do during the week, but that was made much less sad due to the fact we used this opportunity to create a San Diego coffee tour in the process. Let me tell you…San Diego has some incredible coffee shops – and there are so many that were recommended to me before I left that I never got a chance to visit. I guess that means that there will be a San Diego trip 2.0 that needs to happen! I won’t go in to all of the locations but I want to share a few of my favorite places with you. The first place I would recommend is Better Buzz Coffee. This was so great to go to because we were staying in Pacific Beach so it was super easy to visit (thanks to the help of the bountiful Bird scooters everywhere in San Diego, anything in Pacific Beach was only a quick and cheap electric scooter ride away).
As soon as you walk into Better Buzz, you immediately know it will be a great experience. Every single time during our multiple visits, the employees would be singing to the music, dancing, and overall creating a welcoming, enjoyable atmosphere that I really appreciated. Now, in terms of coffee, I was not disappointed. Every coffee shop I visit for the first time, I order an iced vanilla latte so I can keep it consistent and have a baseline for comparison. At Better Buzz, it was so delicious and I was a big fan of it. The best thing about California is its open air shops and restaurants, and this was also the same at Better Buzz. The entire front wall was open and led out to a front patio area that boasted cute and comfortable swings. I can’t wait to go back again and visit.
The next place we went was James Coffee Co., which was a recommendation from my friend Abigail. This coffee shop was unlike any other place I have ever been.
The building was an old airplane hangar and turned into a coffee shop, with lots of small businesses and mini stores within the space as well. From an old-school barbershop to an ultra hipster glasses and sunglasses store, it felt like the coolest place in town. While there are two locations, Ian and I went to the location in Little Italy, although the other location seems super cool, too.
After James Coffee Co., we had the chance to walk around Little Italy, which is just such a fun, vibrant area. I think if I hadn’t stayed right on the beach, I would have looked further into staying in Little Italy simply because of how trendy (and walk-able) it was!
One day after some Little Italy adventures, Ian and I got pretty hungry. So, we took a leap of faith and relied on some information that one of our Uber drivers gave us, and went to his favorite restaurant – Coasterra. Well, to put it simply – I have never been to such an amazing restaurant with simultaneously such a gorgeous view. After getting seated at a table on the covered outdoor deck, we spent practically the rest of the dinner looking around, since we were right on the video with a perfect view of the San Diego skyline. We ordered the Carne Asada nachos to share, and as I boldly shared on my Instagram stories, I truly think these were the best nachos I’ve ever eaten in my life!
Aside from food and coffee, we spent our days lounging on the beach, renting Bird scooters and zipping all over Pacific Beach, and going on long walks exploring the city. One of my favorite elements of the trip was the chance to take a San Diego Trolley tour by Old Towne Trolley Tours. This was a great experience where we were able to hop on a trolley that had a multitude of stops where we were able to get off at any point and see everything, then go back to the trolley stop, and hop back on. Although I’ve done some of these hop on/hop off tours in other cities around the country and world, I think San Diego’s version was my favorite. The stops were meaningful, you get to ride in a pretty cute trolley, and the driver provides interesting information about the city and its history along the way. I also would say it’s a great start if you’re headed somewhere and you don’t know much about what you want to do during your trip. Some noteworthy trolley stops include:
- Old Town San Diego (where the trolley tour begins)
- Seaport Village
- Coronado Island (my personal favorite)
- Balboa Park (which includes the San Diego Zoo)
- Little Italy
As you can tell, the trolley tour was incredibly thorough and provided such a fun glimpse of things to do in San Diego – and I only mentioned probably half of the stops! It was such a fun experience and I would absolutely do it again in a heartbeat. Overall, San Diego became quickly such a place that I love and would love to spend a lot more time in someday soon. It’s a fun city with incredible weather and I wish I could just bring the weather, cute coffee shops, and friendly vibes with me wherever I went in life.
Let me know if you have any questions and stay tuned, because coming up next is my LA vacation + travel guide! I hope you like it!
Olivia