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Last February, we left the cold and wet of Seattle for a mid-winter break in San Diego, California. We've been told the one way to survive through Seattle’s winter is to head to warmer weather and sun for at least a long weekend. Most Seattle area schools have a mid-winter break to accomplish just that. But no matter where you are coming from, San Diego in February is a great idea. It is pupping season for the seals in La Jolla, the main attractions like the San Diego Zoo and Legoland have lower crowds, and the weather is mild. Despite being one of the “wettest months”, we only experienced rain for an hour or two during our entire week long trip. This article goes over our 5 day itinerary, detailed information on great places to visit in San Diego with kids, where to stay and additional spots if you have more time.

Itinerary Overview

How many days to stay:

Our trip was 6 days including travel days. 6 days felt like a good length, but there were still places we wanted to see that we didn’t have time to get to. I would recommend anywhere between 3-9 days.

If you have just 3 Days, I’d recommend:

One day at either the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park
One day at La Jolla Cove and Scripps Pier (beach day)
Half the day at Balboa Park and the other half on a hike

With more days you can add on Legoland (1-2 days needed), Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve (half a day), old town San Diego (half a day), more hikes, more beach time, SeaWorld (1 day), seeing the other part of the San Diego Zoo or a flexible/rest day.

Our 5 day Itinerary:

* We arrived late the day before, got dinner and checked into our hotel*

Day 1:

9am-3pm - San Diego Zoo

3pm-4pm - Break at our hotel

4pm-6pm - Picnic and sunset at the beach near Scripps Pier

Day 2:

9am-10am - Annie’s Canyon Trail

10:30am-11:30am - Torrey Pines Gliderport

11:30am-4:00pm - Lunch, Relax & Pool time at the hotel

4:00pm-6:30pm - Dinner and Kellogg Park

Day 3:

9am-10:30am - La Jolla Cove for baby seals and seal lions

10:30am-1:00pm - Balboa Park

1:00pm-3:30pm - Break at the hotel

3:30pm-6:00pm - Misson Bay Park & Dinner

Day 4:

8:00am-9:00am - Check out of San Diego hotel and drive to Legoland

9:00am-5:00pm - Legoland

Day 5:

9:00am-5:00pm - Legoland & SeaLife Aquarium

*Left early the next morning for our morning flight back home

Where to Stay

We spent the beginning of the trip in San Diego near La Jolla and the last 2 nights in Carlsbad to visit Legoland. While we typically enjoy VRBOs on most of our trips, we stuck with hotels in San Diego. The price for what you get ended up being more affordable for us in a hotel. We were able to be in an ideal location - within walking distance of a shopping center with multiple restaurants - and have access to a pool with our hotel choice. We stayed at the Sheraton La Jolla Hotel, right next to the Shops at La Jolla Village. Hotel prices are typically low in February. If you have a higher budget, staying near the waterfront in La Jolla would be ideal.

Outside of La Jolla, I’d also recommend the Mission Bay/Pacific beach area or downtown San Diego for convenience and the best places for families. Coronado is also a gorgeous place to stay near San Diego with resort vibes and beautiful beaches - but it is not as conveniently located for other activities. However, staying a night or two in Coronado is a great addition to a San Diego trip.

If possible, I’d highly recommend finding a hotel with a pool to get that full escape from the winter experience. It is chilly at the beach in February but the hotel pools are typically warm enough to be enjoyable at this time.

For the Legoland portion of our trip, we stayed on property at the Legoland Castle Hotel. While we typically aren’t staying on-property of a theme park type people (due to costs), we definitely felt like it was worth it in this instance. Legoland has amazing deals on tickets and hotel stays during their off season. Compared to Disney or other theme parks, it was very affordable for our family of 4 to spend 2 nights and 2 parks days at Legoland. Be sure to watch out for Legoland’s sales or discounted admission from other retailers like Costco. Many large companies also have websites that provide deals for their employees for places like Legoland. If you want to stay off property, there are also great hotels in Carlsbad or you can drive up from San Diego.

How to get around

San Diego is not necessarily known for its public transit. Unless you are taking a very short trip and want to only be in the city, I would highly recommend renting a car. Like everything else, car rentals do tend to be cheaper in February vs the summer. When budgeting for your trip, note that many hotels charge for parking - especially those downtown and in the beach communities. When renting a car from the San Diego airport, you will need to take a shuttle to the Rental Car center which will add a little bit of time at the beginning and end of your trip.

San DIego zoo

San Diego Zoo is widely considered one of the most famous zoos in the world. It is a massive zoo with such a wide diversity in animal species. San Diego Zoo has also made a name for itself in all the effort it puts into conservation efforts. One thing I didn’t realize before researching for this trip, is that San Diego zoo is made up of two separate parts that are relatively far from each other. The San Diego Zoo is in Balboa Park, not that far from downtown San Diego. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is a farther drive away in the San Pasqual Valley. They are associated with each other and both worthy of visiting if you have time to see both.

We only had time to visit one and I spend an agonizing amount of time trying to decide between which zoo to visit. Both zoos are massive and will take up your entire day exploring them. Both zoos have unique experiences and unique animals that we don’t have at our zoo back home. Both zoos are very expensive. Both zoos are not only great places to see animals but also gorgeous botanical gardens with landscapes worth awe-ing. If you also have to make a decision between them, I don’t think there is a bad choice.

The San Diego Zoo is more of your traditional/classic zoo and the Safari Park is a more spread out, open enclosure safari-style adventure. The classic zoo has more animals and more diversity (including Giant Pandas and koalas). The Safari Park focuses more on species needing more spacious habitats like those of the African and Asian savannah (rhinos, giraffes, cheetahs). Not that you won’t also find giraffes and similar animals in the classic zoo as well. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park does require more driving, if that is a factor in your choice. The Safari Park is also probably more of a unique experience compared to your own local zoo. One deciding factor I’ve seen people say online is that the Safari Park can get unbearably hot in the summer - which might be a reason to see it in winter and save the Zoo for another trip in the summer.

We ended up choosing the classic San Diego Zoo because … I let my kids decide. I gave them a list of some of the animals I know they are into for each of the zoos and the different rides/experiences that we would do at each zoo. I also showed them videos of each. They ended up choosing the classic Zoo because of the Giant Pandas, the Skyfari Aerial tram, the play areas like the Wildlife Explorers Basecamp, the double decker bus, and they heard it would likely involve less walking.

We absolutely loved the Zoo, despite the cost, despite the fact that we’ve been to dozens of different zoos over the world. It was an incredible day. We were able to get discounted Zoo tickets from Costco - saving over $10 per ticket.

I read the advice (and I highly recommend it as well) to do the guided bus tour as your first thing when you enter the zoo. We arrived right when the zoo opened, which is also recommended, and headed right to the line up of the bus tour. We got on the second bus of the day - the loading of the buses took a bit more time than I expected on our day as they were drying off the seats since it had rained the night before. We checked the forecast and felt safe to go to the top deck of the bus – spoiler warning, it did rain on us at the end but it was not a big deal. The right side, top level of the bus will give you the best views. The bus does occasionally make stops so the guests on the left side can stand up to see as well.

Most animals are typically their most active first thing in the morning and many are fed at this time. One of the great things about the bus is you are able to get to many animals quickly and see them at their most active. We also loved doing the bus tour first as it gives you a good overview and understanding of the zoo for when you go out later and explore it on foot. After the bus, there are so many routes you can take. If you stop and watch every animal, you won’t be able to get to the whole zoo - this is a zoo that does require some prioritizing based on your family’s interests. I was given the recommendation to go counter-clockwise after the bus, so that is where we headed first. We visited the Outback and African Rocks section first. We then made it to the penguins and the Asian Passage. Our kids were starving at this point and we ate the Hua Mei Cafe. You are allowed to bring outside food and drinks, which is a great option - especially if you are staying with family or at a VRBO. We found the prices at the cafes in the zoo to not be too outrageous, especially for the kids meal. The food was decent enough. We brought plenty of snacks to cut down on some of the food costs.

After lunch, we waited in the long line for the pandas - the line moved fairly quickly and despite looking intimidating, it actually didn’t take too long. After the pandas, we head up the elevators to the basher bridge and visited the Elephants and the Northern Frontier before going on the Skyfari back to the front of the park. We then visited the Discovery Outpost & the Wildlife Explorers Basecamp and ended our time with the Gorillas and other apes in the Lost Forest. Our kids (3 & 5) had an amazing time and only lost energy at the final section of the park. We did not travel with a stroller, but we did have a carrier for my 3 year old. She ended up using it for only about 1/4 of the time, as most of the time she wanted to be on the ground interacting with everything there is to do.

We ended up spending 6 hours at the Zoo and that felt like a good time for us. To avoid the grumpiness and “I can’t walk anymore” complaints, 5 hours probably would have been our sweet spot. If you have older kids, you could probably spend longer. With younger toddlers that still nap and don’t nap well on the go, you can always split your visit to the zoo in two parts. You are allowed re-entry on the same day - just make sure you get a hand stamp at the exit.

Scripps Pier

The Scripps Pier itself is closed to the public - it is owned by the University of California San Diego and is used for research. However, the beach underneath it is open to the public and is a gorgeous wide sandy beach with beautiful coastline around you. We ended up parking on the street on El Paseo Grande and walked down the public stairs to the beach. It wasn’t too far of a walk to the pier.

The pier itself is a great backdrop for photos, especially around sunset - but the waves and sand captivated my kids for hours. We brought some food, a blanket and had a little picnic on the beach as well.

We love experiencing new things on trips that we are unable to experience at home. Living in Seattle, we get to experience tide pools quite often and did not make it a priority this trip (the timing of low tides was also not ideal for us). However, if your family is new to tide pools or it is of great interest, I highly recommend checking them out! Just north of Scripps Pier is a section of the beach called Dike Rock where you can explore the tide pools during low tide. If you are coming to Scripps Pier area to see the tide pools, try to park on the streets north of the Pier so you can be closer to Dike Rock.

San Diego has several other great spots to explore low tide. Here are some beaches I would recommend:

Cabrillo National Monument
Sunset Cliffs
Windansea beach

You can find more information on when low tide will be on your trip here.

Annie’s Canyon Trail

Slot Canyons are long narrow gorges with rock walls that had been carved by water erosion. Most slot canyons are found in places like Arizona, Utah and other areas of the American southwest. San Diego has its own slot canyon! This is an easy hike that even young kids can do. The hike is 1.3 miles long, with only a short portion of it being in the slot canyon – for those worried about being claustrophobic. The rest of the hike has wide trails and overlooks the ocean and San Elijo Lagoon and Ecological Reserve.

There are two trailheads - both right near neighborhoods with street parking. We ended up at the North Rios Trailhead as we had read that it is the easier and prettier route. This flatter route felt right for our family. There is also the Solana Hills trailhead if you want more of a moderate hike to the canyon. We visited early on a weekday and had no issues with parking or the trail being too busy. While in the canyon, we were either the only family in it or only 1 or 2 others. On weekends or evenings, the trail can get busy and there might be a line for the ladder and navigating around other aspects of the canyon.

We budgeted more time than we needed for this hike. We started at 8:50am and even with following the pace of a 3 year old and taking our time in the canyon, we were done by 9:30am.

The canyon is by far the highlight and my kids loved how they could do all of the “tricky” aspects of the hike all by themselves. The only complaints on the hike were at the beginning “when will we get to the canyon?” on repeat. Several people stopped them on the way back, asking how it was and if it was hard and they loved being able to reply and say “it was hard but we did it!”

Torrey Pines

Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve

Note: The Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is closed from November 2025 to February 2026. The official re-opening date has not been announced yet. The Torrey Pines beach is open but the trails are closed.

The Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve has gorgeous views of the ocean and has several easy to moderate hikes. Some easy hikes that I would recommend with kids are the Guy Fleming Trail, Torrey Pines Beach Loop Trail, and the Parry Grove Trail. If you want to do the Beach Loop trail, you will need to look into the tide charts and only venture out during low tide. Many hikes in this area involve stairs and an incline and some have issues with poison oak and rattlesnakes.

We unfortunately were in town during a golf tournament at the Torrey Pines Golf Course and this area was packed. Parking was a mess and we were never able to make it on any of the hikes in Torrey Pines the couple times we tried that matched up with low tide. Check the PGA Tour dates before you go and if the tournament is taking place at the same time as your trip, adjust your schedule so that you visit the Torrey Pine State Natural Reserve during off-peak times.

Torrey Pines Gliderport

We were able to visit and enjoy the Torrey Pines Gliderport. Unfortunately we went, the winds were not favorable for paragliding and we were not able to watch any of the gliders. However, walking around on cliffs and enjoying the gorgeous views was enough. The ground is very uneven and can be slippery, so wear comfortable shoes with good traction. While there was no gliders, we did see several surfers on the water down below.

There is a cafe where you can enjoy lunch and several trails. If anyone in your group is brave enough, you can sign up to do tandem paragliding with an instructor for a couple hundred dollars.

Note that there is a trail down to a beach called Black’s Beach - which is a clothing optional beach. The parking lot also is very bumpy and made of unpaved gravel.

La Jolla Shores Beach

Another beach to enjoy the sunset and relax at after a day of exploring. We parked near the Kellogg Park - where there is a fantastic beachside playground and large grassy area. There are so many great beaches in San Diego but not all have playgrounds close by - and we’ve found that combination to be pretty ideal for preschool/elementary aged kids. While I heard some issues around parking, we did not have any issues finding a parking spot an hour before sunset. We needed to go back to our car for something for our kids closer to sunset and there was a line of cars circling the parking lot then (closer to 20 minutes before sunset). There were restrooms, changing areas and a sand rinse off area that were all clean enough to use. There is not a lot of food options near this beach, but you can bring in food to eat on the beach - or we just ate dinner after sunset.

One of the great aspects of visiting San Diego with kids in the winter are the early sunsets. You can get the great sunset experience without keeping the kids up too late. While it does mean shorter daylight hours for exploring, we were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day to want to stay out much later.

The waves were pretty gentle here, the beach was long and wide and we had a great time walking along it as the sun was setting. The beaches in San Diego were gorgeous and we did not come across a bad one.

La Jolla Children’s Pool and Cove

Seal pups! February and March are the best months to see baby harbor seals in San Diego. The spot to be is La Jolla’s Children’s Pool. We saw a few pregnant seals and dozens of newborn seals - learning to swim, nursing, resting in the sun, and chasing after their moms. Our whole family was enthralled watching the baby seals and spent several hours here. These adorable marine mammals feel just similar enough to us to emphasize with all the silly and loving moments you can watch.

Make sure you respect all of the signs and keep a respectful distance from these seals and the sea lions. Mothers have been known to abandon their pups if they feel threatened by humans.

If you are wondering what the difference is between seals and sea lions - one of the most obvious is the noise. If there are making a loud barking noise - it’s a sea lion. Sea lions also have stronger flippers and can perch themselves upright on their flippers. Seals, on the other hand, move around by flopping on their belly. Sea Lions are typically brown/tan and seals are more often gray (or spotted). Sea lions are often found pretty close together in groups. Seals are often more spread out.

We parked about halfway between Children’s Pool and the La Jolla Cove to minimize walking on either end. We headed first to Children’s Pool to see the seals as we headed out in the morning and were hoping to sea the seals without too much of a crowd. There was a decent amount of people but it didn’t feel too packed. The Children’s Pool beach is closed to get seals space, but you are able to look down onto the beach from above - both from the street side and along the sea wall on the other side of the beach. We then walked north along the sidewalk on Coast Boulevard to La Jolla Cove for the sea lions. The walk is about half a mile and is beautiful. We found the most sea lions near a spot on google maps called “Point La Jolla Sea Lion Rookery”. We could also hear them long before we could see them. Unlike the calm and sometimes silliness of the seals, the sea lions felt rambunctious. We watched them jump off the rocks into the ocean - and occasionally on top of other sea lions. Lots of noisy barking at each other.

Snorkeling and swimming are popular at La Jolla Cove and we saw lots of people and neat sea birds in and around the water too.

Watch the seals especially was a highlight of the trip!

Balboa Park

Balboa Park is massive - larger than New York’s Central Park and Chicago’s Millennium Park combined. It is a gem of an urban green space. It is home to the San Diego Zoo along with many other museums, gardens, theaters and restaurants. You could easily spend multiple days of your trip just exploring things within this park. However, we budget just half a day to do all of the non-zoo things.

There are dozens of museums within the park - Air and Space, Automative, Railroad, Museum of Art, and many others. You can get a Balboa Park Explorer Pass if you are planning to visit multiple museums - there are multiple options if you are planning to use it longer term or just for the day. None of the museums really intrigued us more than just visiting all of the free places around the park - especially with kids. However, I have heard amazing things about many of the museums.

There are so many free things to do! There are many beautiful gardens including the garden inside the conservatory - called the Botanical Building. We also visited the Lily Pond in front of it, the Alcazar Garden, Palm Canyon Trail, Zoro Garden. On Sundays, there is a free Organ concert at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. There is a free tram that takes you around the park - mainly to different parking lots, but we rode it and it was enjoyable just to ride it without getting off to see other parts of the park.

It is plenty enjoyable just walking around the park - on weekends there are also several street performers to watch.

Mission Bay park

There are so many amazing playgrounds and beaches in this area! We went to the Maruta Gardner Playground at Bonita Cove Park and had so many fun things for kids. The playground has several different types of swings, large climbing structures, a rope course, slides, musical elements, and a little kid area. There is a lot of sand surrounding the park - so bring sand toys too! There were several sand volleyball courts that were not being used so we played in the sand there too. We saw lots of kids riding their bikes and scooters on the sidewalks surrounding the park.

For beach-side amusement rides, Belmont Park has a roller coaster and rides for kids (and adults) of all ages. It is free to get in, but each ride costs money. If you plan on spending a while here, an unlimited ride wristband might be the most cost effective way to enjoy the park. Check out the rides available to see which ones your kids will be willing and able to ride.

Mission Beach is also a beautiful beach and great for sunset. White sand, shops along the boardwalk, and lots of people enjoying various activities from surfing, skating, bonfires, and collecting shells.

Legoland

This was our first time at a Legoland and I have not stopped recommending it to people since. If you love theme parks like Disney – this is quite similar but less busy. If you love legos - this theme park does a great job of incorporating the characters you know into the rides along with so many spots in the park where you can actually build with legos. The park felt very interactive and fun for little kids. The shorter lines were great for everyone in the family.

Legoland in February is especially great as the crowds are fewer than in the summer and the weather is more enjoyable. The only potential downside of going to Legoland in February is the slightly increased potential for rain. Legoland though has a pretty great rainy day policy - if it rains for more than 2 hours in the day of your visit, you can get a free ticket for another day within a year. Coming from Seattle, that policy felt a bit silly as almost every day in the fall, winter and spring rains at least 2 hours. However, rain is not very common in this area of California - the number of days that qualified as “rainy days” in the last year was only 5. The other potential downside of visiting in February is that they might save some construction and refurbishments for the winter - so more rides might be closed during your visit compared to the summer. However, when we went, only 2 of the rides were closed (the Dragon Coaster and Driving School). The water park is also not open during the winter months, but there are several water rides in Legoland itself.

I’d highly recommend Legoland if you have kids aged 2-12. I feel like the park is geared to a younger age demographic than Disney. My 5 year old (admittedly tall for her age) at 48 inches could ride every single ride but one. That one being the Driving School that is based off of age rather than height. Narrowing down the age further, probably the ideal age would be 5-9 years old. However, there was a great area for younger kids that could easily have entertained duplo loving kids for hours. If your tween is really into legos or is okay re-riding the same 3 thrill rides over and over, they could have a great time too. As adults, we also loved the more thrilling rides, all of the lego displays including miniland versions of many well-known cities, and watching all of the excitement from our kids.

Legoland is only a 30-40 minute drive from San Diego, which is super easy enough to do as a day trip. On our first day, we left that morning from our La Jolla hotel and went into the park at the opening time. We took a relaxing pace around the park and our kids did not need a break half way through the day as they did when we had gone to Disney World the year before. The park itself feels more calm. There are multiple playgrounds and lego-building areas where kids can take a break from waiting in lines and going on rides. While we did have an on-resort hotel, I did not feel like it was necessary. Especially since, we were not able to check into our hotel until after 4pm, which is even later than our check in time was supposed to be since our room still hadn’t been cleaned yet. Despite that, we did love the Legoland Castle Hotel. The theming was amazing. The separate room for kids was a big bonus. The pool was so fun. The included breakfast buffet was delicious and extensive. However, we did not use it to relax at half way through the day as we anticipated. If you have a napping child, you might appreciate being able to escape to the hotel mid-day.

We visited Legoland for two days and I would recommend the 2nd day if you have time. Our goal the first day was just to get through the park and do as much as we could. The second day was reserved for anything we missed, re-riding our favorite rides, enjoying the building spaces more, and visiting the aquarium. You are allowed early entry to the rides if you stay on property, which did help us avoid some of the long lines in the morning. We headed first thing to the left to Coastersaurus. By the time the park opened for everyone, this ride’s wait time had doubled. If you are coming and are not staying at the resort, I think a good strategy would be to head to the back of the park and go on those rides first as most guests will likely have not made it over there yet. After Coastersaurus, we continued on clockwise around the park - finishing Dino Valley, going to the Lego Movie World where we had lunch too.

The favorite spots for our youngest (3 years old) were the Duplo Playtown, Lego City: Deep Sea Adventure, and all of the little kid attractions at the Land of Adventure, and the lego building areas. Her favorite by far was the Cargo Ace which she ended up riding at least 10 times. I thought she would enjoy the playgrounds but those were some of her lease favorite spots, mainly due to all of the older kids and how overwhelming it can be with the amount of kids. Several of the older kids would be playing games that involved “controlling” or blocking off part of the playground and she just didn’t understand and many of older kids were not too friendly with younger kids. We ended up avoiding the playgrounds in the older kid areas unless they were mostly empty. Despite being tall enough for some of the rollercoasters, she didn’t want to ride them after her first experience (on the Coastersaurus) was a bit too much for her.

The favorite spots for our oldest (5 years old) were all the rollercoasters - Coastersaurus & Technic Coaster; the lego building areas, and the playgrounds. She honestly enjoyed all of the rides.

Some other tips to note. You are able to bring lego mini figures into the park and trade them with any of the employees in Legoland or at a trading post. Many of the employees that work at the shops have several minifigs for you to choose from, others might just have one or two. Note that they have to be complete minifigures - so they have to have legs, torso, head and hair. While you can trade again and again - our kids got very attached to their new mini figure after their first trade. We ended up getting a couple really cool minifigs. One of the most popular food items in the park are their Granny Apple Fries, which truly are delicious.

Sealife Aquarium

The deal we got with Legoland for our stay and park tickets, including free tickets to the Sealife Aquarium. We likely wouldn’t have gotten tickets to the aquarium beforehand unless they were already included. However, we were pleasantly surprised by this beautiful aquarium. It is right near the main gate of Legoland and there is a special entrance that you can get access without actually leaving Legoland park. We were given special wristbands so we could go back into Legoland afterwards without having to rescan our tickets.

The entire aquarium is relatively small - we ended up spending just about 45 minutes in the aquarium. We did not watch any feedings, spent minimal time at the interactive exhibits like the tide pools, and did not listen to any talks – so I would say you could potentially spend closer to 1.5 hours at the aquarium if you take your time more. There is a really nice scavenger hunt that you can go on throughout the aquarium, where you need to stamp a booklet at multiple locations around the aquarium. They give you a small prize at the gift shop if you complete it (a bracelet). This definitely won’t be the best aquarium you’ve ever been to but it was a quite enjoyable mid-day break from Legoland. Our favorite spots of the aquarium were the impressive Ocean tunnel and the Ray Lagoon.

MOre Great Places if you have more time

Birch Aquarium - Great aquarium in La Jolla. It is a manageable kid-friendly size with several interactive displays. They also have an outdoor deck that provides a stunning ocean viewpoint. They have some unique animals that you might not have seen at other aquariums including leopard sharks and cool seahorses.
Old Town San Diego - beautiful spot to walk around - preserved adobe buildings, plazas, fountains, gardens and colorful shops. Great place to get food.
Coronado Island - Resort-like getaway with the beautiful Coronado Beach - one of the widest, softest and picturesque beaches in California. A walkable town center with boutiques and cafes. Great place to rent bikes and explore.
Cabrillo National Monument - One of the best spot for tidepools in souther California. It has a historic lighthouse along with beautiful views of downtown San Diego and the ocean.

Books to read while in San Diego

Here are some book recommendations if you have time - in between wrangling kids - while on the beach or plane to read while in San Diego or on your way to it. I by random chance ended up reading The Women By Kristin Hannah during this trip and it was so fun to read about places that we were exploring. Here are some other books that either take place part of the time in San Diego or give the coastal Southern California vibe.

The Women by Kristin Hannah – Historical Fiction Novel that tells the story of a nurse from San Diego who serves in the Vietnam War.
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss – Here me out.. Dr. Seuss lived in the San Diego area and the plants in this book were based on the plants you can see here.
Beach Read by Emily Henry - Not specifically in San Diego but has a coastal setting and is a popular vacation read.
The Rise and Fall of San Diego by Dr. Pat Abbott – Non-fiction book about the geography of San Diego
The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson – Science fiction book about a nuclear attack on California
One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus – Young Adult Thriller that takes place in a small town close to San Diego. 5 strangers walk into a high school detention and only 4 leave alive.