San Diego- Things to do

On July 4Th long weekend we visited San Diego as its one of the must see places in California.

We have purchased our tickets from Costco, which was a 3 in 1 pass and included,

1. Sea world
2. San Diego Zoo
3. Wild animal park

You will find some good deals on Internet as well.

Sea world: Is a great place to take the family for a day. Its got something for each family member, From the fun shows to the amazing visuals, If you like sea life then you don't want to miss it.

The shows were great especially Shamu show,dolphin show and sea lion show. There are several show for shamu but the night show will be good so don't miss it even if u have seen day show.

If you book the showtime picnic you will get reserved seats in the Shamu stadium and they will bring you a picnic lunch to eat to your seats and will get to watch the pre show entertainment and then the show.
Shamu show is the main attraction of the sea world, Its a classic show. Dine with Shamu was also worth booking as you get a buffet meal next to the training tank. You will be less than a metre away from these amazing creatures. The trainers will tell u a lot about them and show you some of the things they do with them. It,s like having a private show (To get the best tables book early)

You can also do dolphin encounter which means you could see the dolphins up close, feed and touch them as well as talk to a trainer. If you got kids this a great thing to do will be a lot of fun.

The other displays and aquariums were also good and a 3D show,Circus show was also good.There are lot of shows will be going on so Make sure you plan the shows and special attractions you want to see then explore in between those times.

The sky/cable ride over the bay was nice and provided an excellent aerial view of the sea. There were nice little touches, such as the smaller aquariums and the tide pool where kids could briefly hold starfish and other innocent sea creatures. Educational and environmental messages were delivered in a tactful and subtle way throughout the park.

I am very afraid of the rides, but still went on a The Journey to Atlantes ride and i was able to come out in a single piece ha ha ;) there are some other rides as well but we couldn't get explore because of lot of crowd.

If you are an animal lover don't miss the pets Dog/Cat show.Look over the program carefully to make sure you are coordinated with respect to show times - they are staggered throughout the day and many shows run concurrently. It would be easy to miss a good show if you don't plan accordingly earlier in the day.

As went on Independence day weekend there was a Fireworks show in the park. This was very good and lasted for an half an hour...

There is lot of thing to do in sea world, This is a must see if you are in the area with children and have even the slightest affection for animals.

San Diego Zoo: This is a nice zoo. It is entertaining and educational. As we entered the zoo found out that there was a bus tour. One of the thing i liked was they were putting seal on the hands for the bus tour was kind of cool.Its was fun riding the bus and guide was explaining about animal and their behaviour...Bus dropped us in the forest from there you have to walk and explore the animals.

Panda,polar bear,flamingos were cute and the big elephants . Also you can feed to Giraffes and got to take tickets for that. Sky ride was a lot of fun and a must do. Park is very clean.We didn't get a chance to catch any shows but heard that they are kind of cool.

Overall Zoo experience was interesting,entertaining and educative.

Coranado Island : As we had some time left in evening after the Zoo we went to Coranado Island, Its got a beach so you can spend some time on the beach & few shopping malls as well. There is a ferry which will take you to the downtown San Diego. you can take tickets for ferry from ticket machine available on the beach. Ferry will drop you on the other end and you can walk around the downtown or rent the bicycle and make sure to take a note of last trip time of the ferry to come back to the island.

There is a USS Midway Museum, is a real naval aircraft carrier that served in the United States Navy for 47 years. Large and very impressive, it has real jets and real airplanes up on the flight deck, that travelers can actually walk into and even sit in the cockpits of some planes.

San Diego Wild animal Park: This is the part of trip which i dint like much. As said earlier we had 3 in 1 pass and one pass was for this park. we reached the park , Took "Journey into Africa" tour which was a kind of guided bus tour, so we hopped into the bus with great expectation. But it dint stand up to our expectation. All of the animals in the open range are hard to see because of the distance, unless your lucky enough that they happen to be close by the edge.

The variety of animals in the open range aren't very interesting and there are very few occupying a large of amount of space. Giraffes, a few Rhinos, Small gatherings of Antelope deer animals, Gazelles, Water Buffaloes a couple of ostrich and if there is anything I missed its because I couldn't see it or it was not memorable. The Journey seems like it lasted 20 mins.

If you plan on bringing a camera, you better have a high quality zoom lens or you wont capture very much. When you see pictures or even the name of the Park "Wild" and "Animal" you get the feeling you will be seeing all of the animals that are large areas, acting and as if they were in the wild. Sad part was we couldn't see any lions and tigers.

There are lot of other option for taking rides. Like hot hair balloon ride which will take you around the park , Safari ride & also other tours, you have to check in the counter.

So enjoy your trip to San Diego..... :)