Lessons learned from travelling to San Diego

Well we are home from San Diego. The bags are almost all unpacked, the thirteenth load of laundry is now in the dryer, the twins are in their beds and I am back in the office, tap-tap-tapping at the keyboard. And I am now reflecting on the lessons we learned from our trip to San Diego.

The first thing to note, pack less stuff than you think you need and pack it in a bigger suitcase than you need. In other words, take a big suitcase with little in it. Because, wherever you go, you can buy baby clothing and stuff. And if you are going anywhere in the USA, that baby clothing will be cheaper than you might imagine. So those are the first two points.

Next, don’t buy tickets to tourist stuff ahead of time. You might want to get a feel for a place before deciding you want to go the San Diego Zoo or Sea World. The “deals” we got online were not really as good as they were made out to be. However, if you are going to Disneyland or World, this might NOT apply. And free places like Balboa Park are extraordinary.

And, when booking into a resort or hotel, read the reviews posted by visitors to that resort. If countless people say it is old, out of date and rundown, well, they just might be right. A good place to start is by reading the reviews posted by consumers at Trip Advisor. The reviews were bang-on with the Bahia Resort…oops…should have read them ahead of time. And then if you get there and the place is not what you expected, don’t be afraid to tell them you are not happy and if they cannot meet your needs, switch hotels.

When renting a car, especially if you are travelling with babies in car seats, get the bigger car. It was awesome being able to stretch my legs out when driving. And Caragh was not cramped up in the back seat of the car when trying to feed the twins. Oh yeah, take your own GPS if you have one; so much easier than trying to figure out a new one while on roads you do not know. And with that bigger car, pay the couple extra bucks and get valet parking. Made me feel like a big shot to wheel in and have them help unload the car and oh and ah about the twins. All for an extra five bucks? Money well spent.

While at the valet spot, talk to these people. These are the guys who know the town you are visiting. They know where the cheap eats are, where to go to buy that top-end bottle of scotch, and where to get the best local feel for the town. A big shout out to Matthew from the Hilton La Jolla for the advise on the eats. We had awesome brekkies at Kono’s,  The Eggery and The Broken Yolk upon his advice. And Caliente…deelish California style Mexican food!!

And finally, if you are debating whether to go or not, DO IT!! The airplane ride was a piece of cake. Everybody we ran into, save a royal bitch we ran into in San Diego (YEAH I”M CALLING YOU A BITCH because you are acting like a bitch so fuck you and fuck the high-horse you rode your prissy little ass in on if you think you can kick me off my flight. BITCH)…. oops…as I was saying, everybody else were genuinely kind and thoughtful, especially the Air Canada flight crews. The crews on our flights there and back were awesome.

The babies? Amazingly resilient. The Hilton staff brought a play-yard to our room and that was our temporary crib. The twins slept there no different than they do when they are at home. Need a microwave? Housekeeping brought one down to us. Need a fridge, don’t worry about it, use the mini-bar fridge. I will be upfront about it, the Hilton provided no promotional considerations for us on this trip even though I mentioned a couple of times that I was blogging about our travel experiences. However, they were genuinely helpful, very considerate and welcoming. It always helps if  the baby you are carrying can smile at the right people…

So to summarize, bigger suitcases, take less stuff, get the bigger car, talk to people, did I mention to stop and ask directions, be funny, have fun and bottom line, don’t let anyone talk you out of travelling with your baby. We are already scanning the listings to see where our next trip is going to take us.