This year,  we decided to head to San Diego for Spring Break. It seemed like the perfect destination– consistently good weather, beautiful beaches, and lots to do. As a bonus, early April isn’t peak tourist season in San Diego– allowing us to avoid the crowds that engulf more-typical Spring Break locales. As an added bonus, friends joined us for a portion of our adventure.

We spent the first part of the week at the Hyatt Regency on Mission Bay. While the rooms needed some modest updating, the views, service, and outdoor amenities made up for the slightly dated decor. Our room faced the harbor and Bambino loved watching the seals and seabirds from our balcony.

However, we spent a lot of time outside. We visited the rocky beaches of La Jolla and watched seals frolic on the Children’s Beach.

We tested out the water slide in the Hyatt’s fantastic pool area.

And, we explored the funky neighborhood of Mission Beach. The more we travel, the more we are drawn to neighborhoods and cities with a cultural identity and sense of place. While La Jolla is posh and tourist-ready, Mission Beach felt more lived in. Admittedly, it is still a vacation town (with an old-fashioned beachfront amusement park), but Mission Beach seemed to cling to its surfer ethos and wasn’t perfectly pretty. In other words, it was our kind of place.

In fact, San Diego was our kind of tourist destination. There is a remarkable amount of things to do– but it’s also the kind of place where you can linger in a park or on a beach and do nothing. More on our adventures next time.