Are you looking for ideas for your next vacation? Want to go somewhere, but can’t decide exactly where?
Perhaps you should check out one of the Top 10 US Cities to Visit. Of course, whether or not a city is the best is a subjective opinion – but Conde Nast Traveler has taken a poll of its readers collective subjective opinions and come up with 10 American Cities that you’re most likely to enjoy visiting. With cities from across the country highlighted, there should be a great vacation destination for everyone.
Top 10 Best Places To Visit In The Us
San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge - Best US City to Visit
1. San Francisco, California
The first thing that comes to mind when I think of San Francisco, California is The Golden Gate Bridge. Residents rave about the culture and the year round mild weather that’s never too hot or too cold. Visitors to San Francisco can stay in some of the country’s most eco-friendly hotels and enjoy organic dining. UpTake’s own Cat Lincoln shares insider information on San Francisco via podcast.
Couples Retreat may have topped the box office with $35.3m over the opening weekend, but it doesn’t really make the case for vacation therapy.
In fact, this Vince Vaughn starrer goes the other way – and suggests that the best way to save your marriage is to escape from the wacky Couples Retreat staff and the weird yoga techniques (filmed at the St. Regis Resort in Bora Bora). You end up at a singles resort instead, get sloshed, scream and shout at your spouse and then a round of make-up sex solves all your problems. Read More »
There really is nothing to do in the towns of Santa Paula and Ojai – and that’s exactly why we went. We could have driven 3 hours to Joshua Tree, sure, or gone down to Tijuana simply so we could write ‘…is in Mexico!’ on our Facebook profile and then hightail it back to San Diego – there’s enough to do outside of Los Angeles, but it all seemed so – goal orientated.
If you go to a National Park, you feel the need to hike and that’s just silly and in no way relaxing. If we went to a museum, I’d have to act like I know what my girlfriend was talking about all the while wondering if the café would give me a beer.
See – too many road trips out of town come with immense amounts of pressure. So when I asked ‘what’s there to do there?’ when she suggested it, she came back with ‘not a lot – there are some shops in Santa Paula and a cool little Mexican restaurant’, I was sold. Shops meant she had something to do and tequila meant I did as well. Read More »
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to stay at the W Hotel in beautiful San Diego. My mixed feelings on that will come out in a later post. Hey, that’s like suspense!
On the corner outside of the hotel’s main entrance you will find this water station for your canine companion, which is a nice touch. Downtown San Diego is great for walking, which means yours dogs bark and your dogs get thirsty.
Seeing as right inside the lobby the price of water jumps up about $6 per bottle, you may want to sneak a sip or two for yourself. It’s a recession, people.
I’ll let you in on a little secret – I love going to the races. Playin’ the ponies. Dropping the kids’ college fund on a Trifecta Box: 1,3, and 6 horses. Before having kids, we actually didn’t go very often, and since having kids, “very often” has been downgraded to “twice”. This is a Family Vacations blog, and one might think that it would be reckless and irresponsible for me to recommend taking the family to, say, a Gambling Establishment. But I gotta tell you, the next time you and the family are visiting San Diego during horse racing season, pack up the kids and take everyone to the track – the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, as it turns out, is family-friendly, and is offering Camp Del Mar to parents as part of their summertime programming.
Lucas and friend, watching the action on the track.
My husband and I have amusement park-phobia. (There must be a scientific name for that. For now, I’ll go with the clunky made-up version.) When we travel, we prefer to head to destinations in the middle of nature, with as few other people around as possible. Now that we have two young children, however, entertainment and conveniences are much more necessary. Stick a ton of both of those things in one place, jack up the price, and poof! You have an amusement park. Read More »
A big worry I often have when deciding to take our recently-turned-four-year-old twins places is whether that place will be age appropriate. Restaurants have to be scrutinized. Will there be things the kids can eat? Will the kids be engaged or bored? And that’s just for a night out on the town. When it comes to amusement parks, I’m always dubious that young kids will have much to do. Usually, amusement parks are built for the over 40-inch crowd and those with smaller children are left with whiny kids and even whinier parents. (Is whinier a word? It is now.)
But Legoland, in Carlsbad, CA (located in San Diego County) and it’s newest attraction SeaLife Aquarium, are made for younger kids. Recently I had the pleasure of a tour of the SeaLife Aquarium and LegoLand and was informed that the age range they aim to please is 2 to 12 years old. Perfect for my little ones.
Rays at LegoLand's SeaLife Aquarium
If you go to LegoLand, go early – especially in the summer. It gets mighty warm and the morning crowds are still manageable (For ways to beat the Summer crowds at LegoLand, see this post). You can also eat at the new Ocean Journey Cafe which is part of the new SeaLife Aquarium. The food is freshly made and really yummy. You can choose between smoothies, muffins, eggs & potatoes made to order, cereal, fresh fruit and a multitude of other breakfast fare. Breakfast is served from 9:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m. and make sure you get a cranberry or blueberry muffin. My wife, a true muffin connoisseur, highly recommends them.
The new SeaLife Aquarium was a lot of fun for the kids. It has interactive tide pools for the kids to touch starfish and horseshoe crabs to a large 200,000 gallon ocean display complete with sharks, rays and tropical creatures that swim amongst some pretty cool Lego displays. The LegoLand park itself has a lot of rides for kids of all ages. My kids were able to go on a mini-rollercoaster (accompanied by me and my wife, of course) and had a bunch of fun running around in Explore Village and playing with the water features that make up part of the village. Good times for a couple of four-year-olds.
Of course, vacationing in San Diego offers many things to do, but you’d be hard pressed to find something that is so uniquely catered to younger kids. And big kids like me.
