We returned for our fourth trip to sunny San Diego, this time with our family of five (and a half), and it was a really great trip overall. We did the majority of things on our list, and truly were pleased with having just five days instead of a whole week there. We figured this out kinda late in the game as far as vacations go, but we end up getting a little homesick by day 6 (us and the kiddos), so we are going to begin planning our vacations for only five days.
Accommodations
As I mentioned in my preview post, we rented a home on vrbo.com, and it did not disappoint! I didn't link to the exact place before for safety concerns, in case anyone reading this is a crazy stalker or something ;) However, I will now, since you can't find us there anymore: Overall, this place was exactly what we had hoped for. It was almost exactly as described, aside from updated bedding, and the addition of a washer/drier just off the kitchen in the little nook they pictured. I really want to put it out there that this place was extremely nice. I know my list of caveats is kinda longish, but I really don't mean to be negative about it. It was wonderful! We had no issues with it at all, and it was very nicely updated and we were 100% happy with our stay here.
Pros
- Location - The location was PERFECT for us, within a 10 minute drive to pretty much anywhere we wanted to go.
- Beds - The beds were very, very comfortable! We all slept great!
- Extras - We were very pleasantly surprised to find a pack 'n play AND high chair in the master bedroom closet. We hadn't counted on that, and were planning to just have Ryan sleep between us at night, as he does most nights at home. But it was SO NICE to have those luxuries. The high chair was AWESOME!
- Neighborhood - considering the situation with parking (see the cons section), we were grateful that the streets themselves weren't super busy as far as traffic was concerned.
- Keyless entry - It was nice to not have to worry about lost keys, so I did love that.
- View - the view from this place is gorgeous! You can see the ocean both from the master bedroom window and also from the deck. It is also fairly close to the airport, and the planes descend over the neighborhood. That worked well for us, as our boys LOVED to sit and watch the planes come in.
- Sound proofing - This was a HUGE plus, considering my last point. We hardly heard anything in the night (unless I happened to be awake and was listening for it), and slept great.
- Proximity to Airport - We actually flew into LAX as we got a significantly better deal on tickets there, but if you were flying into SAN, it's literally about a 5 minute drive - at most.
However, as this is a travel blog, I feel like I DO need to include the following disclaimers:
Cons
- Parking - The pictures they posted in there show all sorts of open parking spots, and that wasn't the case when we were there: We were lucky to snag a single spot, and we had to circle the block a time or two to find one most of the time. We did, however, find a spot every time at some spot around the block we were staying on, although sometimes it was across the street.
- Pin code for entry - There was a 9 digit pin to enter the place (which I finally memorized by the end of our 5 day stay, but had to look up every single time the rest of the time). It sucked having to bring it up on my phone in the text messages every time we wanted to get in. I should have written it down and just kept in my pocket, but I didn't.
- Suggestion/Request Notes - There were (very friendly, mind you) notes all over the place on the walls about this being a historic neighborhood, and a list of "suggestions" that felt a little more like warnings for staying there. These included:
- No noise after 9pm, please. (I'm sure the neighbors below weren't overly thrilled with our 2 or 3am wake ups to make our baby a bottle - especially the one night where I accidentally tripped over something in the hallway)
- No flushing anything beyond TP down the toilets.
- Try not to do laundry unless you absolutely have to.
- Try not to use the garbage disposal much.
- Try to limit your use of water.
- Water pressure - I'm getting picky here, but after two REALLY long days of walking all over the Zoo and then SeaWorld, I was just dying for a nice, hot, strong shower. And the water DOES get hot, but it's just not very powerful. It was fine, but the shower just wasn't super powerful.
- No wash cloths for the kitchen - The kitchen was fairly well stocked for what we needed it for. However, it was a big strange that they had so few dish towels (only 2), yet requested that you didn't do laundry unless necessary, and had no dish cloths for the sink. An extra dish towel and a couple dish cloths would have gone a long way. It's minor, but it was actually inconvenient.
I'll say this: This would NOT be an ideal location for anyone who wanted to go out for a fun night out on the town and getting back late with friends or anything. It's also not an ideal location if you have a little boy who would rather cut off his left foot than take a shower (he's bath boy, we discovered). But overall, it's a pretty great place! I would consider staying there again if we planned to go back to San Diego in the future if not for the fact that we'd have four kids in tow the next time, and well...it has just the two bedrooms. We'd probably find a place with more bedrooms if we returned.
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