Cost Breakdown for Our Epic San Diego Trip

You loved hearing about what we spent on our 3-week cross county road trip, our 10-day Washington DC trip, and our Yellowstone Family Trip so I know you’re going to love hearing the financial (and fun) details of our family’s San Diego trip.

For Christmas 2022, we did something we’ve never done before. Instead of our traditional Christmas morning of opening presents, we left on a fun trip that we had been secretly planning for months. We spent seven adventure-filled days in beautiful San Diego, California making memories as a family!

First, I’ll share the complete cost breakdown of our entire San Diego adventure. I’ll share my best secret for getting the sweetest deals on all of the attractions!

Then, I’ll move past the prices and give you the inside detail of the fun and unique adventures we had in San Diego.

Finally, I share the fun way we presented this amazing alternative to our traditional Christmas morning to our kids. The surprise and mystery really added to the fun!

By the end you’ll be ready to start planning for your own adventure. (I might be gearing up for another family adventure as I write this!)

San Diego Trip Cost Breakdown- $4,260

For those who are new here, we have a family of 8. At the time of the trip, our kids were ages 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, and 14. We love travel and adventure, but are always very conscious of how we spend our money. I actually enjoy the challenge of planning trips for our family while sticking to a budget.

Travel $424

When we were deciding where to go on our Christmas trip, we made sure it was somewhere that we could easily drive so we wouldn’t have to pay for airfare and rent a car. We wanted to save as much money as possible for the fun part of our trip. We live about 9 hours north of San Diego, which makes for an easy day of driving.

This includes gas, tolls, and parking. If you want to look at it on a per person basis, it comes out to $53 per person.

Accommodations $1,828

We knew that, aside from entertainment, the accommodations would be our most expensive part of the trip.

We stayed 2 nights in a hotel in Buena Park. With 8 in our family, we have to get two hotel rooms. Two rooms for two nights totaled $370.

We spent the last 5 nights of the trip at an Airbnb in Chula Vista which cost $1,458. One of my secrets for finding a good deal on an Airbnb is to book well in advance so you have time to keep an eye on the market. Save the places you are interested in. In a popular place like San Diego, it’s not unusual to find a new host who is offering a 20% off coupon to their first few guests. On or past several trips we’ve been able to do this and it has saved us a significant amount of money.

This averages out to $261 per night or about $33 per person per night.

Food $0

As with our 3-week cross country trip, our Washington DC trip, and our Yellowstone trip we didn’t want food to take up any of our trip budget. We did buy food to eat, but we used our normal monthly food budget for eating on our trip, so food cost no more than if we were at home. We got creative and brought lots of food and snacks from home. We didn’t eat out (besides grabbing pizza once) and we didn’t buy food in any of the parks. We brought water bottles and snacks with us everywhere that would allow it.

The hotel we stayed in for the first two nights had an awesome continental breakfast. We brought bread and sandwich makings and snacks for all of our outings. Dinners were also low-key and often eaten on-the-go. For the majority of the trip we stayed in an Airbnb, so we had a kitchen to cook dinner, eat breakfast, and prepare lunches to bring with us.

Not having to include any extra budget for eating out when we’re on a trip is a major money-saver. For some people eating out is a big part of being on vacation, but that’s not something our family is accustomed to, so we don’t feel like we’re missing out on anything. Saving money on food really brings down the total cost of the trip.

Entertainment $2,008

I spent lots of time researching all of the entertainment options in San Diego. The city and the surrounding area has so much to offer. Any one of the cool places we went would have been an awesome trip that everyone would have enjoyed, but since we were driving a long-ish way, we wanted to make the most of our time and see as much as possible while we were in San Diego

I started researching prices of some of the places I thought we might go and looked at how to get the best deals. I made a spreadsheet to compare the various programs, passes, and discounts.

The deal that stood out as the best, was Go City. With Go City’s all-inclusive pass, you can choose how many days you want your pass to last, then all of the attractions are covered for those consecutive days.

Right now, a 5-day All-Inclusive Go City pass for San Diego is $319 for adults and $299 for children and includes more than 50 activities. Of course it would be impossible to do everything, but you will easily get your money’s worth and then some (as I’ll show you in a minute).

The Go City pass is super convenient and easy to use since it is on an app on your phone. My husband and I had access to all of our kids’ passes on our phones, so we could easily swipe through as they are scanning at the gate. The app also has a map so you can see what attractions are near each other.

Go City has passes for 30 different cities all over the world, so if you’re headed to another popular world destination, you’ll want to check out Go City.

The San Diego Go City pass includes some big attractions that are a bit of a distance from San Diego, so we hit some of those on our way down.

Here’s where we went (and the standard admission price per person that we if we didn’t have the Go City pass):

DAY 1:

• • Knott’s Berry Farm ($99)

DAY 2:

• • Newport Beach Whale/Dolphin Watching Cruise ($56)
  • San Diego Zoo Safari Park ($72)

DAY 3:

• • Sesame Place ($100)*
  • Speed Circuit ($59)*

*Not currently included on the San Diego Go City pass as of January 2024.

DAY 4

• • San Diego Pier Fishing ($75)
  • USS Midway aircraft carrier ($31)
  • San Diego Zoo ($72)

DAY 5

• • SeaWorld ($109)
  • Fleet Science Center with IMAX ($24)
  • Belmont Park Ride and Play ($54)

In 5 days we went to 11 different attractions. The total regular admission price for those attractions would have been around $750 per person or $6,000 for all 8 of us. Of course I would never have paid regular price, but it gives you an idea of how big of a savings the Go City pass was for us.

Instead, we paid $2,008 for Go City passes for all 8 of us, which comes out to $251 per person. At the time I purchased our passes there was a special sale on kid’s passes.

In order to make the most of our passes, I planned out our days very strategically, so we weren’t wasting time driving around. I made a table with the opening and closing times of the different attractions, addresses, and costs for parking. For attractions that are open late, you must use your pass to get in by 5:30, then you can stay as late as you want. I prioritized the activities that our kids would be most interested in and had back-up plans in case we had extra time.

Some of the activities required reservations ahead of time (whale watching tour and pier fishing). It didn’t cost any extra and didn’t require a down payment of any kind, just your Go City pass number.

You don’t have to lock in your trip dates when you purchase your Go City passes. Your pass will activate when you scan it at an attraction for the first time. If you don’t use your pass within 90 days it will be automatically refunded. Easy peasy! You can start planning your next trip with Go City now!

San Diego Trip Attractions

Here’s a short summary of our experience at the 11 attractions we went to with our San Diego Go City passes. Some of them are in a larger radius around San Diego and some of them are close together in the heart of San Diego.

Knotts Berry Farm

Knotts Berry Farm is about an hour and half north of San Diego, but it is included on the San Diego Go City pass. Since we were coming from the north, we decided to start our trip here. Of the 11 attractions, this is the only one we had been to before. We have all enjoyed the rides and shows at this theme park in the past and we knew our way around, so we were excited to go straight to our favorites. Unfortunately, the day after Christmas is apparently one of the busiest day of the entire year. In the past, we haven’t had to wait very long in lines, so we were disappointed to spend much of the day waiting, which made this our least favorite experience of all the places we went on our trip.

Newport Beach Whale/Dolphin Watching Cruise

This 2.5 hour cruise was a big hit with our family! The cruise came with a free beverage ticket (we all got hot chocolate with whipped cream) and free binocular rental. We weren’t there at the right season to see whales, but we got to see lots of dolphins chasing and playing around the boat. The double decker ship has plenty of seating perfect for watching marine wildlife. The crew shared their knowledge about ocean animals as we went. Our kids still talk about how cool it was to see dolphins in the wild.

San Diego Zoo Safari Park

The Zoo Safari Park is about 40 minutes away from the San Diego Zoo. The Safari Park encompasses 1,800 acres of land, which allows the animals to thrive in a natural-like habitat. Our favorite part was a 30-minute tram ride through the park (included with admission) where a guide taught us about African animals and the challenges they face. We saw giraffes, rhinos, ostriches, zebras, gazelle, antelope, and more.  We explored the rest of the park which included areas featuring lions, tigers, elephants, gorillas, and Australian animals.

Sesame Place

As a big fan of Sesame Street personally, I made sure that even my big kids had fun at this amusement park that is geared toward younger kids. We rode all the rides which had essentially no lines at all. Since it was December, all of the water slides and pools were closed, but we all agreed that they looked like fun. We watched a character show and attended the parade. I checked back while writing and found that, as of January 2024, Sesame Place is not included in the Go City Pass.

Speed Circuit

Speed Circuit ended up being even more fun than I expected. While we waited for our turn on the go-karts, we played in the trampoline zone which included inflatable human hamster balls, aerial silks, a foam pit, zip line, ropes course, and a trampoline knockout game. Everyone had a blast! The idea of the human hamster balls had me feeling claustrophobic, so I held off trying it for a long time, but when the kids finally convinced me to do it, I had fun. The kids loved the gas-powered go-kart racing, though it made me a little nervous to have my children racing around and crashing at high speeds and I think I got whiplash. Speed Circuit was recently acquired by another company and is currently closed for remodeling.

San Diego Pier Fishing

We have some kids who are very interested in fishing (and some who are decidedly not), so we split up on this one. Mike took 4 of the kids pier fishing, while I took the other two on a walk. Mike and the kids had a two-hour guided fishing experience. The guide brought all of the fishing poles, tackle, and bait, so we just had to show up!

USS Midway

The USS Midway is a retired aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum. Admission includes an audio tour headset so you can learn about the exhibits at your own speed in whatever order you choose. We couldn’t get over how enormous the Midway was! On the flight deck we got to climb in planes and helicopters. We toured the main control center and captains quarters. I was amazed by the lower decks that housed and fed the 5,000 sailors on board this “city at sea” while it was in service from 1945 to 1992.

San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo has so much to see! We were grateful for the trams and gondola (Skyfari aerial tram) that helped us get around. We saw kangaroos, koalas, hippos, elephants, exotic birds, and so much more. As the sun went down, we somehow gravitated to a super fun playground with lots of water features. It may have been December, but we left with all six kids soaked head to toe. They were freezing in drenched jeans, but we stayed until closing time because they were having so much fun.

Sea World

We started the day at Sea World by hitting all of the rides and coasters while the lines were short. Mike and I took turns with the big kids and little kids, since our younger ones weren’t tall enough for many of the fast rides. Thankfully there were lots of fun rides for the younger ones too. We went to the animal shows and exhibits too. When we got to the killer whale show, the only seats left were front and center in the soak zone. In the summer they would have been the best seats in the house, but not in December. Knowing that our kids didn’t mind getting soaked (see San Diego Zoo experience), they were perfect seats.

Fleet Science Center IMAX

We didn’t spend much time exploring the science center, we just went for the IMAX movie about Antarctica. It was a great way to relax after doing lots of running around.

Belmont Park Ride and Play

Since Belmont Park is open late, we just planned to arrive by 5:30 so we could get in with our Go City Passes and stay for the evening. Belmont Park is a beachfront amusement park. The Go City Passes got us wristbands that allowed us to enjoy everything, including laser tag, mini golf, climbing wall, ropes course, historic wooden roller coaster, carousel, bumper cars, zip line, and other fun rides. Everyone had a blast and didn’t want to leave. The location was clean and outdoors, but it felt like it was indoor because everything was so close and convenient.

Here are a few of the other attractions available on the Go City pass that were high on our list that we didn’t fit into our final itinerary or wouldn’t have worked well with our range of ages:

• La Jolla: Full Day Snorkel Rental/Bike Rental/Surf Board Rental
• Legoland California
• Plunge San Diego- pool with floating obstacle course
• Asylum Outdoor Bouldering
• UTC Ice Sports Center

The range of great things to do with the San Diego Go City Pass is really incredible. Check out all of the attractions available with the All-Inclusive Go City Pass.

The Surprise

Instead of spending Christmas Eve wrapping presents, I wrote a poem to explain our plan. To make it stand out I printed each stanza on a separate sheet of paper then taped them on a giant white board covered in wrapping paper. Because there weren’t the normal presents under the tree, no one missed the poem.

Where are the presents? They’re not in the sleigh.
You won’t open them in the usual way

Instead there are clues so you can find out
What this Christmas surprise is all about.

Don’t cry and feel glum. No need to feel sad.
But get your bag packed. There’s fun to be had!

To know what to bring, in each stocking’s a list.
Please check it twice so no items are missed.

The Littles need help, all their things to find
The schedule is tight so we can’t get behind.

When bags are all packed get your Sunday clothes on,
Then after church, the next clue’s on the lawn.

After some initial confusion (who gets up early on Christmas to pack a suitcase?), everyone got excited and packed their bags to get ready for our trip. Once everyone was packed and ready for church we opened the presents that the kids had given each other and us.

After church the kids found the next clue (which we had sneakily hid). They still weren’t sure where we were going, which was part of the fun of it.

We’ve got lots of things, a house full of stuff
But one thing there surely just isn’t enough

Is time spend together– You’re growing up fast!
Let’s make some new memories, good ones that will last!

We can’t say too much, but we won’t got by plane,
Mostly the car, by foot, boat, and train.

We drove for about 7 hours. I wrapped up some special treats for the car ride. Every hour we would open a package along with another clue about our trip. Most treats were things that we could eat in the car, but we also gave our family a nice portable bluetooth boombox speaker so that we could better listen to audiobooks and music on our trip.

With each clue, the kids had different guesses about where we were going. We had fun making each part of the trip a surprise.

I packed umbrellas and ponchos because the forecast said we would have rain for most of our days, but the only rain came perfectly timed, right as we were driving out of the city to head home!

Our 2022 Christmas Trip to San Diego will go down in the books as one of our most memorable family adventures! It’s safe to say that no one was disappointed to not have presents under the tree.

 

This is a completely unsponsored post. We paid 100% of the cost of our Go City passes ourselves. I was so impressed with our experience and with how much money we saved that I looked into becoming an affiliate partner with Go City. If you decide purchase Go City passes through my link, I will get a small affiliate commission (at no extra cost to you). It’s pretty much the most fun way that you can support this site. You can trust that I only share things I love and actually spend my own hard-earned money on.