Shae and I decided to spend New Year’s Eve in San Diego for 2021/22, staying for an entire week. We then moved north a little to Carlsbad for another 1.5 weeks to give us even more time to explore the area.
We both fell in love with San Diego and it’s now one of my favorite cities in the US that we’ve visited. Here’s more about where we stayed, what we did and where we ate and drank that’ll show why we loved it so much.
Where We Stayed
We stayed at two different hotels in San Diego and one hotel in Carlsbad.
The Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter
New Year’s was spent at The Westin. I think there are two The Westin hotels in downtown San Diego; the one we stayed at was the one in the Gaslamp Quarter.
We really liked the hotel as the staff members were all very friendly and helpful, the rooms were comfortable and quiet and as a Titanium member with Marriott Bonvoy, we got an upgrade to a room with a Peloton bike and free breakfast.
The hotel has a destination fee which is annoying, but they do provide a lot of value with the perks they give in return. Check out my review for more about why we liked our stay at The Westin.
Hotel Indigo San Diego Gaslamp Quarter
After three nights at The Westin, we moved on to the Hotel Indigo – also in the Gaslamp Quarter – for four nights. We got another room upgrade there thanks to having Spire Elite status with IHG Rewards, it’s incredibly pet-friendly and they have a rooftop bar overlooking Petco Park (home of the San Diego Padres).
Although I liked The Westin a little more, we both enjoyed our stay at the Hotel Indigo – check out this review for more about that stay.
Homewood Suites by Hilton Carlsbad-North San Diego County
After a week in downtown San Diego, we moved half an hour north to Carlsbad, staying at the Homewood Suites there. It was good value staying there on points which got us a one bedroom suite with a full kitchen. I’ll be writing a review of that stay soon, so stay tuned for that.
What We Did
Gaslamp Quarter
Both our downtown San Diego hotels were in the Gaslamp Quarter. Although it didn’t have as much charm as somewhere like the French Quarter in New Orleans, it was great being within walking distance of tons of excellent bars and restaurants.
Seaport Village
Where we stayed in the Gaslamp Quarter was only a short walk to the marina and Seaport Village. Seaport Village has a number of restaurants, bars and wineries and many of them had pet-friendly patios.
Kayaking
The destination fee at The Westin included one hour of kayaking or paddle boarding from Seaforth Boat Rentals. That was available daily, so we ended up going kayaking a couple of times around their marina and out into the bay a little.
Harbor Tour
Another benefit that was included as part of The Westin’s destination fee were two tickets for a harbor tour with Flagship SD. We could pick a north tour or south tour and the hotel’s concierge recommended the north tour.
The harbor tour wasn’t something we’d have chosen to do otherwise, but effectively paying for it as part of the destination fee meant we wanted to take advantage of it. I’m glad we did as it was a fun hour-long trip where we got to see more of the coast, some wildlife and learned a little bit about the area’s history.
San Diego Zoo
Shae and I had a quick overnight stay in San Diego 12 years ago and visited their zoo. We enjoyed it back then and seeing as it had been so long since we’d visited, we decided to head back to the San Diego Zoo again on this trip.
It was just as good as we remembered. They have good-sized animal habitats, some animals you don’t often see at other zoos and just enough information to learn about their animals without having so much information that it feels like you don’t have enough time to read it all.
The zoo is spread out over quite a large area which can mean quite a bit of walking, but there’s a hop on, hop off Kangaroo Bus you can take around the zoo if you don’t want to walk the entire distance, as well as a guided bus tour.
The Shout! House
While walking around one day, Shae spotted The Shout! House, so we went there one night to check it out. The Shout! House is a dueling piano bar, something we’d never experienced before but was a lot of fun. Both of us had some of our requested songs played and the musicians that night were very entertaining.
Maritime Museum of San Diego
While staying up in Carlsbad, we headed back to San Diego one day but each did our own thing. Shae headed to the Maritime Museum of San Diego for her virtual field trips class on Outschool. The museum includes the ability to explore many historical boats and she thought the whole experience was excellent – so much so that she was able to teach two classes about everything she learned there. She’s planning on writing a post on here about her visit in the coming days, so stay tuned for that.
Balboa Park
While Shae went to the Maritime Museum, I took our dog Truffles to Balboa Park seeing as the museum wasn’t pet-friendly. Shae and I had been working the previous couple of days and so Truffles needed to get out of the hotel too as she was getting cabin fever.
Balboa Park is massive – it covers 1,200 acres which makes it even larger than Central Park in New York City. There are 17 museums, the San Diego Zoo, gardens, restaurants and much more.
Something else that’s worth checking out is Palm Canyon. There are Moreton Bay fig trees there with simply enormous above-ground roots. I’ll admit that I was impatiently waiting for the guy in the photo below to finish taking his endless selfies so that I could get a photo of the roots without him in them, but in hindsight him being there helps give a good sense of scale as to how enormous the roots were.
There’s even a large dog park where Truffles enjoyed playing.
Carlsbad State Beach
The water was too cold to go swimming in the ocean seeing as we visited in early January, but there were beautiful sunset views when walking along Carlsbad State Beach at night.
Ocean Kayaking
Shae found a Groupon to go ocean kayaking to see the sea caves in La Jolla with Everyday California, so we headed there one morning. I don’t think either of us had gone ocean kayaking before – only on lakes, inlets, rivers, etc. This was a great introduction to the experience and navigating the waves was a fun experience we’ve not had on kayaks before.
Sea Lions
After going kayaking, we headed along the cliff walk for a little while and came across loads of sea lions. It was fun getting to see them so close; Shae loved it so much that we returned the next day so that she could take some photos with her good camera. One of the cutest parts was being able to hear a sea lion pup nursing from its mother.
Goat Yoga
Using some money she got for Christmas, Shae did goat yoga at Sugar Sweet Farm. She’s gotten to experience this before elsewhere, but I think this was her favorite time doing it as there were also llamas, pigs and more she got to be with.
Hosp Grove Park
On our final full day in Carlsbad we decided to take Truffles for a walk at Hosp Grove Park, a good-sized park with a number of walking trails around it.
Where We Ate & Drank
San Pasqual Winery
While walking around Seaport Village, we stopped at San Pasqual Winery to do some wine tasting as they had a pet-friendly deck. Their wines were very good and we also got chatting to Mike & Mark who live locally.
Karl Strauss Brewing Company
We enjoyed Mike and Mark’s company so much that we met up with them a couple more times while we were in San Diego and Carlsbad. The first place was Karl Strauss Brewing Company, a restaurant and brewery they’d highly recommended.
It wasn’t hard to see why they like it there so much. The service was great, the beer was excellent and the food was delicious. I got their beer sausages (grilled cheddar brat and chili-chicken link) which came with garlic-mashed red potatoes, sautéed green beans, pickled onions and spicy honey-sriracha mustard.
Their Brewer’s Dozen Imperial Cookie Stout was very tasty.
Burgeon Beer
The other place we met up with them at was Burgeon Beer. That brewery was also pet-friendly outside, so we brought along Truffles and they brought their sweet pup Piper.
Urban India
On one of our evenings at The Westin we ordered dinner from Urban India using Uber Eats. I got their tandoori chicken which was pretty good, while Shae got their chicken tikka masala which was fantastic. I tried a little of hers and it was incredibly flavorful, so I ended up wishing I’d ordered that instead.
The Shout! House
While watching the dueling pianos at The Shout! House, Shae and I had dinner and drinks. I got a Butcher’s Burger which had a patty made from a blend of bison, wild boar and wagyu and came topped with bacon jam, shallots and more, while Shae ordered their prime dip sandwich.
Knotty Barrel
Only a minute’s walk from the Hotel Indigo we stayed at was Knotty Barrel – a brewery and restaurant. I think I ordered their Kicked-Out Stout, while Shae had a pineapple cider.
We got an appetizer of parmesan truffle fries; I don’t like cheese, so I picked out the fries with no parmesan on them.
For our entrees Shae ordered their panini grilled cheese which came with tomato soup, while I had their spicy Italian beef sandwich with a side of sweet potato waffle fries. The waffle fries were perfectly crispy and the spicy Italian beef sandwich was excellent, but I could’ve done with it being even spicier as it didn’t have as much of a kick as I expected.
Gelato Love
Despite being full after dinner and drinks at Knotty Barrel, we stopped for ice cream from Gelato Love which is inside The Foodery (located kitty corner to Knotty Barrel). Shae got their double chocolate and I got their mixed berry cheesecake.
Spill The Beans
The Hotel Indigo doesn’t provide complimentary breakfast even if you have status with IHG Rewards, so one morning we had breakfast at Spill The Beans Coffee & Bagels in Seaport Village.
To be honest, it was a little disappointing. The bagels were OK, but nothing special and they were certainly overpriced for what they were – it was almost $30 for an everything bagel with cream cheese and a bagel with lox. They have some interesting flavors for their bagels in theory, but they still weren’t very flavorful. I think I got their garlic and herb bagel with red chili and garlic cream cheese for my lox and there wasn’t much to it at all.
Culture Brewing Co
I met up with a friend one night in Encinitas and we went for drinks at Culture Brewing Co. I had their marbled chocolate stout which was very good and was unusual in its appearance – the top half was much darker than the bottom half (hence the ‘marbled’ in the name).
Nancy says
Wow! Thanks for this. LOVE reading these long updates. Very enjoyable to read and to dream!
stephen says
Great, I’m glad you like these longer posts! I sometimes wonder if these roundup posts are too long, but we often do stuff that wouldn’t be sufficient for a dedicated post, but are worth covering in some way which is why I like doing these roundups 🙂