With our company based in Southern California, we travel up and down the coast from Central CA down to San Diego and every where in between. We get pulled out to Plam Springs, and we even get to visit what I affectionately refer to as the armpit of America- wait for it- Fresno. Yup, sorry (not sorry). Unsubscribe here. 🙂 We’re coming for ya again in November Fresno- game on!
Our business had a HUGE boom in growth the exact moment our family did. With crazy, running non-stop, Irish Twin boys, we have stayed in some pretty great (and not so great) toddler-friendly places along the way! If you’re looking for some tips on SoCal Staycations with toddlers, (completely honest and without the influence of free stays), here it is! I gaurantee I will be bloggin more about travel, but for now, here’s a few places we love just to tide you over.
San Diego:
If you’re looking for an ocean experience without the crashing of waves, the Catamaran’s calm bay is perfect! The grounds make you feel like you took a trip to Hawaii (without the toddler airplane nightmare). We stayed in one of their biggest suites (We think it was called the Magnolia?) It had a kitchen and HUGE patio with our own gate feet from one of the pools. It had a large dinning room table for 8 and separate bedroom and living area. Honestly, it was amazing. There are kayaks and paddle boards available and the kids can run all along the bike path of the bay. There’s a high-end sushi restaurant in the hotel and you can easily grab food to eat in your room, or out on the beach! Super friendly front desk. Water freatures throughout and although the hotel itself could use a bit of an update, we ennoyed all that it had to offer! Bottom Line: Active. Lots of space.
We frequent this place more than I’d like to admit. Mostly because its one of those places kind of like an all inclusive- except IT’S NOT. I mean, we love it, but we don’t always love our bill. However, we have no problem paying for experiences and good ones, at that. The Omni offers all. Once we get here, we never get back in the car until we check out and with toddlers thats just amazeballs. Heated pools galore! In one area alone they have a beach entrance shallow pool, a splash pad, and a toddler-friendly slide- oh so fun! We have become HUGE fans of their large pepperoni pizza delivered to the pool chairs so we can grab bites while jumping in and out of the water. There is a cute hotel market with some basic vacation supplies, snacks, gifts, and a Peets Coffee inside. It’s along a path of little shops with food truck nights and music to make it feel like a little town of its own. It is not close to the beach, but honestly, we have never gone to the beach while staying there- kinda weird- but that shows you that there’s plenty to do on the property! We also walk to the Gelson’s Market next door with the boys to grab things for the room. They also have spa treatments, yoga & meditation in Deepak Chopra’s center located on the property (super cool right?!). Bottom Line: LOTS of water fun options & NO reason to use your car. Beautiful grounds.
Anaheim:
HUGE Indoor waterpark…I’ll have an entire blog on our experience there next week (after our second stay). All of the water is heated and so is the air inside. Somehow we always get a bit cold and the kids have blue lips. Not a fan of the all the extra charges including additional wristbands for people in your room eventhough your room has occupancy for 5. They also make everyone have wristbands to enter the waterpark, even my mother in law, wihtout a bathing suit, who held our 6 week old neice in a chair the entire time. They do a great job of making you feel totally normal with screaming, crazy, running everywhere kids. There are a variety of activities all throughout the day & night like PJ dance times, cookie decorating, kids yoga, and story time. Our only thing is that we have toddlers that get up at the crack of dawn. The waterpark opened at 10am and that might as well be 3pm to us. Also something kinda weird was that the other stuff didnt open til 11am. I mean, stores, snack places, games, etc. They would have had all sorts of our money! It was especially upseting for us since the place downstairs has raw juices and omlets but doesnt open until 11am. However the Dunkin Donuts in the lobby opens at 7? Bottom Line: LOTS of indoor water fun & But overall seems more for 5 years and up.
There’s so many more places I have to blog about! I’m gonna put a Part 2 up soon and when I do I’ll attach it to this blog.
P.S. we are ALWAYS up for staying cool new places- contact me directly.
The Happiest Club on Earth 