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Outings and activities are among the best ways to bond with your resource family! It’s important that kids have the chance to see the world (or at least their neighboring Southern California communities) and learn through firsthand experiences. Exploration provides kids with opportunities for growth and helps them create lifelong memories.
If you want to check out some local attractions that aren’t overpriced amusement parks filled with screaming children, here are # sites worth checking out!
Julian
Known for apple picking and gold mines, Julian is a go-to fall favorite for SoCal families. Located on the outskirts of San Diego County, Julian is a quaint mountain town with activities that the whole family can enjoy. You could try your hand at fishing at Lake Cuyamaca, explore miles of hiking trails, pick apples in the cool shade of a hundred-year-old orchard, or savor a slice of freshly baked pie in town.
Palm Springs
Palm Springs, the perfect temperature for fall and spring, is a colorful resort town located in the nearby Mojave Desert. A hot spot for the stars and starlets of 1950s Hollywood, Palm Springs was a vacation destination for personalities like Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Bing Crosby, and even Ronald Reagan! Its high-class vacation homes make it the birthplace of modern desert architecture, and the town is filled with scenic houses.
Good family attractions include the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, which explores the rich history of the Cahuilla Indians, and the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, which transports visitors 5,873 vertical feet from the floor of the Sonoran Desert to the pristine alpine forests of the San Jacinto Mountains! Here, families can enjoy stunning 360-degree views from their rotating tram car as they cross five biomes.
Hearst Castle
A few hours up the coast from LA lies San Simeon, home of the legendary Hearst Castle. Known formally as La Cuesta Encantada (meaning “The Enchanted Hill”), this national landmark was formerly the private estate of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, who inspired Orson Welles’s 1941 film Citizen Kane.
The property includes a 115-room main house plus guesthouses, indoor and outdoor pools, and eight acres of cultivated gardens. It features a stunning combination of Baroque, Renaissance, and Classical architecture. This enchanting hillside mansion feels like something out of a daydream. You’ll enjoy the rich collection of art and architecture while your kids romp around the castle grounds, delighting in the fantasy-esque environment.
Afterward, you can head down to the beach to see elephant seals in the wild at the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Viewing Area. This area features boardwalks and viewing platforms where you can enjoy up-close views of the northern elephant seal — the second-largest seal in the world! Adult males can be up to 16 feet long and weigh up to 5,000 pounds. The best season for viewing is December to March when the birthing cycle begins.
La Jolla
At La Jolla Cove, you can teach your kids about the wonders of the ocean by giving the chance to glimpse sea lions up close. Similarly, the nearby Birch Aquarium offers engaging exhibits about local marine life, where kids can even pet stingrays (with their stingers removed of course)! And to top it off, the nearby Torrey Pines Glider Port offers a picturesque grassy knoll on the cliffs overlooking the vast expanse of Blacks Beach, where you can picnic while watching hang gliders and paragliders take off. You might even see some falconry!
Balboa Park
Balboa is rich in culture and provides ample opportunities for fun educational experiences. The park features a variety of interesting architecture but is best known for its colonial Spanish-style buildings, like the Cabrillo Bridge and California Tower — both built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, which celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal!
Scattered throughout the park is a treasure trove of museums covering a vast sweep of fun and interesting topics, including science, art, and culture. If you don’t know where to start, we recommend checking out the Museum of Us, San Diego Air and Space Museum, San Diego Natural History Museum, Fleet Science Center, and Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum.
Located directly south of the museums are the international houses, which are rustic cottages representing different countries where kids can learn about other cultures.
Just a few blocks from Balboa’s many museums is the San Diego Zoo, one of the most celebrated zoos in the country which features wild animals from every continent. Fan favorites include the panda exhibit and the new axolotl habitat. San Diego Zoo is one of the few places in the country where you can observe these rare and endangered species.
Balboa Park is also great for the holidays. The Haunted Trail—ranked by CNN as one of the top ten haunted houses in the country—is a scary haunted house-style attraction that might be fun for older kids but is not for the faint of heart and could contain triggering content. During the winter holidays, December Nights celebrate the season with free admission to all museums, live music performances, arts and crafts, and a smorgasbord of culturally diverse food served at the different international houses.
Wild Animal Park
Located just outside Escondido in San Pasqual Valley, the 1,800-acre San Diego Zoo Safari Park houses over 3,000 animals representing more than 300 species. The park also includes a botanical garden with over one million plants.
Here kids can learn about conservation and global citizenship as they discover the wonders of the natural world. You’ll encounter rhinos, giraffes, wildebeest, and large herds of wildlife roaming freely, as well as Sumatran tigers, kangaroos and the only two platypuses outside of Australia!
