When there is family visiting us, even if just for the day, I usually try to find something that all the generations will enjoy. Our family is small… my parents and George’s (the Grandparents who are in their 70’s and one 80’s), my brother in law and my two kids. These day adventures are kind of like staycations, or becoming a tourist in my own town. We are truly lucky that San Diego has so much to offer and this day trip was really one of my favorites. It reminded me a lot of when I was traveling in other countries and finding reasonable tour companies that had day trips to experience as much as could be seen in a day with the flexibility of seeing what I wanted to see.
This Trolley tour company is not only available in San Diego but also several other cities in the US, but to get the most benefits out of it, you have to be from the city that you are taking the Trolley in. So for us, with our ID showing that we lived in San Diego county, we got a FREE trolley tour, with our downloaded Home Town Pass from their website, with every full price tour. So since three of the visitors were from out of town, we got 3 free pass and kids under 4 (I think) are free. This trolley tour has a specified route thru San Diego highlighted stops -Old Town, Gas Lamp, Embarcadero Park, Seaport Village, Coronado Island, Balboa Park and maybe a couple others. What I liked is that you can hop off and back on. They have may trolleys that come by about every 20 minutes to what I remember. Or you can stay on the whole time. We hopped off at Seaport Village and walked around and then again in Coronado for lunch and again at Balboa Park. You definitely want to take the earliest trolley you can achieve to get the most out of it since the last trolley ends at 5pm, so the last pick up at Balboa for us was at 4pm. Everyone really enjoyed the day. Price wise, it was about $35 for a full price hop off/on day ticket. Buying your tickets on their website saves a couple dollars. They do have 2 day passes and even a couple different tour routes now in San Diego. Such a great way to see the city or just a fun day out with the kids. I would totally do it in another town if there was one offered in a place I was visiting. Highly recommend it and maybe in the near future, I’ll start coordinating day trips in San Diego and invite everyone to join us. How fun would that be.
Make sure that if you’re a local to print out your Hometown Pass for that city. SOOO worth it.
Historic Tours – this website has the other locations