I spent the past week in Los Angeles with my family but made a few side trips to different cities and attractions in the area. I'll go chronologically, so my first focus will be the lovely San Diego. If you're wanting to travel to San Diego from Los Angeles, the trip should take around two to two and a half hours. Notice the word "should." I got to LA two days early so that I could spend some time with my friend Sarah before the intense family vacation began, and she really wanted to go to the world famous San Diego Zoo. We slept in a little Saturday due to my late arrival time and got on the road around 11.
Don't do that. If you want to make a day trip over the weekend, leave early. LA traffic pretty much never ends, but leaving during lunch hours is not intelligent. This decision along with her car refusing to accelerate at one point resulted in it taking us five hours to arrive in San Diego. It's a fairly easy drive. There were just a plethora of people making the same one. Luckily, we broke up the driving with a nice trip to a fast food Mexican chain called Del Taco. It's a big step up from Taco Bell and still rather cheap, but nothing can compare to my love of Taco Casa, especially when there's not even sweet tea.
Once we finally got to San Diego, Sarah and I parked in the zoo parking lot FOR FREE, which was a nice surprise. It was just to get our guards down before we had to pay admission. A general admission ticket runs around $42 for an adult, and it only goes up from there if you want any of the special tours or the 3D show. This price is well worth the amount of money. The zoo seems to be as large as some theme parks. The land is expansive enough that some guests choose to pay a small extra fee to ride a double decker bus around the property to see all of the exhibits in a timely manner without having to walk up and down all of the steep hills. So if you dislike walking or have someone in your group that has trouble with steep hills or walking for long periods of time, this might be the option for you.
We arrived, due to our out of the ordinary travel time, around 4 in the afternoon. The Zoo stays open until 9 and has a great light show at night. Unfortunately, it doesn't get dark until late during the summer, so the lights aren't as enjoyable as they might be during other times of the year. We stayed at the zoo four for hours and were able to see all of the major attractions while walking all of the trails, so if you arrive early in the day it's easy to walk and get everything done.
Just a note, most animals are really active in the morning and the late afternoon and evening, so during lunch time when it's really hot outside most of them are rather lethargic. It's a good idea to plan around this time if you want to see the animals do more than lie down. While the pandas are the main draw of the zoo and unlike some zoos viewing them is included in admission, the portion I loved most was the aviary. There are actually a couple of aviaries on the grounds. All of them are enclosed but have fresh, open air and are multi-leveled. This means that you can walk across a bridge at different levels in the trees to see the many species of birds as they fly around you and in front of you. It's beautiful and one of the most natural experiences that you can get in a zoo. I generally hate seeing animals being caged in, but the San Diego Zoo does a good job of giving the animals larger habitats, though not as impressive as Disney's Animal Kingdom. I am glad I was able to go, but I do not think I would go again just because of the cost. It is an excellent onetime experience! Here's their website if you want ore information about admission prices and the different exhibits. http://www.sandiegozoo.org/
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