Travel with Tweens: San Diego

TRAVEL WITH TWEENS

San Diego Satisfies Travellers Of All Ages

by Bianca Bujan

My heart races as my 12-year-old daughter and I settle into our cherry red plastic seats on San Diego’s Patriot Jet Boat, a thrilling tour that promises speed, screams, and splashes. It’s not the boat itself that has me feeling nervous, but the high-speed spins, tricks, and turns that are to be expected on the turbocharged ride.

My daughter notices that I’m gripping the bars in front of me with both hands and wearing a worried look on my face, and laughs at me as the tour guide prepares us for what’s about to go down. We haven’t even left the harbour and I’m already second-guessing my decision to board. Once the safety spiel ends, there’s an uneasy silence, and then Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” begins to blare from the speakers as our boat speeds away from the dock.

Suddenly, the wind is hitting my face with force but I can’t stop smiling. The boat does a reverse 360 turn, just as the song hits the climactic chorus, I’m going off the rails on a crazy train! Everyone on the boat simultaneously raises their arms as if descending a steep hill on a rollercoaster, and screams the words to the song in unison. Around me, grandparents, tweens, and single twenty-somethings are bonding over this one-of-a-kind boat ride, and when we return to the dock, I proclaim that I want to go again.

After an adventure-filled mother-daughter trip to San Diego with my oldest daughter, I realized that planning a trip with a child who is approaching her teen years is a unique feat, and that if not properly planned, taking a tween on a trip can be more challenging than travelling with a toddler. This age group can be tough to impress, and if you’re not prepared, your travel itinerary will be met with eye rolls and apathy - the perfect recipe for a ruined family trip.

To help you plan a family trip with your tween in tow, I’m sharing some tips on how to keep everyone in your family engaged - especially those kids on the cusp of childhood and their teen years.

Take it up a notch

Want to go on a whale watching/sightseeing tour by boat? Ditch the slow sail, and consider a jet boat tour instead. On the one we did in San Diego, the jet boat went 50mph, blasted loud music, did doughnuts on the ocean, and had us dancing and waving our arms while we saw the coastal sights of the city. Think a visit to the local zoo might be fun? Step up your game and see a safari instead. In San Diego, a 40-minute drive out of town takes you to a 1,800 acre safari where you can feed giraffes, watch a cheetah run, and zipline, swing and climb through the trees.

Put yourself in their shoes

I wanted to shop through downtown La Jolla, but didn’t want to bore my tween with visits to boutiques and souvenir shops that she might not like. My daughter loves to take photos and share them on social media, so I printed out a map of the murals found around town and turned our shopping trip into a scavenger hunt! We searched for the murals and snapped fun photos as we shopped through town, and my girl was all smiles.

Be prepared to switch it up

I had a few items on our itinerary that I thought my tween would love, but when the time came, I could tell she wasn’t as excited as I had thought she would be, so I gave her some new ideas and we changed our plans at the last minute. We ended up having an amazing time, because I was willing and able to change things up to suit her mood.

Plan for some down time

I have a tendency to want to pack everything into a trip, especially when I’m only visiting a destination for a few days. With a tween, it’s important to remember that they like to have a little down time to check in with friends, catch up on a show, or just rest up before the next big excursion. Plan for a slow morning start, and if possible, incorporate a few stops throughout your day so your tween isn’t too overwhelmed by your jam-packed itinerary.

Stay somewhere with appealing amenities

During our visit to San Diego, my daughter and I stayed at two very different resort-style hotels. The first was Kona Kai Resort & Spa, which offered oceanview rooms, a pool and hot tub, and on-site offerings such as city bikes (free to use for hotel guests), and fire pits with all the fixings you need to enjoy some late-night s’mores after a day full of adventures. This property was quaint, quiet and upscale, offering a perfect balance of fancy and fun.

For the second half of our trip, we stayed at another beachfront hotel called Paradise Point Resort & Spa. A much larger property, this resort could have been a destination in itself, offering spacious, multi-room villas on the water, perfect for larger families. There, we enjoyed dipping in the property’s multiple pools, taking a ride on a Funcat (an electric-powered chaise lounge chair for two) - a great way to sit back and explore the resort’s surroundings. The property also has several restaurants, from a casual pizza joint to a fancier five-star restaurant, and in the evenings, you can enjoy live music and cocktails as you watch the stunning San Diego sunsets.