Sunny San Diego

California is full of natural beauty, but it can be an expensive place to visit. With a little pre-planning, and digging for deals you can save yourself a little extra cash. Here are a few ways to save on activities so you can buy those souvenirs or enjoy a nice dinner while visiting.

If you are a AAA Member, you can get discounted tickets for the San Diego Zoo and The San Diego Zoo Safari Park here. If you don’t have that, but have a Sam’s Club or Costco membership, they typically also have discount tickets. If you happen to be there in the Fall, October is Kids Free month at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and youths 11 years and younger receive free admission all month long (with a paid adult).

If you opt for the San Diego Zoo, plan on visiting Balboa Park right next door. There are many beautiful buildings with amazing architecture to see. While at the Zoo ride the sky tram to get a bird’s eye view of Balboa to see where you’d like to go.

Several of Balboa Park’s great museums are free to the public. The Timken Museum of Art always offers free admission. The museum features works by some artistic masters, including Rembrandt! At the Mingei Museum, the Commons Area also offers free admission featuring objects from the folk-art museum’s collection. The full Mingei is free for those 17 and under.

All around Balboa Park are numerous sculptures and other works that are freely accessible to the public. The San Diego Museum of Art’s “Art of the Open Air” program has installed a variety of sculptures in the Plaza de Panama outside the museum. Admission to SDMA’s May S. Marcy Sculpture Garden, which features works by Rodin, Calder and other modern masters, is also free.

Balboa Park also bursts with multiple gardens that are free to stroll through and admire.

Balboa Park’s historic Spreckels Organ Pavilion boasts the world’s largest outdoor pipe organ. Every Sunday at 2 p.m. throughout the year, rain or shine, the pavilion hosts a free organ concert. The Pavilion also hosts two separate, free Summer music series: the Summer International Organ Festival, with musicians joining the organist at 7:30 p.m. each Monday; and the Twilight in the Park series of non-organ Summer concerts at 6:30 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The North County area of San Diego boasts a beautiful coastline with your pick of beaches free to spend the day away in the sun and water.

One of our favorites, Carlsbad State Beach, known to us as Tamarack Beach, stretches from the warm water jetties, just south of Tamarack Avenue, to Frazee Beach, near Carlsbad Village Drive. The beach is ideal for the family and kids. There is free street parking all along Highway 101.

Another favorite beach is Fletcher’s Cove in Solana Beach. This location is great for families with kids because not only does it have the fun of the water, there’s also basketball courts, a playground, outdoor showers, along with a large grass area for a family picnic.

If it’s just too hot outside or the weather isn’t cooperating like it did for us and ended up raining a lot on our planned beach day, opt for some indoor fun with some roller or ice skating. We found tickets on Groupon for 1/2 off open skate and rental tickets. If skating isn’t your family’s forte, there are also many deals for indoor trampoline parks, bowling or arcades.

If you have Lego fanatics in your family then a day at Legoland is a must. Yes, you can get in at a discount too! On many of the small packs of Legos there is a cut out coupon for a free children’s admission with a paid adult. The free Lego magazine also offers this coupon in their monthly publication. We had two, so we paid separately for adult tickets and got two kids in free!