If you are familiar with our blog you know that we love a good road trip! Our San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip is a perfect itinerary if you are looking for a quick getaway over a long weekend. California is one of those iconic places that you have to visit once in your lifetime! It’s packed with beautiful beaches, movie history, amazing food, and of course California dreams! My favorite part about California is that there is so much to do; it makes a short amount of time feel way longer than it really is!
This San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip blog will include:
- Best Time to Travel to San Diego and LA
- Flights
- Transportation
- Accommodations
- Itinerary
- Things to do
- Places to Eat
The Best Time to Travel to San Diego and LA
The best time to take a San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip is… ALL THE TIME! Yes, they really do have the best weather. It’s stays an average high 60’s and 70’s all year round in San Diego. San Diego does stay a little cooler due to the coast line but as you travel more towards Los Angeles the temperatures get to the 60’s and range to the 80’s in the summer months. The heat here is very dry so even 60’s feels warm. Do note May holds some of the cloudiest weather.
Flights
Website:Google Flights
We booked flights through Delta for Friday night at 8:40 PM. This allowed us to work during the day Friday but still get there at night in order to wake up and enjoy Saturday for our San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip. There is a 3 hour time difference between California and our hometown Detroit. That way we arrived at 10:15 PM.
Faris used his Chase reward points to buy the tickets. The value of the tickets were $250 each.
Make sure to check out Google Flights to find the best deals for your San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip!
Transportation
Car Rental
Website: Turo.
The cheapest way to rent a car for your San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip is through the app or website, Turo. It’s the same concept as Air B&B where homeowners rent out their homes but this app is just for cars. The economy cars average $20-$30 a day. But you can rent any kind of car including convertibles and big SUVs for a higher price.
Obviously you can still go through the car rental companies if you do not feel comfortable with Turo. The cost for an economy car is in the $300’s for 5 days. This does not include the fee if you are under 25 years of age. Add an additional $150 if you are under 25.
Bird Scooters
Website: Bird Scooter App Download
So everyone knows California is home to some of the worst traffic in the world. One of the solutions for short travel is the bird scooter. They are electric scooters that you can find dispersed all over the major cities. If you’ve ever used one of the bike apps it’s the same exact thing. You download the Bird App, locate a scooter on the map, and scan the bar code on the scooter. The app has your credit card information and charges you by the time driven. A couple miles will cost you a few bucks. Not to mention they are a blast to ride so definitely use them during your San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip!
Accommodations
San Diego
A big reason Faris and I decided to take this San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip was to visit my brother out in La Jolla. We were able to stay at his apartment while we were in San Diego. Now if you don’t have a friend or a family member to stay at check out Air B&B. Both Faris and I prefer to stay at Air B&B’s wherever we go. It allows us to experience more of the culture of that area.
Los Angeles/Venice Beach
Book the same Air B&B: Venice Beach Air B&B
Like stated above Faris and I love staying in Air B&B’s! We also love the beach so we decided to rent out a room of a lovely home on Venice Beach. Now when you rent out one room that means the owners will more than likely be there. Only go for rooms that have very high reviews to get the most out of your experience. Griselda and Alex, the owners, were extremely nice and helped us out with all of our questions. Alex is a chef and made us breakfast both days we stayed! They even had the cutest pup, named Cher, that greeted us in the morning. Such an incredible experience, that’s why we love Air B&B! Now this isn’t for everyone; you can rent out full apartments or homes if you want more privacy.
San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip Itinerary
We did this exact San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip Itinerary over the Memorial Day Holiday in May 2018. We both had the Monday off so we flew out Friday night and returned Wednesday night. This way we only took Tuesday and Wednesday off of work. Scheduling travel over holidays allows us maximize our amount of vacation days.
Day 1 – San Diego
- Flight – Friday – Detroit 8:40 PM – San Diego 10:15 PM (3 hour time change)
- Picked up our car a drove to our accommodations – about a 20 minute drive. We stayed at my brother’s apartment in La Jolla.
Day 2 – San Diego
Day 2 in the San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip is all about the food/drinks and the beach!
- Breakfast: North Shack Acai Bowls
- Coffee: Better Buzz Coffee
- Activity: Drove into the city and along the coast line
- Lunch: Baja Fish Market.
- Sunset: La Jolla Beach
- Dinner: In and Out Burger
- Breweries: AleSmith and Mikkeller Breweries
San Diego Food
California is famous for having some of the best food in the world. And that’s no joke! This was my first time to California and the food is a huge reason I love this place so much! San Diego is especially known for seafood and Mexican food! I thought the food was so good that I wrote a whole separate blog on the best 5 cheap eats in San Diego. Check it out for more mouth watering pictures! 5 Best Cheap Eats – San Diego
North Shack Acai Bowls
Address: 1255 Rosecrans St, San Diego, CA 92106
Menu: North Shack Menu
North Shack Acai Bowls are so delicious that we actually went back Sunday and got it again for breakfast. Definitely try out the mixed Acai and Pitaya bowls with all of the toppings. The small bowl itself is massive and the large is basically insane. Check out the 5 Best Cheap Eats – San Diego for more details!
Baja Fish Mart
Address: 2036 Dairy Mart Rd #127, San Ysidro, CA 92173
Menu: Fish Mart Menu
These were my favorite taco’s in San Diego!! Check out the 5 Best Cheap Eats – San Diego for more details!
In N Out Burger
Address: 3102 Sports Arena Blvd, San Diego, CA 92110
Menu: In-N-Out Burger Menu
Of course we had to check out the famous In N Out Burger while in California and it did not disappoint! Check out the 5 Best Cheap Eats – San Diego for more details!
San Diego Beaches
List of All San Diego Beaches: San Diego Beaches
I’m in love with San Diego and one of the main reasons are the amazing beaches. San Diego is very clean with stretched white sand beaches. The coast line is rocky so the drive will have you weaving in and out of large hills. I loved looking at the houses built into the rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean, I can’t even imagine how much those cost!
For sunset drive up one of the hills and watch the sunset overlooking La Jolla beach or head to the famous Torrey Pines for an epic view. My favorite beaches were La Jolla Beach and Mission Beach.
Misson Beach
Mission beach is a massive stretch beach line with beach hut shops and a carnival. You could walk for miles along this beach! It’s a cool place for a younger crowd. Everyone is riding bikes, listening to music, or playing beach volleyball!
La Jolla Beach
La Jolla beach is so beautiful. It’s a very wide long stretched beach filled with white sand. If you were to compare Mission and La Jolla beach I would say Mission is more of the party, younger crowd kind of beach while La Jolla is filled with families and more low key.
San Diego Breweries
AleSmith Address: 9990 AleSmith Ct, San Diego, CA 92126
AleSmith Website: AleSmith
Mikeller Address: 9366 Cabot Dr, San Diego, CA 92126
Mikkeller Website: Mikkeller
So I come from Michigan where hops are pretty strong. Breweries in Michigan are a huge thing so we’re pretty spoiled and have big expectations when it comes to craft beer. San Diego is no joke. I had no idea there were hundreds of them in the city alone! And trust me they do not disappoint! Brewery hopping is a huge thing in this area so be sure to check some out during your San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip. AleSmith and Mikkellar were two of our favorites. It’s a great option if you’re looking for more of a chill night compared to some of the bars downtown.
Day 3 – San Diego
You can not go to San Diego and not visit one of the most famous zoos in the world! Day 3 in the San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip was all about the animals!
- Breakfast: North Shack Acai Bowls – YEA.. we went two days in a row, it’s that good!
- Activity: San Diego Zoo
- Lunch: Pizza at the Zoo
- Dinner: Blue Water
- Sunset: La Jolla Cove – Seals
- Ice Cream: Bobboi Natural Gelato – Absolute Must
San Diego Food
Blue Water Seafood Market & Grill
Address: 3667 India St, San Diego, CA 92103
Menu: Blue Water Market and Grill Menu
Blue Water is a very well known fish taco market! There is a huge line at this place no matter what time you go! The wait is well worth it. They bring in fresh fish every day and make their own specialty sauces. My favorites were the tuna tacos and the fish and chips. Check out the 5 Best Cheap Eats – San Diego for more details!
Bobboi Natural Gelato
Address: 8008 Girard Ave #150, La Jolla, CA 92037
Menu: Bobboi Daily Flavors
Hands down the best dessert I’ve ever had. This is a must stop during your San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip! Check out the 5 Best Cheap Eats – San Diego for more details!
San Diego Zoo
Website: San Diego Zoo Website – See Live Cams, Get Info, Buy Tickets
The San Diego Zoo is world famous and there is no question why! The zoo is located in Balboa Park which is a must see as it is. The zoo is also insanely huge at just over 100 acres. This allows the animal exhibits to be anything and everything you can imagine. There are over 650 species of animals in the zoo alone and that’s why we had to include the zoo on our San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip! I definitely learned about animals that I have never even heard about before. Check out the guy below, this looks like something out of Harry Potter!
The large acreage isn’t just for the animals the zoo has lanes where double-decker open air buses drive through and an air trolley for those who’s feet get tired walking all those miles! Make sure you plan to stay here all day because you will need hours to make it through the whole thing!
Sunset – La Jolla Cove, Seals
Head downtown La Jolla for an amazing sunset with seals! The seals relax on the rocky cliffs overlooking the ocean. It’s a gorgeous site and you can join them on the rocks but don’t get to close. They are protective animals and will bark at you if you get too close for comfort. Make sure to get some fun pics with them on your San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip
Day 4 – Road Trip San Diego to Venice Beach
The San Diego/La Jolla area is just so clean and gorgeous I LOVED it! Now it’s time to check out Venice Beach/Los Angeles in the San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip.
- Breakfast: Bowl Of Heaven Acai Bowls
- Roadtrip: Stopped Laguna Beach for a few hours
- Roadrip: Laguna Beach to Venice Beach
- Accommodations: Air B&B on Venice Beach
- Lunch: Morfia’s Barbecue
- Activity: Rented Boat and cruised around Santa Monica
- Ice Cream: Salt & Straw
San Diego to Venice Beach Food
Bowl Of Heaven Acai Bowls
Address: 6755 Mira Mesa Blvd #118, San Diego, CA 9212
Menu: Bowl of Heaven Acai Bowl Menu
Ok I know we got a little obsessed with the Acai bowls! They aren’t big in Michigan so we had to get our fix. Bowl of Heaven Acai Bowls are in San Diego and on the way to Venice Beach. They are delicious but I don’t think anything will beat North Shack Acai Bowls. Bowl of Heaven Acai Bowls is a franchise and has a similar vibe to Tropical Smoothie if you’ve ever been to one.
Morfia’s Barbecue
Address: 4077 Lincoln Blvd, Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
Menu: Morfia’s Barbecue Menu
Morfia’s barbecue is the cutest little place, but it’s easy to miss so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for this one! Better yet, keep your windows open because the smell will draw you in. This is exactly what happened to us when we were on our way to meet some friends up at the Marina. We were going to grab some tacos on the way and instead the barbecue smell took over. We looked up the restaurant online and it had great reviews so we made the switch to coleslaw, mac and cheese, and coal grilled meats! I got the barbecue chicken and Faris got the brisket and both were delicious!
Salt & Straw Ice Cream
Address: 1357 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291
Menu: Salt & Straw Ice Cream Flavors
If you’re by Venice Beach you gotta try this place out. They’re known for having extremely delicious ice cream but also some wacky flavors. Habanero peppers and goat cheese were some fun flavors we tried! There is a line out this door almost every night but it’s worth it! That’s how you know a place is really really good!
Laguna Beach
There are a couple routes you can take when going from San Diego to LA. We took the route that went through Laguna Beach and it was the perfect stop in our San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip. The route took a little longer but it was worth it! The little beach town and gorgeous sand made this a true highlight. We stopped in one of the little cafes and got a coffee and then laid out on the beach for an hour. We didn’t stop long but it was a nice little break with gorgeous views!
Rent a Boat Off Marina Del Rey
Website: Rent your own boat
We had some friends vacationing in Venice Beach at the same time so we decided to meet up and rent a boat! We used the website rentaboat.com (linked above). It’s the same concept as Air B&B where homeowners rent out their homes, now just replace homeowners with boat owners!
We rented a 36 foot boat off of the site. Make sure to get a boat large enough to handle the ocean waves. The Pacific ocean is no joke so if you aren’t familiar with boating I wouldn’t recommend renting the boat without a driver. I have my boaters license and grew up on boats so I have some experience but I still was still a little nervous with the size of the waves. There were 5 of us who split the cost of a boat rental for four hours and it came to $90 each.
Day 5 – Muscle Beach and LA
So day 5 is split into two sections. We explored more of the Venice Beach area and then went to downtown LA and Hollywood area.
- Breakfast: Air B&B host made us a homemade breakfast
- Transportation: Scouted out some Bird Scooters and rode them along the beach
- Afternoon: Drove to the LA area
- Lunch: The Grove mall/market
- Sightseeing: Downtown LA, Hollywood sign, observatory
- Dinner: Urth Cafe
- Drinks: Rooftop Bar
- Comedy Show: The Comedy Store
Los Angeles/Hollywood Food
The Grove Mall Food Court
Address: 189 The Grove Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Food Recommendations: Best Spots to eat at the Grove by Brant Cox
So you may be thinking that going to a food court when you’re in Los Angeles is kinda lame. Totally wrong! The Grove mall is actually the most visited spot in Los Angeles! Crazy, right?! This outdoor mall is massive and has a sizable food court to go with it! This isn’t your normal food court it’s much more with tons of different options. You have all kinds of food: Asian, Mexican, Seafood, Barbecue, basically anything you can imagine! Typically we follow the rule of going to the longest line in places like this because people always flock to the best! This led us to the seafood. Yes, we got more shrimp tacos and they were delicious!
I’ve only been to the Grove one time so I am no expert but I did find one! I really like the blog Brant Cox put out about what spots to eat at in the Grove. You can find his blog linked above.
Urth Caffe
Address: 8565 Melrose Ave, West Hollywood, CA 90069
Menu: Urth Caffe Menu
Urth Cafe is a chain and reminds me of a glamorous Panera Bread. They are big with salads, paninis, and some hearty breakfast! There was actually an Urth Cafe in Laguna Beach that we wanted to stop at for breakfast but the line was out the door so we waited till we got to LA and got some salads for dinner. Super yummy but I wish we could’ve got the breakfast because that’s what they are known for!
Bird Scooters and Santa Monica/Muscle Beach
Faris and I woke up pretty early this day and we set out for a scavenger hunt to find two Bird Scooters. Ok, not so much a scavenger hunt because the scooters are everywhere and the app shows a map with the location of all the scooters in your area. We picked up the scooters and drove them along Venice Beach, Muscle Beach, and Santa Monica. The proximity of all three beaches are very close to each other so the total ride was only a few miles. But the scooters just make it so fun! We hung out around this area all morning and got a good workout on Muscle Beach!
Sight-Seeing Los Angeles & Hollywood
After our adventure on the beach we headed towards downtown LA. Of course we had to do the touristy things because I had never been before. We saw downtown LA, went up to the observatory, and checked out the Hollywood sign. Of course the traffic kept us in the car for a few hours but it was still fun to just keep a lookout from the car. The houses and the people watching was very entertaining! Make sure you save some hours for the sightseeing because the traffic will hold you up no matter what time of day!
Comedy Show: The Comedy Store
Buy tickets: The Comedy Store
Hollywood is home to big time actors/actresses, singers/songwriters, and comedians! You have to go to some kind of show and experience the talent. Faris has cousins who live out in the Hollywood area and work at the comedy store so of course we had to see a show in our San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip!
The comedy store is one of the most famous comedy clubs in the world. The building first started out as a night club during prohibition times with ties to Bugsy Siegel, a mobster. It’s rumored that dirty mob business was done in the basement and is now haunted to this day!
The club was turned into a comedy club in the 1970’s. It was known as a place where comedians could say whatever they wanted! Many big names started or performed here and still do to this day. Some big names include David Letterman, Jay Leno, Robin Williams, and Chris Rock. The building is lined with hundreds of pictures of famous comedians. There’s so much more that goes into the history of this place and you can read more about it on their site linked above.
We went and saw a roast battle and it was hilarious and a really nice way to end our trip in Cali. Grab some drinks and relax!
Day 6 – Early Flight Back Home
So normally we would buy one way tickets so we could fly into San Diego and fly out of LAX. Unfortunately the prices were so much higher that it made sense to just drive back to San Diego early in the morning and fly back home. We also had to return the car in San Diego so this just made the most sense for us in our San Diego, Los Angeles 5 Day Road Trip. Definitely check out the one way tickets because the prices change all the time!
Conclusion
Overall, I really enjoyed my first trip to California. My favorite part was San Diego; the area is just gorgeous especially in La Jolla. The beaches are perfection and they have some divine acai bowls and tacos. Good vibes, yummy food, nice weather, and beautiful beaches really puts this place on the top of my list!
The Los Angeles / Hollywood area is an awesome spot to explore. The sight-seeing, people watching, delicious food, and movie history was really cool to experience. We definitely did some “touristy” things here but I had to see what all the hype was about! I’m really glad I experienced it but I would choose to go back to San Diego over LA just because of the more relaxed vibes!
I hope this helps plan your own Southern California road trip. If you are looking for some good eats in San Diego check out the 5 Best Cheap Eats – San Diego blog for some tasty spots!
If you enjoyed this content please let me know in the comments below and make sure to check out our other travel itineraries!
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- Iceland 7 Day Itinerary
- Jordan / Egypt 8 Day Itinerary
- New York Weekend Itinerary
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