Day 6 - The San Diego Safari Park

If you have never been to the San Diego Safari Park, I have to recommend planning a trip just to see this place, especially if you have kids. It's unlike any other zoo, and for us, it is our favorite between The San Diego Zoo and this one. From the moment you walk in the gates, you feel like you are transported somewhere else far away. 

For us, this was our last full day in San Diego and we wanted to make it special. We knew we wanted to save this park for last because we had been to it before and knew if we wanted something special and memorable, this would be the place to go.

We made one last stop at our new favorite coffee shop, Better Buzz Coffee for breakfast and coffee because we knew we had  a little longer of a drive ahead of us to this park. The Safari Park is located northeast of San Diego in a city called Escondido. For us, it was about an 50 minute drive from our hotel to the park and about an hour and half drive back, due to traffic. We made sure to leave early from our hotel, because like the zoo, we wanted to make sure to get there as close to opening as possible to beat the large crowds.

Once we got there, the parking lot was already filling up fast. We found a spot and walked to the gate. Because we already had purchased the type of ticket from the San Diego Zoo that allowed you to go to both parks a few days prior, we were able to head right in to the park. The first thing we did was get out our maps. It is best to have a map for this place. It's big! You can download the app, that has the map, but the kids enjoyed being able to have their own map and direct which way we went. I printed a copy for each of them and brought it along. You can do that here.

Right away, the kids knew they wanted to head straight for the Walkabout Australia part of the park. In this part of the park, you can walk into an enclosed area where kangaroos are hopping about and you get to be right inside with them. We had done something similar to this when we went to the Nashville Zoo, so the kids couldn't wait to be around kangaroos again. It was really amazing to see them hopping around feet from you. 

We call our son Carson, "The Animal Whisperer." He has this weird ability to get near animals like no one else can. Every time we go to a zoo, there will be a bunch of people watching an animal through the glass and the animals will stay far away, but Carson will walk up to the window and the animal will come right to him. If it had only happened once, we wouldn't have thought anything of it. If it happened twice, we would think it's just a coincidence. But it's happened at every zoo we have ever been too, and the Safari Park was no exception. When we walked into the kangaroo area, you get on a path and stroll through. There were several groups of people behind us and in front of us, and the kangaroos were staying far away from them all. As Carson rounded this corner, several kangaroos came hopping up from behind us and stopping off to the side of Carson. It freaked me out for a moment. Carson just stood there as one started to come right to him on the path. He carefully started walked towards it, when all of a sudden some girl started running at it and yelling. It scared the kangaroo away and Carson gave the girl the worst death glare I have ever seen him give. He was so mad because he had been so close to petting the kangaroo. 

After spending some time with the kangaroos, we headed to the next area in the park. This park is so well done. These awesome paths and boardwalks lead you from one area to another. It feels like you are being transported to a new country each time you move to a new area. We went to World Gardens and Condor Ridge next. From there, there is is the most amazing overlook area that looks down over a large part of the park (see the photo at the top of this page). We spent several minutes just standing there and taking it all in. The way they have it designed, it looks as if you are staring out over an African desert and not some park in California. 

As we moved around the park, the kids saw so many animals that you never see at your typical zoo. I think that is what makes this park so special and memorable. The different wildlife and the care of details in the way the park is designed makes it incomparable in my opinion to other zoos. 

For lunch, we decided to stop at one of the restaurants at the park called the Okavango Outpost. There are many different dining options while at the Safari Park, including bringing your own food and eating at one of the many picnic tables around. For us, we chose this particular restaurant because the tables outside have a cool view of the African Plains. We also chose it because of how close it's located to the African Tram, which was our next stop.

As soon as we were done with lunch, we headed to the African Tram. This is something you can't skip! There are many extra "safaris" you can pay extra for when in this park, but the African Tram is a part of your original ticket. It's a first come, first serve ride, so lines can be long. When we arrived the line was long, but we only had to wait about 20 minutes or so. 

Once we got to the front of the line, we were loaded onto a tram and off we went on a 25 minute safari adventure, seeing giraffes, rhinos, and other animals you would see if you really were out on an African safari. ​

After the tram ride, we continued walking through the park until we finally arrived towards the front where they were holding a special butterfly exhibit called "The Butterfly Jungle." This is something that the park does in the spring. 

When we went, getting into the butterfly jungle was free and a part of your original ticket. They have recently made it a paid experience, meaning you have to pay extra on top of your ticket to do this. At this point, they don't have any prices listed, so I'm not sure how much extra it costs. But, I will say that it was a highlight of our visit there this time and would probably be worth paying for. 

This is a very popular exhibit, and we had actually gone to it earlier in our day, but the line was ridiculously long. We figured we would come back later and hopefully the line would die down. We were wrong! The line was even longer. This was the last thing we had to see in the park, and it was the thing Reagan wanted to see the most, so we sucked it up and waited in line. By this point, it was so hot in the park. We had lathered ourselves up in sunscreen more times than I can count already that day! On a side note, bring a lot of sunscreen! The park has many places that are completely exposed to the sun, and shade isn't as frequent as you would hope, especially on a hot and sunny day, like it was for us.

At one point in line, they asked if we wanted to buy butterfly food. We didn't because we didn't know what the purpose of that would be. Later, we found out. Buy the "butterfly food," (a.k.a. watermelon)!

Once inside the butterfly jungle, you are instantly swarmed by butterflies flying everywhere. I have some weird dislike of butterflies and I normally could care less about them and actually try to avoid them. I don't know if I had some traumatic experience with butterflies that I have blocked from my memory, but I just don't like them! But even for this butterfly-hating person, I found this exhibit to be awe-inspiring. There were so many varieties and everywhere you looked, there were butterflies.

Eventually, the butterflies started landing on us. This freaked Reagan out at first and she let out a loud scream. She warmed up to them, and we all found it magical to be standing with all these butterflies landing on us. Soon, Carson saw others holding a cup of watermelon (this was the butterfly food we should have bought earlier), and seeing butterflies landing all over them. He wanted the butterflies to land on him too, but they wouldn't do it, despite standing there forever with his hand out. 

Later on, a little girl came up to us and said she was about to leave and asked if we would like her butterfly food. Carson couldn't have grabbed that little cup faster and soon, he too, had butterflies landing on him. Like I said, it was magical!

We had spent all day at the park, and could have easily come back the next day to do it all over again. Unfortunately, this was our last full day. Fortunately, we ended our trip with this amazing experience, which solidified that this was one of the best trips ever, according to the kids. 

On our way back, it took extra long because of traffic. We planned on going to Stone Brewing that night for dinner, but by the time we made it back to San Diego, the kids were hungry and the wait was a bit longer than they could manage. So, we ended up finding another restaurant in Liberty Station, which was Slaters' 50/50. This place wasn't busy and we got right in. The food was tasty, the kids were happy, and that meant we were happy, too. 

Later that night, we wanted to get in one last swim before we left in the morning. We took the kids to the pool for a "night swim," as we call it. On our way to the pool, we were able to take in one last stunning sunset at the marina right by our hotel.

The kids thought this night swim was the coolest thing and didn't want to leave. We knew we had to get up early to head to the airport, so after an hour or so at the pool, we headed back to our room one last time. The kids were asleep instantly, which was another sign of a great trip!

Overall, this is a trip we would do again and again. I highly suggest that if you are looking for the perfect vacation spot with kids, you have found it with San Diego.