San Diego is a family friendly place. There are family friendly restaurants and family friendly beaches and family friendly parks and family friendly amusements scattered throughout this wonderful city. You probably don’t need a guide to suggest that Sea World is a family friendly place. Or Legoland.
But we are here to offer something a bit more nuanced. We have made a series of 24 hour itineraries that are family friendly in the sense that kids will be welcome and have a good time, but they are places where mom and dad and grandma and uncle Steve can have a drink and enjoy themselves too. Places where you would go even if you didn’t have kids, but the kids will have fun alongside you. Places where half the customers will be families, the other half will not.
Perhaps you live in San Diego and have kids, but your kid-free friends are coming to town and you want to take them out for a drink – this guide is for you. Or the opposite – you live here and have no kids, but your friends with kids are coming to visit and you’re not trying to go to Chuck-E-Cheese- this guide is for you. Or maybe mom and dad just need to unwind and you can’t find a babysitter… anyway, you get it.
The Itinerary
1. Head To A Brewery
2. Go To Little Italy Piazza Della Famiglia At Dusk
3. Get Dinner At The Crack Shack
4. Map to this itinerary
Daytime
Head To A Brewery
Breweries were made for children. San Diego was made for breweries. Children were made for San Diego. A brewery is an important stop in any San Diego visit really – a place to reconnect, plan the weekend, and not feel rushed. A few of the best breweries in San Diego are Ballast Point, Pure Project, and North Park Beer Company and these all happen to have multiple locations that are both kid friendly and serve great food.
Pure Project is a newer brewery in San Diego serving offbeat beers from barley wines to ‘murky IPAs’ to well-made, delicious lagers. Their location in Banker’s Hill is right off the entrance to Balboa Park, making it convenient to all sorts of other activities. This location allows you to bring your own food from any local vendor. Their murky IPAs are what they do best, but all of their beers are well made and interesting.
North Park Beer Company specializes in hazy, hoppy DDH and TDH IPAs, but they too have a wide range of selections. They opened their second location in Banker’s Hill in 2023 and it is beautiful, airy space that serves possibly the best burger in all of San Diego. The rest of the food is delicious too. They have plenty of booth space to trap the kids at a table, as well as communal tables and outdoor seats. The original location, on University Ave in North Park, is huge with a larger upstairs area that has some games and is often uninhabited enough to bring a score of children without disturbing anyone. They do not serve food at the North Park location.
Ballast Point is one of the original breweries that started San Diego’s craft beer scene (and the country’s craft beer scene). Their Sculpin IPA made them a national name back in 2005 when people still didn’t know what an IPA was. Their brewery and restaurant in Little Italy has been around for years and is a great spot to start any weekend. It has a big, open, casual layout perfect for wandering children, as well as a courtyard and an outdoor patio
They have a full food menu that is legitimately good. Ballast Point was one of the first breweries to do it right and they remain one of the best. They recently opened a location in the Miramar neighborhood that is even bigger and nicer.
Alternative
In fact, most of San Diego’s best breweries have spots in Miramar, a mostly uninhabited neighborhood of office buildings in east San Diego where the breweries were able to move a lot of their daily operations and open huge tasting rooms. If you want to spend your day drinking your way through an office park, head over there. It is actually quite nice. Cutwater Spirits opened their first tasting room in Miramar which is worth a visit alone. All of the locations there are family-friendly of course.
Nighttime
Go To Little Italy Piazza Della Famiglia At Dusk
Little Italy is in general is a family-friendly neighborhood and it always has a bustling nightlife. The best place to go in Little Italy with kids is the Piazza Della Famiglia, right in the center of the neighborhood. It has family in the name. There is no outside alcohol allowed at the piazza, so we recommend you get drinks (and a gelato if needed) from Little Italy Food Hall and then grab one of the red tables in the square. We would probably skip eating dinner from the food hall or any of the restaurants surrounding the piazza and save your appetites for the better restaurants in Little Italy.
The Piazza Della Famiglia almost always has something going on, from pop-up performers to scheduled live music to art walks. Kids can run around the square and play on the fountain or try to trick a mime into moving. The place has as close to a town-square vibe as you will get in San Diego and if you squint it almost feels like a rustic Italian piazza. The Little Italy Foundation has put a lot of effort into restoring the neighborhood and the piazza is a great example of a communal spot where local San Diegans go to gather most days of the week.
Get Dinner At The Crack Shack
The Crack Shack has beer, cocktails, picnic tables, corn hole, and some of the best friend chicken in San Diego. It is our favorite casual spot in Little Italy for lunch or dinner. The restaurant is large, spread out, and all outdoors because this is San Diego and you can do that here. They serve sandwiches, bowls, salads, kids meals, and of course, buckets of fried chicken. The firebird sandwich is a go to if you want some spice in your life, but in the end you should probably just get a bucket of fried chicken because why mess with perfection?
