If you’ve followed us on our adventures, then you know that we’ve visited almost all of the Hawaiian islands…except the Big Island. On this trip we’ll finally be checking the Big Island off our bucket list! We really enjoyed exploring Maui in a campervan, so we knew we wanted to do something similar on the Big Island. We considered renting the same type of campervan, but after more research we decided that we needed a 4×4 car in order to see and do some of the things on our itinerary. Campervan Hawaii is the company that we rented our Maui campervan from, and they also rent out Jeep Wranglers with a pop-up tent, which we decided to rent for the week!
Our flight to the Big Island had a one day layover in San Diego, which we were excited about because it was an excuse for us to explore a city we’ve never been to before! The flight from JFK airport to San Diego airport was 6 hours long and with the 3-hour time difference, it gave us plenty of time to explore the city…we just had to fight the jetlag!
We arrived in San Diego around noon, so our first stop had to be In-n-Out. It’s not everyday we get to enjoy this simple, but delicious burger…animal style of course!
After a much needed lunch stop, we headed to Hotel Z to check into our hotel and drop off our packs. Hotel Z is located along 6th Ave, which was a great location for walking around and exploring the Gaslamp Quarter. We walked along 5th Ave to head towards Balboa Park. We didn’t realize how hilly San Diego was until we began our walk…
Once we arrived to Balboa Park, we took our time to take in all the beauty of the landscape and architecture! The park itself is massive and has museums, the San Diego Zoo, and the Desert Garden all on the grounds.
After we enjoyed our time walking around the park, we continued our walk towards the famous pedestrian bridges. We first walked over the Quince Street Bridge, which has been around since 1905, and you can definitely tell its age just by walking on it! The bridge spans Maple Canyon between Third and Fourth Avenues and it allowed residents better access to the Fourth Ave trolley line.
Our goal of the day was to end the day at some breweries, which most are located in Little Italy. We walked over the Spruce Street Suspension Bridge to get to the Little Italy neighborhood.
After our jaunt around San Diego, we worked up a thirst for some craft beers! We stopped at Ballast Point Brewery to enjoy a flight.
After enjoying some refreshers, we walked over to The Crack Shack for some delicious dinner! The chicken sandwich and poutine really hit the spot after our adventure around the city!
We ended our night at Mikkeler Brewery to try some unique beers. Mikkeler has a location in NY, but we of course wanted to try the San Diego location! We even stopped at Extraordinary Desserts to pick up a few sweet treats to enjoy back at our hotel.
After indulging in good food and great beers, we realized we should probably call it a night because we had an early flight ahead of us to our next adventure, a week around the Island of Hawai’i! Make sure to follow along our Big Island adventure!
Aw, we missed you by two weeks – we were just there! We loved Fortunate Son – chinese restaurant and . Happy travels!