The Best Family Vacation at Omni La Costa Resort in San Diego
Planning a family vacation? If you are looking for a luxurious trip filled with fun activities for the whole family, look no further than the Omni La Costa Resort in San Diego, California.
When it comes to hotels for a family trip, I am pretty selective to ensure we have a great experience. I look for
- Pools: An amazing pool or pools since our kids are 3 and 6. They are both little fish and can swim all day long. I prefer to be outside, doing activities with them, but they are still too young for doing many activities. My husband and I love swimming, and find it super relaxing.
- Large Room: A large room that will comfortably sleep 4 people. At times we opt for a suite with two rooms, so the kids have somewhere to go and play when they wake up early. Now that the kids are getting a bit bigger, they are pretty quiet and self-sufficient in the morning, so we can stay in a large room with two beds. Ideally you can get a ground floor room so they can easily run outside.
- Comfy Room: A comfortable room with a fridge for snacks and drinks, comfy beds and pillows, a large bath tub, and a room with space for the kids to play in the room.
- Gym: A good gym since my husband is a gym rat and has to work out every morning. I also like taking fitness classes when I can sneak away.
- Spa: To relax and be pampered.
- A Good Coffee Shop: We liked to start our days with lattes, so a good coffee shop is a must!
- Easy & Accessible Food: On trips, we don’t want to eat out in a formal setting for every meal. And room service can often take awhile. I always ensure there is a quick grab and go shop with good, healthy food options.
- Fun Activities
- Kid’s Club
- Easy Parking: Because no one likes waiting for their car to arrive.
The Omni La Costa ticks off each box on my list, and then exceeds it with excellent service, friendly staff, and the most picturesque setting imaginable! Just walking around the resort, you feel happy, relaxed, inspired and tranquil because it is that gorgeous.
I’ve been going to this resort since I was a kid. My Great-Aunt had a home on their property, and we celebrated holidays, anniversaries, birthdays and more at the resort. It’s changed a lot from when I was a kid and they had horse trails, and it has continuously gotten better.
Omni Hotels took over the property a few years ago, and their amazing attention to detail and customer service really shows. From immaculately groomed vegetation, a thoughtful and comprehensive food offering with plenty of gluten and dairy free choices, to fun extras like afternoon balloon animals / twisting and glitter tattoos for kids, they’ve really thought of everything.
Large, Comfortable and Spacious Rooms with Great Patios / Decks
The rooms are large and can easily accommodate a family of 4-5 people. We opted for a room with double beds, and we each slept with one of our little ones. The kids had ample room to play, the bathroom was huge with an oversized tub, and we had plenty of storage space to put our things away.
I cannot stand suitcases sitting in the middle of a room when I travel. I find a place for everything in our hotel room just as I do at home, so nothing gets lost, and we can easily get out the door.
There is a large fridge in the room, which we loaded with waters, cheese for Harper and Greek yogurt for Grayson. There’s a Gelson’s Supermarket next to the property, but we brought our own from home in a cooler bag.
Our room had an amazing patio with a large bouganville, and large grassy areas right outside the room. We always bring some balls for the kids to play with, and Grayson brought his army men set that he played with in the grass. Our patio opened up with large French doors that we mostly kept open, but the room was nice and cool, dark in the morning and quiet. Exactly as I like it!
The patio right outside our room!
Pools and Water Play Areas
Main Pools
The Omni La Costa has one of the best outdoor water play areas in California with four pool areas. And remember, I say this as an admitted pool snob!
The main pool area has two large pools, a traditional large round pool that goes about 6 feet deep at most and a huge graduated pool with a sandy play area at the entrance that eventually gets about three feet deep.
We swam in both pools, but the graduated pool is definitely the little kid’s pool. It’s a blast for kids from birth on up, and is great for those learning to swim, playing games and hanging out with a drink in your hand.
Next to this pool is a junior slide that is fun, not too scary, and accommodate a parent with a smaller child in front of them. Suffice it to say we LOVE this slide!
For bigger kids and grown ups, there is a larger slide area with two fun slides.
Next to the large slide is a splash pad area that’s fun for the whole family. There are also two large jacuzzis and a full bar.
The Graduated Kid’s Pool
The Larger Main Pool
The Garden Pools
The Garden Pools feature two more pools that tend to be a little less crowded than the main pool area. Also in the afternoons Kidtopia takes over the pool area with fun games, music and family fun. There is a full bar and food available along with a large jaccuzzi. We alternated our time between these two pool areas during the trip.
The infinity edge pool in the adult pool area.
One of the cabanas at the adult pool.
Adult Pool Area at Omni La Costa
Relaxing by the spa pool.
Entrance to the spa pool at Omni La Costa flanked by bouganville
Peanut chicken lettuce wraps from the spa cafe (gluten free!)
Outdoor Shower Massage
Foot reflexology walking path at Omni La Costa Spa Pool
Omni La Costa Resort & Spa offers 36 spectacular holes of golf on two championship-caliber courses.
Grayson Golfing for the first time!
Acai Bowl at Omni La Costa
Over summer, there are movies projected outside in the pool area. While we were there we saw Moana, Finding Dory and Trolls! Over major holidays in summer like 4th of July and Labor Day there are food trucks in the courtyard at night. The healthy organic truck is SO GOOD!
The Coffee Shop sells pool floats, goggles and pool toys, including from my favorites like Sunnylife Australia, Ban.do and others. We brought our own floats (and a pump! Buy your own pump and always bring it as they tend to need air after a long pool day!) and goggles.
Enjoy your trip and share with me your favorite things about Omni La Costa!
PS – there is an amazing fruit and vegetable shop on the road from the 5 Freeway to the Resort called La Costa Farms. I highly suggest stopping there on your way home, load up on fresh strawberries, veggies and guacamole!
