Bringing your Girl Scout Troop to San Diego

San Diego is a wonderful destination for Girl Scouts! We have lots of terrific program opportunities offered by our local Girl Scout Council plus opportunities at our World Famous Zoo, educational programs at Sea World, Whale Watch tours, beautiful beaches, Old Town State Historic Park, tidepools at the Point Loma Lighthouse and so much more! Get started planning here.

Lodging

Begin your planning by looking at our San Diego Council website.  We have beautiful camps in the mountains only 45 minutes from San Diego and terrific and inexpensive lodging in 3 cabins in the urban center of San Diego in Balboa Park.

Hosteling International has 2 nice properties in San Diego. One is downtown and the other is in Point Loma. They offer several great Girl Scout programs as well as inexpensive lodging.

San Diego Boy Scouts has tenting space available in the center of the city too, if you’re willing to “rough it”.

Several San Diego attractions offer family sleepover nights, with lots of fun special activities, including the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park, Sea World and La Jolla’s Birch Aquarium,  the USS Midway Museum’s Overnight Adventure, the Star of India at the The San Diego Maritime Museum and sometimes at the Fleet Science Center.

KOA on 2nd Ave in Chula Vista is another option. You can pitch tents there, bring an RV or rent a darling little log cabin! The kitchen area and bathroom are right next to the cabins and tents. There are several little cabins in a circle and it would make a great place to have several troops or a large group. We have enjoyed taking a hike along the bay inlet  bringing bikes or roller skates and going all around the paved roads in the campground. There’s a great little playground and a pool with a hot tub (but you need to bring your own lifeguard.)

Silver Strand Beach allows tenting on the Bay side of the State Beach and RV camping on the ocean side. At the Crown Cove Aquatic Center you can take your girls kayaking, canoeing, outrigger canoeing, surfing or sailing! They provide lifeguards and a trained leader to come with your group and all the equipment!!  There are picnic and grilling areas to use after your afternoon on the water.

Activities

Begin your planning by looking at our San Diego Council website: http://www.sdgirlscouts.org/ We offer lots of wonderful events and Girl Scout badge activities. You might want to get involved with a local service project or meet with a local girl scout troop while you’re here. Our San Diego Council has terrific Community Partners and don’t forget to check out Community Partners in neighboring councils, like this page in Orange County, for great ideas for fun day trips!

The world-famous San Diego Zoo runs two parks in the San Diego area: the more traditional Zoo, located in Balboa Park, and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park located north of town. Allow a full day to see each one if you can.

Budding Jacques Cousteaus will enjoy La Jolla’s Birch Aquarium, where they can see a marine laboratory, learn about products made from things in the sea and watch sea horses and leafy dragons floating in the water.

Sea World is home to Shamu the killer whale and dozens of other marine animal acts and exhibits. And, if your movie-watching kids remember the film about a killer whale called Free Willy, part of it was filmed in San Diego.

During the winter migration, whale-watching cruises are quite popular. Be sure to plan ahead if any of the kids (or adults) are susceptible to motion sickness.

Balboa Park is home to a lot more than just the zoo. Places to explore include the Fleet Science Center and the Natural History Museum. America’s largest urban cultural park has more than 25 museums and attractions, from astronomical to horticultural. As a public service, park organizations offer free Tuesday admission on a rotating basis. Free guided tours leave the Visitors Center’s Prado entrance on Fridays at 1:00 p.m. and on Sundays you can listen to a free organ concert at the Spreckels Organ Pavillion. The Old Globe gives a wonderful tour of their theater, costume and set building departments. The Marie Hitchcock puppet theater gives fun performances that will delight your Daisies or Brownies.

You’ll find the New Children’s Museum downtown, not too far from PETCO Park and the convention center. Sports-loving girls may like to tour the baseball park or go to a game.

Legoland California is just north of San Diego. This park features lots of things made of the ever-popular Lego blocks and is a good option for younger girls.

San Diego has dozens of beaches and at some them you can rent boogie boards and surfboards, or even a bike. Check with San Diego Girl Scouts resource center for a list of lifeguards if you need one. Lots of the local beaches have lifeguards during the summer months.

Get into the true Southern California mode of recreation and go roller-skating or rollerblading. The best skating spot for the younger crowd is along Mission Bay, which also has several playgrounds and acres of grass for kite-flying. Teens will like the skating action along the Mission Beach boardwalk, which is a busy skating and biking thoroughfare.

Enjoy a bike ride. If you didn’t bring your own bicycles along, rent one. Or reserve a group bike tour online from Kijubi.com

If you’re visiting during the winter months be sure to visit the tide pools in Point Loma by the lighthouse or in La Jolla. Check for the time of day when the low tide will be in the negative numbers (that means that the tide is below sea level and lots of wonderful sea life will be exposed in the little pools.)

Urban Adventure Quest offers 2 scavenger hunts in San Diego, one downtown and the other at Balboa Park. They are usually $49 but they offer a groupon regularly for $15-25. I understand that they’re lots of fun to do with a group and all you need is a smart phone to follow the clues!

Other fun opportunities for water play include jet ski rentals and kayaking. You can reserve both online through Kijubi.com.

For some old-fashioned amusement park entertainment, try Belmont Park at the Mission Beach boardwalk. It features two restored landmarks: The Plunge, Southern California’s largest indoor swimming pool when it opened in 1925 and the Giant Dipper, a restored, wooden roller coaster sporting over 2,600 feet of tracks and 13 hills.

If your girls are juniors studying California history. They may enjoy their living history day in Old Town, or visiting the shops and colorful Mexican restaurants as well as touring the state park restored settlement here. One of our Girl Scouts wrote up this Old Town scavenger hunt patch program that can be earned in Old Town. Other history themed adventures include:

• Start where it all began (in 1542) at Cabrillo National Monument, where explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was likely first European to set foot in San Diego
• Old Town State Historic Park, north of downtown was the first European settlement in what is now California, established in 1769
• Mission San Diego de Alcala: California’s first Spanish mission was originally in Old Town, but moved further inland in 1774. The current structure, completed in 1820 is one of the state’s best-preserved
• The Gaslamp District owes its development to early entrepreneur Alonzo Horton and an area of great architectural charm, its streets lined with nineteenth-century buildings. Take a walking tour from the William Heath Davis House to learn more about its history and famous residents, including Wyatt Earp.

Take a ferry to Coronado and rent bikes to ride around the town. Summertime concerts are offered in the park and they have a beautiful family beach near the Hotel Del Coronado with  restrooms and showers.

Chula Vista Olympic Training Center See where the Olympic athletes train and get sneak peek at some upcoming gold-medal winners. They have a nice film about the training center in the visitor’s center and you can arrange a tour there. You may get lucky and see rowers on Otay Lake or archers practicing at the training center when you’re there.

Downtown you can explore around the bay: Start (or end) with a Harbor Cruise, taking both legs to see it all. Seaport Village is a waterfront shopping and entertainment area, a good stop for a meal or snack and they have a really nice merry-go-round. There is a pretty grassy area where you can picnic and watch the boats. USS Midway was the world’s largest ship when commissioned in 1945. She now serves her final tour of duty in San Diego, home to one-third of the Pacific Fleet and a large cadre of the Midway’s former crew. The San Diego Maritime Museum is a good place to explore the world’s oldest active sailing ship, a replica of an early America’s Cup yacht and a host of other seagoing vessels. It’s not on the water, but this is a good time to take in the Gaslamp Quarter, which is nearby. Petco Park baseball stadium is in the Gaslamp Quarter. 

Early March through early May, 50 acres of red, orange, yellow, green and purple Giant Ranunculus flowers are on display at the Carlsbad Flower Fields.