Fun for Everyone in Carlsbad California

Cathie Arquilla, writer for GoNOMAD, recently vacationed in Carlsbad, California with her young children and elderly parents. Despite the age differences everyone had fun in this beach town. Read about Cathie’s vacation in her article; A Three-Generation Vacation in Carlsbad, California.

“After contacting Franky Laney of the Carlsbad Visitors Bureau, I had a good idea of what we all might enjoy in the home of Legoland, and most recently, the Flying Tomato (Shaun White, the 2006 Olympic snowboarding gold medalist).

As an RCI timeshare owner, my mother had arranged for us to stay at Grand Pacific Palisades. This hotel and timeshare resort with “Wow” views of the Pacific Ocean is situated just above the The Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch. The resort covers more than 12 acres and has an Olympic size pool, a family pool with adjoining children’s waterpark, and a fitness center. There are 161 vacation villas (timeshares) in addition to a 90-room hotel.

A ten-minute drive on Highway 101 brought us from Carlsbad to Oceanside. Neighboring Camp Pendleton Marine Base, once a honky-tonk beach town, Oceanside, also boasts the longest wooden pier on the West Coast. The Pier represented a lengthy walk for my 83-year-old Dad and my 6-year-old son, so they embarked on a seek-and-explore mission of the fisherman’s catch that lined the edge of the pier in big white containers. The surfers, paddling, riding, falling, paddling, riding, falling, also mesmerized my son, James.”