If your vacation plans include San Francisco, consider the prospect of a sightseeing tour while in this great city. Keep reading for a review of some great tours that are fun and unique.

Super Sightseeing Tours
415-353-5310

Super Sightseeing Tours offers a number of tour options in the San Francisco area. They range from a simple day trip around the city to a multi-day exploration of Northern California and the beautiful Wine Country that surrounds San Francisco.

The cost of a ticket at Super Sightseeing is a little high. For example, their basic three-and-a-half hour tour has a ticket price of $45 – which, when you’re packed on a bus with a number of other people can seem like a lot. However, their full day tour of the nearby forests and national parks is only $78.

The Electric Tour Company San Francisco (415) 474 3130

What sets the Electric Tour Company apart from the competition is that they conduct their tours on Segways. Segways are essentially motorized personal scooters that allow the individual to ride them while standing in an upright position. They offer four tours, depending on your skill level, and each tour includes a riding and driving lesson. Each tour costs about $70 but includes the Segway rental along with a fully guided tour.

The tours are fully narrated, guided and limited to a maximum of 10 riders. It’s recommended that you book yours in advance as they tend to sell out quickly. Also note that you are required to wear a helmet, but the tour company will provide one if you don’t have your own.

Local Tastes of the City Walking Tours
415-665-0480

What sets this tour company apart from the rest is that they focus on the food of San Francisco, not the sights. They have three major tours – a Chinatown tour, a North Beach/Little Italy trip and a night excursion. Each tour takes you through the city’s coolest eateries and into back rooms to see how it’s all done. The best part? You get to eat.

The tours last between 2 and 3 hours and span no more than 8 blocks. The majority of time is spent at about 8 or 9 restaurants and venues, so it’s not overly strenuous or taxing. For this popular tour, book early and expect to pay just under $60 for a ticket.

San Francisco Fire Engine Tours and Adventures
415-333-7077

If you’ve always wanted to ride on a big, red fire engine, this is your chance. This innovative company runs their San Francisco sightseeing tours on a massive, refurbished fire engine. Tours are $45 for adults, $35 for teens and $25 for children under the age of 12.

For kids who love animals, there’s the well known San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Animal Park. The zoo is located in Balboa Park, while the park is located a bit north of the city. If you have the time, you should take a full day for your kids to enjoy the park and the zoo. If the traditional zoo makes your kids uncomfortable, the park is a great alternative.

Kids of all ages will also enjoy the world famous Sea World, which is home to Shamu the killer whale and several other marine animals and exhibits. Sea World has been a great attraction for kids for many years, showing them the marine life like never before. They even have interaction program where your kids can interact with dolphins or wild arctic animals.

Balboa Park is a great place to visit as well, as it has a lot more than the San Diego Zoo. There are places for kids to explore, with the children’s museum, the Fleet Science Center, and the Natural History Museum.

Another popular park for kids is Legoland California, which is located north of San Diego. There are more than 50 rides, shows and attractions, with a majority of the park being built from the popular Lego blocks. Overall, this is one of the best and most quiet options for younger children.

Hitting the beach is great as well, as San Diego has many different beaches for kids of all ages. On the beaches, kids can build sandcastles, rent boogie boards, or just enjoy the swimming that San Diego so proudly offers.

Older kids will enjoy the true recreation mode for San Diego – roller skating and rollerblading. Along Mission Bay there are great spots, along with playgrounds and parks. You can fly kites here as well, which is a great break from the ordinary.

Amusement Parks are a great attraction in San Diego, with Belmont Park being very popular. There are many rides here, amusing kids for hours on end. The Giant Dipper and the Plunge are among the best, for younger or older kids.

San Diego isn’t just a hot spot during summer vacation. During the winter months, you can take your kids to do some whale watching. You can watch them from the coastline or take a cruise. Watching the gray whale is very amusing to kids.

If San Diego is on your family vacation list, rest assured that there will be plenty for your kids to do and that opportunity abounds for creating many memorable moments together.

Who wants to go to a stuffy museum that is cold and boring. The museums of old have been replaced with modern day museums that offer hands-on activities and promote learning and education through activities that are well disguised as fun. Your children will have no idea what just happened and you will be able to rest comfortable in the knowledge that this event that they considered so much fun will remain with them for a long time to come. Knowledge is a great gift to pass on to your children, especially when they don’t realize what it is that you are giving them.

The first of these museums is the Cartoon Art Museum. You may wonder what your children can possibly learn from a museum such as this, but as with all art, comics often imitate life and this museum shows how comics have evolved and morphed over time. In addition to that, anything that will encourage your children to read is a good thing in my opinion, even if it is comics that they are reading.

Next, there is the Bay Area Discovery Museum. This museum offers hands on entertainment for children of all ages. While most exhibits are designed with children ages 1-10 in mind, there are plenty of activities and exhibits that will appeal to older children as well as those entertaining the notion of a second childhood. This museum offers many activities and adventures both indoors and out that will appeal to your children while teaching them about other creatures, cultures, technology, and the world at large around them. This is definitely worth having a look. Be sure to check and see if there are any events being offered while you are visiting.

If the Bay Area Discovery Museum isn’t enough to get your little one’s creative juices flowing and put you all into the supreme spirit of learning, then perhaps you should check out Zeum. Zeum is a multimedia arts and technology museum. By allowing visitors to hands on use of their equipment they are fostering imagination and igniting curiosity in the young minds of their guests. This is definitely unique enough for a closer look. I hope it spikes your inner techno guru as completely as it reached mine.

There are many more places than this that you can visit in San Francisco that offer an equal spark for the minds and imaginations of your little ones. But the fact remains that you know your child’s interests and talents better than anyone else. Find those activities and events that will appeal to each child’s personality and that, above anything else, will make this trip special for him or her.

San Diego offers a wide range of activities on land, in the air or at sea. The mild Southern California temperatures is quite inviting. Corey Senn has written an article about what families can do and see while in San Diego.

Family vacations can be pricey to begin with and each addition child raises that price considerably. The key to a good family vacation is finding quality, affordable housing, transportation, activities, etc. There are numerous ways to cut costs and still have a fabulous family vacation. Here are a few suggestions.

To read the rest of the article, go to San Diego California Family Vacations.

When traveling to most cities of the world, finding discount accommodations when arriving to your destination is always a possibility. Not so in the diverse and complex city of San Francisco. From the hills of Daly City to the plains of Berkeley, the environments and people are so diverse that your vacation could with one dial of the phone be a paradise made in heaven or an inferno designed in, well you know, that other place.

Families making their hotel reseRVations at the smaller hotels that dot the periphery of San Francisco might be able to land a bargain, but find they may find themselves sharing accommodations with other crawling critters that would make even the toughest among us parents squirm.

I did this once. I came to San Francisco on a budget and thinking….