DETAILS

San Diego

GETTING THERE: Nonstop service from Dulles starts at about $350 on JetBlue and United, although the cheapest seats are often sold out during the busy summer months. Southwest flies nonstop from BWI; fare is running about $467 round trip. Connecting service is available from all three airports on numerous carriers, starting at about $350.

GETTING AROUND: We rented a minivan from Enterprise for about $400 a week. Interstate 5 is the obvious route to communities north of San Diego, but Highway 101 (the South Coast Highway) is a slower, more picturesque alternative through Cardiff, Encinitas and Leucadia. For regional bus and train information, see http://www.sdcommute.com.

WHERE TO STAY: To rent a condominium, townhouse or house, you'll find hundreds of options at Vacation Rentals by Owner, http://www.vrbo.com. You can sift through prices, location, number of bedrooms, distance from the ocean and other priorities before e-mailing the owner to confirm price and availability. The La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club (2000 Spindrift Dr., La Jolla, 858-454-7126, http://www.ljbtc.com) is a posh alternative at $289 a night for a standard room with kitchenette; guests can enjoy a par-3 golf course, tennis lessons and a private beach. The Marriott Residence Inn in downtown San Diego (1747 Pacific Hwy., 888-236- 2427, http://www.marriott.com) has a two-bedroom suite, including kitchen and living area, for $359 a night. At the downtown Holiday Inn (1617 First Ave., 800-972-2802, http://www.ichotelsgroup.com), rooms start at about $140 a night double, and kids eat free at the hotel restaurant.

WHERE TO EAT: We spent most of our dining budget at Ralph's grocery north of Leucadia. But we did venture out to a few restaurants: for pizza, homemade pasta and fresh salads (but slow service) at Via Italia trattoria (565 S. Coast Hwy., Encinitas, 760-479-9757; lunch entrees from $5 to $18, dinner $13 to $35) and to the Fish House Vera Cruz (417 Carlsbad Village Dr., Carlsbad, 760-434-6777; $12 to $20). For Mexican food in Carlsbad, we traded an hour-long wait at Fidel's (3003 Carlsbad Blvd., 760-729-0903; $8.50 to $15) for tasty, shockingly cheap (but inelegant) dining at Pollos Maria (3055 Harding St., 760-729-4858), where a whole chicken runs $10 to $12, combination meals $5.50 to $7.

WHAT TO DO:

· The San Diego Zoo (619-231-1515, http://www.sandiegozoo.org) is in Balboa Park, just north of downtown. Tickets are $33 for adults (12 and older), $22 for ages 3 to 11, free for younger kids. While the zoo is noted for its painstakingly natural habitats, its 2,100-acre Wild Animal Park (admission $28.50, children $17.50) offers an even-more-up-close-and-natural experience, in which humans can see animals wandering freely in faux-native surroundings from a railway and pathways and at animal shows. A five-day San Diego 3-for-1 Pass (adults $107, children $77) buys you unlimited admissions to the zoo, Wild Animal Park and SeaWorld.

· SeaWorld (800-257-4268, http://www.seaworld.com), northwest of downtown off interstates 5 and 8, combines displays of aquatic life -- bottlenose dolphins, polar bears, sharks, California sea otters, rescued Florida manatees -- with night life, including fireworks and Shamu's new nighttime rock-and-roll show, "Shamu Rocks." Single-day tickets are $57 (ages 10 and older), $47 for ages 3-9.

· Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (2300 Expedition Way, La Jolla, 858-534-3474, http://aquarium.ucsd.edu; $11 for adults, $7.50 for children 3 to 17) goes beyond the showpiece aquatic animals into their environments. You can watch sharks being fed, but you can also watch lobsters and see the diversity of the tide pool, living coral reefs and all kinds of creatures in more than 60 marine habitats.

· The Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA (200 Saxony Rd., Encinitas, 760-942-9622, http://ecke.ymca.org) has a modern gym and basketball courts, and it's free to vacationers with an out-of-town YMCA membership.

· You can check out library books and rent videos from the spacious Carlsbad City Library (1775 Dove Lane, 760-602-2049, http://www.carlsbadca.gov/library/index.html). Library cards are free with a picture ID.

INFORMATION: San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, 800-350-6205, http://www.sandiego.org.

-- B.H.