*My family was hosted by the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort, all opinions are my own*
You’re planning your family vacation to Legoland California (check out my post with all my Legoland tips here) and you are wondering where to book your stay, am I right? Look no further, I’ve got the solution for you 🙂 If you want to walk to Legoland (and save $$ on parking), be across the street from Costco (yup that’s right, Costco pizza for dinner kids!), and have your own family pool area complete with splash pad, Jacuzzi and huge heated pool all for an amazing price, then I have the place for you- The Grand Pacific Palisades Resort!
5 Reasons to Stay at the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort in Carlsbad, California
- You can walk to Legoland! Ok, so you know when you see these kind of claims on websites and you are like, “So I can walk to legoland if I have a family of Triathletes? Or like I can walk to legoland with my 8, 6, 4, and 2 year old without any meltdowns or whining?” The Grand Pacific is really right across the street from Legoland! You have to cross one street, walk down about a block, and then you can enter a gate into the Legoland parking lot! Yes, we did it with 7 kids for both days we went to Legoland and it was no problem AT ALL! If you want to see even more specifically how close it is to Legoland I made a story about it on Instagram and it is saved to my “Family Fun” highlights.
- The family pool area is epic! We went in the very beginning of October and my kids LOVED the family pool area. After looking through their website I wasn’t totally positive there was a pool for the kids. I kept reading about the adult pool and also saw lots of photos of the cool splash pad for kids, but was there a pool for the kids? Yes my friends, oh heck yes! A pool AND a hot tub, splashing encouraged! No need to usher your kids out because someone who looks kid-less and very annoyed gets in. No need to worry about yelling and loud playing, your kids will fit RIGHT in! And the hot tub isn’t super hot, its “kid hot” still nice as an adult, but I didn’t worry about my little guys staying in there for as long as they wanted. It’s really a nice perk since Legoland closes so early my kids stayed busy from about 5-10pm in the pool area every night! Oh and by the way, there was a big fancy adult pool as well complete with cabanas, a jacuzzi and fire pits. (we just didn’t spend much time there 😉 ).
- Close to Costco/Big mini fridge: I’m not even kidding, this was a HUGE perk for us. The hotel does not serve complimentary breakfast so we stopped by Costco and loaded up on muffins, cereal, milk and yogurt and we were set to go! We were a little worried about fitting it in the mini fridge in our room (as we had not been to our rooms yet) but it was PLENTY big. In fact, we fit 2 gallons of milk, 3 jugs of OJ plus the yogurt and some sodas and had room to spare. It also came in handy in the evenings as we often ran over for a pizza, a hot dog, or some ice cream and churros. Our family was able to eat very cheap while we were there- thanks Costco!
- Fun things all around the resort: a playground for littles, bbq areas, fire pits with s’mores roasting, ping pong tables, game room with free air hockey, walking paths with ocean views, and a kids activity center with daily movies. I kept happening upon something new and cool each day we were there!
We went in the very beginning of October and my kids LOVED the family pool area. After looking through their website I wasn’t totally positive there was a pool for the kids. I kept reading about the adult pool and also saw lots of photos of the cool splash pad for kids, but was there a pool for the kids? Yes my friends, oh heck yes! A pool AND a hot tub, splashing encouraged! No need to usher your kids out because someone who looks kid-less and very annoyed gets in. No need to worry about yelling and loud playing, your kids will fit RIGHT in! And the hot tub isn’t super hot, its “kid hot” still nice as an adult, but I didn’t worry about my little guys staying in there for as long as they wanted. It’s really a nice perk since Legoland closes so early my kids stayed busy from about 5-10pm in the pool area every night! Oh and by the way, there was a big fancy adult pool as well complete with cabanas, a jacuzzi and fire pits. (we just didn’t spend much time there 😉 ).
5. Family Condo Options! We stayed in a double queen room, but they do have rooms available that have 1, 2 or 3 bedrooms!! If you have more than 2 kids with your I strongly encourage you to check that option out. They are always running fun season specials (and I saw them on Groupon too!) So look around to find your best rate!
We had a fabulous time, and you can bet if we head back to Legoland the very first place I will be checking is the family condo options (they were sold out while we were there) at this resort! It looked like they were undergoing some construction and improvements while we were there (although I hardly noticed) so I bet even more new and exciting things are soon to come!
Thanks Grand Pacific Palisades Resort for having us! Oh and check out my IGTV channel for a video of the resort!
