About Katie Dillon - San Diego Vacations & Luxury Hotels Expert

I’m Katie. I write La Jolla Mom.

I started La Jolla Mom as a place to write about lifestyle and motherhood topics. It ballooned into a travel business after I started to include tips from our lives as ex-pats in Hong Kong and London — we often flew with a baby and lived in a luxury hotel. Until then, I didn’t realize that people do like to read travelogues which is really up my alley.

Next, readers started to ask for San Diego travel advice. (We live in La Jolla, a seaside community in San Diego.) The site evolved into a top San Diego family travel blog that also focuses on theme parks. We have four of the world’s best and are close to others in California.

We still travel a lot and stay in nice hotels. I love hotels and have a keen eye for what a stay should be like.

So that’s why you’ll mostly find four main topics woven throughout the site: San Diego vacations, theme parks, luxury hotel reviews, and recaps of our personal travels worldwide — with a handful of lifestyle tips sprinkled in.

My Services

I Will Help You Plan San Diego Vacations & Travel Well for Less

There are FOUR main ways that I can help

San Diego Vacations

There’s no better San Diego resource.

No one keeps tabs on things to do in San Diego for kids (and adults), local events, how to save money on sightseeing, and hotel news better than I do. You’ll benefit from my expertise whether you’re a tourist or resident in search of ideas.

I have perks at these San Diego hotels.

Theme Parks

Discounted tickets and tips.

I have lots of tips on how to maximize your day at theme parks and for buying tickets. For some, the best deal is through my aRes Travel site. I have exclusive discounts to San Diego Zoo and San Diego Safari Park that are so good they are unpublished (you need to request the promo code from me).

Find discount theme park tickets.

Luxury Hotels

I know what a stay should be like.

I review luxury hotels and as an Independent Affiliate of Cadence in La Jolla, I can offer you perks when you book into them through Virtuoso and other preferred hotel partner programs. Did you know that pretty much every major five-star brand has a VIP program? You have access to them through me.

Find a luxury hotel.

Advice on Places We Travel to Regularly

Nice hotels and things to do worldwide

We’re creatures of habit. Sure, we’ve seen the pyramids and gone swimming with pigs but we tend to return over and over again to favorite major destinations. (We’ve also been to every Disney Resort and Universal theme park in the world.)

Hong Kong (we lived here — I have A LOT of HK advice) | London (we lived here, too) | Singapore | Paris | Beijing | Tokyo | Hawaii | Shanghai | Mexico

Frequently Asked Questions

Some of what hits my inbox

Virtuoso is a global network of agencies that specializes in luxury and experiential travel and partners with over 1,800 of the best hotels, cruise lines, tour operators, and more worldwide. It is how I have been booking my own travel for years. If you like hotels, you should be searching my Virtuoso site to get an idea of the available perks at no extra cost to you.

Technically, yes. However, I only work with hotels and do not plan itineraries from start to finish. If you are looking for the latter, I can definitely connect you with someone. If you are the type of traveler who handles your own airfare, tours, and itinerary but needs five-star hotel advice, we’re a fit.

No. In fact, if you will likely save money by using it due value-added amenities that can include complimentary breakfast for two, resort credits, spa credits, room upgrades, and more.

aRes Travel is a San Diego based (which is important to me) authorized ticket seller for major theme parks across the country. Through them, I sell millions of dollars worth of tickets per year, saving readers lots and lots of money without headaches. Yes, they are very legitimate otherwise I wouldn’t work with them — there are other options out there.

Yes, but in very limited quantities and, truthfully, not recently. There is some sponsored content on this site but it is only from brands that are a good fit.

No. Please do not email me with guests post or link insertion requests.

Yes. If you would like to run an ad on La Jolla Mom, it’s very easy to do so here. The ads on this site pay for the team of people and resources I need to keep it up and running — and, most importantly, they help keep this content FREE.

It’s very simple. I have to trust and like the product or service. Some links to these products or services are affiliate links which means that if you make a purchase, I might be compensated. This doesn’t drive recommendations — life is too short to endure the hassles associated with mentioning inferior products.

Many blogs are fueled by free or paid trips. This is not one of them. The vast majority of the hotel reviews and content on this site are from personal trips. I have in the past accepted complimentary travel but I learned that I don’t like the constraints and am more comfortable sharing what I want when I want. I like to put my money where my mouth is.

We are very lucky to have called Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong home for four years. We return often and I firmly believe it’s one of the best luxury hotels in the world (people that I send there also agree). This is why we primarily stay in Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Top photo credit: Natalie in San Diego for Flytographer.

About La Jolla Mom®