Last updated: April 6, 2025

Over the last 14+ years, La Jolla Mom has grown from a one-person operation (me, Katie Dillon) into a resource millions of people rely on each year. Our focus is on helping you plan amazing experiences, primarily covering:

  • San Diego Hotels and Things to Do
  • Luxury Hotels (worldwide, booked with VIP perks)
  • Theme Parks (Discounted Tickets and tips)
  • Select Destinations Outside of California (Like Hong Kong, where I lived)

We take immense pride in the content we create and are deeply grateful for our community of readers and clients. We believe in transparency, and this policy outlines our values, how we work, and our commitment to providing high-quality, trustworthy information.

Our Guiding Principles: Experience, Community & Trust

Our goal is to publish helpful, accurate content grounded in real-world experience and genuine community feedback. We are committed to upholding principles of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust (E-E-A-T) in everything we publish. We recognize that travel planning involves important decisions impacting your time, budget, and enjoyment, and we take our responsibility to provide accurate, reliable guidance very seriously.

  • Authentic Insights: Our content primarily stems from firsthand experience—our personal travels, our team’s visits, or deep, practical knowledge of a destination or topic. We don’t write about many places we haven’t personally experienced or know intimately.
  • Community-Powered: Your feedback is invaluable. We actively incorporate insights from our readers, clients we book into hotels and sell theme park tickets to, and the many hoteliers and concierge desk we speak to daily. This helps us refine recommendations based on current, real-world traveler and insider experiences.
  • Honest & Practical Advice: We value your time and money. Expect candid assessments—we’ll highlight the truly exceptional and mention when something is just okay. We won’t hesitate to tell you what might be worth skipping, where the truly best price for theme park tickets is, or if a previously recommended spot no longer meets our standards. We format our content to answer the real questions travelers ask or what hotels and attractions we wish people knew before they booked.

How We Create and Maintain Quality Content

Our process often starts with personal experience. For example, after a hotel stay, I’ll publish a review combining details about the property with insights from our visit, using a mix of our photos and sometimes professional photos from the hotel (to respect guest privacy and provide clearer room views).

Over time, that article evolves. As readers book the hotel (often through our VIP programs), they share valuable feedback. We also gather updates from hotel concierge teams and industry partners. We incorporate these insights, client reviews, and new tips back into the original posts, making them richer and more current. If we revisit, then the cycle continues.

To ensure accuracy, we incorporate:

  • Regular Updates: Our team regularly reviews and updates key information like theme park ticket prices, hotel offerings, and opening hours. You can see when a post was last reviewed by checking the “Last Updated” date beneath the title.
  • Local Expertise: Our San Diego content benefits greatly from team members living locally, allowing us to quickly verify details, capture new photos/videos, or check out new offerings.
  • Industry Connections: We maintain relationships with hotels, tourism boards, and public relations contacts who help keep us informed about the latest developments.
  • Corrections: If we discover an error, we are committed to correcting it promptly. Please feel free to contact us if you spot something amiss.

Our Independence: Why We Don’t Accept Freebies or Sponsored Content

Our recommendations are independent and unbiased. To maintain credibility and ensure our advice serves your best interests:

  • We do not accept free stays, sponsored trips, free products, or other promotional exchanges in return for coverage. We haven’t accepted paid sponsored content posts in many years, and any remaining legacy posts are clearly disclosed and being phased out.
  • Our content choices are driven by reader interest and our experiences, not by advertisers or sponsors. We ignore or decline pitches for sponsored content daily.

Simply put, if I wouldn’t trust a review based on a freebie, I don’t expect you to trust one here.

Transparency in Monetization: Affiliate Links & Resource Choices

Running a high-traffic website requires resources. To support our work and keep most content free to access, we participate in affiliate marketing programs and display advertising.

  • Affiliate Links: Some links to external websites (e.g., for booking hotels, purchasing theme park tickets outside of our ticket site, or buying products) are affiliate links. If you click on these links and make a purchase or booking, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
  • Clear Disclosure: We are committed to transparency and comply with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines. Posts containing affiliate links are identified.
  • Resource Selection: The resources we link to are chosen deliberately because we believe they offer genuine value, convenience, or unique benefits to you. This often includes:
    • Luxury Hotel VIP Programs: As an Independent Affiliate of Cadence Travel, we offer access to complimentary VIP perks (like upgrades, credits, and free breakfast) at thousands of luxury hotels worldwide—often the best way to book these properties. These are not affiliate links, but rather, you optionally choose Katie Dillon as your travel advisor and accept the terms of this service arrangement during the booking process.
    • Direct Bookings: For major hotel chains and theme parks, booking direct can often be the best price. We call these out when we know this to be the case.
    • Trusted Online Travel Agencies (OTAs): For some properties, we link to reputable OTAs like Expedia or Hotels.com when we know this is where specific properties are commonly booked.
    • Theme Park Tickets: aRes Travel, a trusted San Diego-based company, powers our ticket site, where readers will often but not always find the best available discounts. When applicable, we also highlight reliable options outside of our ticket site, like sightseeing passes or direct offers.
    • Products: We often link to products on Amazon or other reputable retailers based on personal use, reader recommendations, convenience, and competitive pricing. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Our editorial recommendations are never influenced by affiliate partnerships. We only link to products, services, and providers we genuinely believe in and think will benefit our readers.

User Community & Comments

We value comments and engagement from our readers, and we encourage you to share your tips and experiences. However, we moderate comments to maintain a positive and helpful environment.

We reserve the right to remove comments that are spammy, off-topic, disrespectful, harmful, or violate the privacy of others.

We strive to protect user privacy in accordance with applicable regulations, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA).

Use of AI

Our human team researches, writes, and edits our content, drawing on real-life experiences and expertise. We may use AI tools to assist with support tasks such as organizing information, calculations, or refining clarity during the editing process.

However, all content is meticulously reviewed, fact-checked, and ultimately approved by humans to ensure accuracy, originality, helpfulness, and alignment with the La Jolla Mom voice and standards. The core insights, recommendations, and final text are human-generated.

We Value Your Support

Thank you for reading and trusting La Jolla Mom. We are a small, woman-owned business based right here in La Jolla. Your support—whether reading our articles, booking travel through our links, or sharing our content—allows us to continue providing helpful advice, employing our talented team, and contributing to our community.

Contact Us

For editorial questions, feedback, or corrections, please contact us at:

  • Editorial inquiries: contact@lajollamom.com
  • For accessibility requests: accessibility@lajollamom.com
  • For ticket, hotel, and business inquiries, please see the options on our Contact Page

Organization Details

Site: La Jolla Mom
Company: La Jolla Living LLC
Registered in the United States | CA SOS Entity No.: 201104710090
Address: 888 Prospect Street, Suite 200, La Jolla, California, 92037, United States
Phone: (858) 346-7888
Website: lajollamom.com
Site Editor: Katie Dillon