San Diego Attractions Guide: Balboa Par, San Diego Zoo, Gaslamp Quarter, Beaches, Theme Parks

Spotlight

San Diego

Attractions

San Diego is a sprawling city, and you'll often find yourself traveling quite a distance between the city's top attractions. While many visitors do rent a car, you can also get around most everywhere by public transport: the San Diego Trolley runs on three lines – Orange, Blue, and Green – and the fare (usually no more than $3) is contingent on distance traveled. That said, Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo do lie outside the trolley system, but can be reached by bus instead. San Diego Commute (www.sdcommute.com) is an excellent resource for public transit information.

To get oriented while seeing some of the city's major attractions along the way, take an Old Town Trolley Tour (Old Town; daily 9am-4pm, until 5pm in summer; 619/298-8687; $27; www.historictours.com); the hop on/hop off tour visits nearly all of the city's top sights. One way to save on admission prices during your visit is with the Go San Diego Card (www.GoSanDiegoCard.com; $55+) that covers access to over 35 attractions over one or more days; the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau (www.sandiego.org) also posts discounts that can save you some cash.

Balboa Park & the San Diego Zoo
Balboa Park (www.balboapark.org), the largest cultural park in the United States, encompasses 1200 acres, 15 museums, several performing arts venues, and a number of lush gardens. Located just east of downtown San Diego, you could easily spend several days just exploring this massive expanse and your first stop should definitely be the Visitors Center (1549 El Prado; daily 9.30am-4.30pm; 619/239-0512; www.balboapark.org/info), where you can pick up a map, join one of the regular tours (free), and purchase the Passport to Balboa Park ($59), a one-day pass that covers admission to 13 on-site attractions and the Zoo.

Standouts among the park's many fine museums include the Museum of San Diego History (1649 El Prado; daily 10am-5pm; 619/232-6203; $5; www.sandiegohistory.org), which details the city's history through artifacts, photographs, and art; the San Diego Model Railroad Museum (1649 El Prado; Tues-Fri 11am-4pm, Sat-Sun 11am-5pm; 619/696-0199; $6; www.sdmrm.org) which, at 27,000 square feet, ranks as the largest museum of its kind in the world and is a must for anyone with even a mild interest in model trains; the San Diego Museum of Art (1450 El Prado; Tues-Sun 10am-6pm, Thursdays until 9pm; 619/232-7931; $10; www.sdmart.org), the region's oldest and largest art museum; and the Timken Museum of Art (1500 El Prado; Tues-Sat 10am-4.30pm, Sun 1.30pm-4.30pm, closed in Sept; 619/239-5548; free; www.timkenmuseum.org), widely regarded as one of the country's finest small art museums, with a collection strong on American and European works, including Rembrandt's celebrated Saint Bartholomew painting (his only work on view in San Diego) and a large collection of Russian art.

Cultural institutions aside, the park also showcases eight gardens. Our favorites include the Japanese Friendship Garden (Balboa Park location 28; Tues-Sun 10am-4pm; 619/232-2721; $3; www.niwa.org), where two perfectly-manicured acres are laced with secluded paths, lush gardens, and a koi pond, and the Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden (Balboa Park location 38; 9.30am-4.30pm; free; www.balboapark.org), a three-acre stunner, particularly during April and May, when its 200+ species of roses are in full bloom.

Other Balboa Park highlights include the Sunday afternoon summer concerts at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion (Balboa Park location 18; June–Sept Sun 2pm; 619/702-8138; free; www.serve.com/sosorgan); the year-long San Diego Youth Symphony Saturday concerts (Casa del Prado; Sat 9.45am, 2pm, & 4pm; free; www.sdys.org); the productions of the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theatre (2130 Pan American Place; Wed-Fri 10 &11.30am, Sat-Sun 11am, 1pm, & 2.30pm; 619/685-5990; $5; www.balboaparkpuppets.com); and the internationally-acclaimed Old Globe (Balboa Park location 6; Mon noon-6pm, Tue-Sun noon-8.30; 619/234-5623; www.theoldglobe.org), whose three stages put on everything from Broadway-style productions to Shakespearian performances.

No trip to San Diego would be complete without a visit to the world-famous San Diego Zoo (Zoo Dr. in Balboa Park; daily 9am-4pm; $32; www.sandiegozoo.org) which, for many, is a destination unto itself. You needn't be a child to enjoy this world-class establishment that's home to 4000 rare and endangered animals, either. Easily the most popular exhibit is the Giant Pandas Research Station, where you can watch the antics of the zoo's six resident pandas.

Old Town & Heritage Park Victorian Village
For a living museum of sorts, head to the part of San Diego known as Old Town, a State Historic Park encompassing six square blocks just west of downtown. This historic district was the site of California's first Spanish settlement, in 1769, and claims to be state's birthplace. Today it's home to several Mexican restaurants, restored adobe homes, specialty shops, a weekly artisan market, and several small museums that afford a glimpse back to when this area was the heart of San Diego. You'll also find seven Victorian homes – Italianate, Queen Anne, and others – spread over three acres in the Heritage Park Victorian Village just north of Old Town; each was moved here after WWII, when the expansion of downtown threatened their survival. Orient yourself at the Robinson-Rose House (4002 Wallace St.; daily 10am-5pm; 619/220-5422), the area's onetime commercial center and modern-day park headquarters.

Gaslamp Quarter
Moving from one historic site to another, San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter may rank as a landmark district today, but in the late 1800s, it was home to the city's houses of ill repute – over 120 of them in fact. You'd certainly never know it from walking the quarter's now-charming streets: the area is perfectly delightful, and chock-full of restaurants, shops, galleries, and drinking establishments, thanks to the 1980s redevelopment projects that revitalized much of San Diego. Though some of the buildings that date to its less glorious years are still around, you'll find just as many reproductions made to look authentic; the same goes for the gaslamps that give the area its name (they're powered by electricity nowadays). The oldest building in the area is the William Heath Davis House Museum (410 Island Ave.; Tue-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 9am-3pm; 619/233-4692, $5, www.gaslampquarter.org); time your visit for Saturday when the museum also runs a walking tour that provides an entertaining look at the area's colorful history.

Beaches
San Diegans take the beach and all beach-related activities pretty seriously, and you can bet that with over 70 miles of sand, there's a beach in San Diego that's perfectly suited to your needs. From surf teeming with, well, surfers, to family-friendly spits of sand, San Diego has it all.

Start in Coronado, a peninsula just a bridge or boat ride away from downtown that's trimmed with wide beaches perfect for families and those looking for less scene and more sand. Coronado Central Beach and Silver Strand State Beach are the two top beaches on this bit of real-estate; both have fire pits, restrooms, and lifeguards.

Back across the Bay in San Diego, heading from south to north, you'll find the mile-long Ocean Beach, with its public fishing pier, restaurants, and dog run; South Mission Beach, the city's widest beach, popular with volleyball players and staffed by lifeguards year-round; Mission Beach, San Diego's most popular stretch, complete with boardwalk, beach rentals, shops, and restaurants; and the Mission Bay Beaches whose 27 miles of shoreline are favored by sailors, rowers, and waterskiers for its gentle surf. In the northernmost reaches, the one-mile-long North Pacific Beach ends at La Jolla and is framed by 75-foot-high cliffs with a hilltop walking path affording beautiful views; Tourmaline Surfing Park is also found here. In La Jolla proper, the Children's Pool is a great place to spot seals and sea lions frolicking on the shore, but not swim (its name notwithstanding); to do that, head to La Jolla Cove, a tiny, picturesque spit of sand just north of here with an adjacent picnic area, and La Jolla Shores. Finally, if you're willing to put in the effort, Blacks Beach is a two-mile-long, often near-deserted stretch of sand situated at the foot of two huge cliffs.

Theme Parks
For many visitors, a Shamu sighting at SeaWorld (SeaWorld Dr.; hours vary by season; 800/257-4268; $56; www.seaworld.com) is the reason to visit San Diego. This whale of a park, occupying 22 acres along Mission Bay, is built for fun, with "water coaster" rides like Journey to Atlantis and Shipwreck Rapids meant to excite, and dolphin feeding, shark encounters, and polar-bear viewings meant to educate. Of course, these attractions often take second place to Believe, the daily water show starring Shamu and his trainers.

If you didn't get enough of the animals at the San Diego Zoo (see above), the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park (15500 San Pasqual Valley Rd., Escondido; daily 9am-4pm; $28.50; www.sandiegozoo.org/wap), about 35 miles north of the city, lets visitors see animals in their "natural" surroundings, complete with exhibits like Heart of Africa (think giraffes, cheetahs, and warthogs) and the Kilimanjaro Safari Walk, a two-mile trail that wends through botanical gardens home to elephants, lions, and tigers.