San Diego is a city of 1.4 million on the Pacific coast of Southern California, the second-largest city in California and the eighth-largest in the United States — 25 km north of the Mexican border with Tijuana, 190 km south of Los Angeles, with a near-perfect Mediterranean climate (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has rated San Diego as having the best year-round climate of any major US city: average 21°C, 266 sunny days per year, 0 days below freezing). San Diego is simultaneously a US military hub (the largest concentration of military assets in the world — the US Navy's Pacific Fleet, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Naval Air Station North Island where the aircraft carrier USS Midway is now a museum — making it the "Navy Town" of American popular culture), a world-class zoo city (the San Diego Zoo, 1916, often rated the best zoo in the world, with 3,500 animals of 650+ species in beautifully designed naturalistic habitats; the Safari Park 50 km north is a 728-hectare open-range wildlife park), a beach culture capital (the Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach and La Jolla beach neighbourhoods are the most developed and varied beach communities in the continental US), and an internationally significant craft beer destination (the birthplace of the IPA-driven American craft beer revolution — Stone Brewing, Ballast Point, AleSmith and 150+ breweries make San Diego the "Craft Beer Capital of America"). San Diego was the first European settlement in California (Mission San Diego de Alcalá, 1769, founded by Franciscan Junípero Serra — the first of the 21 California Missions) and its Balboa Park (the 490-hectare civic cultural park in the urban heart of the city, containing 17 museums, the Old Globe Theatre, the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture built for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition, and the Zoo) is the finest urban park-museum complex in the United States.
The San Diego Zoo (Balboa Park, founded 1916 by Dr. Harry Wegeforth from animals left over after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition) is consistently rated among the top 3 zoos in the world — 3,500 animals of 650+ species in naturalistic habitats designed around the animals' needs rather than human viewing convenience; the Giant Panda Research Station (one of the few facilities outside China breeding giant pandas — the San Diego Zoo has had more panda births than any institution outside China); the African Rocks (Congo gorilla forest), the Polar Bear Plunge (the largest polar bear facility in the US), the Elephant Odyssey and the Skyfari aerial tram over the entire park.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideBalboa Park (490 hectares, the largest urban cultural park in the United States after New York's Central Park) was developed for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition (celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal) and again for the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition — the Spanish Colonial Revival and Spanish Churrigueresque buildings along El Prado (the main pedestrian avenue) are the finest examples of these styles in the US; the park has 17 free-entry museums on Tuesday Tuesdays and the Old Globe Theatre (built as a replica of Shakespeare's Globe for the 1935 Exposition), the Botanical Garden and the lily pond.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideOld Town San Diego State Historic Park (the site of the first European settlement in California — Mission San Diego de Alcalá was moved here in 1774 to be near the presidio; the historic district has adobe buildings from the Mexican rancho period 1821-1848 when California was part of Mexico, the first school in California, the first newspaper office, and the period-costumed interpreters who demonstrate 19th-century California life) and the Casa de Estudillo (the finest restored Spanish Colonial adobe mansion in California) with its courtyard garden and tile fountain.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Gaslamp Quarter (16 blocks of Victorian-era commercial buildings in downtown San Diego, now the entertainment and restaurant district) and the craft beer revolution — San Diego is the "Craft Beer Capital of America" with 150+ craft breweries; the local specialties: fish tacos (the San Diego-Baja California borderland food: battered or grilled fish in a corn tortilla with cabbage slaw, crema and pico de gallo — the definitive Southern California/Northern Baja street food popularized by the Rubio's chain but best eaten at the street taco trucks of Barrio Logan or City Heights), carne asada fries, and a rotating IPA from Stone Brewing or Ballast Point.
La Jolla Cove (the protected marine reserve in the affluent La Jolla neighbourhood, 15 km north of downtown) is the finest urban ocean wildlife experience in the continental US — the cove has a resident colony of California sea lions (the males barrel up the rocks and bark competitively while tourists photograph them from 3 metres; the smell is significant), the Children's Pool (built in 1931 as a protected swimming area for children, now occupied year-round by harbor seals who have legally outcompeted the children); the shallow reef below the cove has leopard sharks (harmless, spotted, 1-1.5 m) in summer — snorkelling among them is the most unusual San Diego experience.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe USS Midway (CV-41, commissioned 1945, decommissioned 1992 — the longest-serving American aircraft carrier of the 20th century; the largest ship in the world when commissioned; deployed in the Gulf War; now permanently moored at San Diego Navy Pier as a museum) has 60+ aircraft on its flight deck and hangar bay, including the F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18 Hornet, A-6 Intruder and Harrier jump jet; the self-guided audio tour (narrated by former Midway crew members) covers the carrier operations, the sleeping quarters (cramped triple-stacked bunks), the engine room and the bridge with panoramic views of San Diego Bay.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCoronado Island (connected to San Diego by the Coronado Bridge — the graceful 2,122 m curve over San Diego Bay — or by a 15-minute ferry from the Broadway Pier) has the Hotel del Coronado (the "Del", 1888, Victorian wooden seaside hotel with its conical red turrets, the National Historic Landmark where Some Like It Hot was filmed in 1958, where Marilyn Monroe and the US Navy have each been regular visitors) on Coronado Beach — a 2 km stretch of fine golden sand consistently rated in the top 5 beaches in the United States; the view from the beach towards the Coronado Bridge and downtown skyline at sunset.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideSan Diego's Little Italy (the neighbourhood north of downtown, originally the tuna fishing community of Italian and Portuguese fishermen in the early 20th century, now the finest restaurant and café neighbourhood in the city) with the Mercato farmers' market (the largest in San Diego, Saturday mornings) and the farm-to-table California cuisine that draws on the proximity to the Baja California wine valley (Valle de Guadalupe, 90 km south — the Napa Valley of Mexico — producing excellent Tempranillo, Nebbiolo and Mediterranean blends at a fraction of Napa prices); San Diego restaurants frequently feature Valle de Guadalupe wines and Baja seafood.
Tijuana (Mexico's fourth-largest city, 25 km south of downtown San Diego — the world's most-crossed international border at San Ysidro, 300,000 crossings per day; US citizens and most EU citizens cross freely on foot with passport) has the Avenida Revolución (the tourist strip with curio shops, pharmacies and the Caesar's Hotel where the Caesar salad was invented in 1924 by Italian immigrant Caesar Cardini — the original recipe with raw egg yolk, Worcestershire sauce and no anchovies); the Mercado Hidalgo (the local market far more interesting than the tourist strip) and the cutting-edge Tijuana food scene (the LA Times now regularly covers Tijuana restaurants as among the best in North America).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideTorrey Pines State Natural Reserve (2,000 acres on the sandstone cliffs above the Pacific, 25 km north of downtown) is the home of the Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana — the rarest pine tree in the world, with only two native populations: here and on Santa Rosa Island 175 km west; approximately 6,000 trees total on Earth; the twisted, gnarled specimens on the clifftop erode from the sandstone at the rate of 1 cm per century); the cliff trail gives views of the Pacific, the La Jolla coast, and the paragliders launched from the bluff; the trails through the reserve lead to uncrowded beach coves below the cliffs.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideStone Brewing (Liberty Station, San Diego — the brewery that, more than any other, defined the American craft beer revolution: founded 1996 by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, their aggressive hop-forward IPAs and the "Arrogant Bastard Ale" brand identity transformed what American craft beer could be; the Liberty Station World Bistro and Gardens (a converted 1920s naval base mess hall with outdoor garden seating) serves 40+ Stone beers on tap, collaborations, and the full bistro menu; the brewing philosophy that inspired thousands of American craft breweries is on display in the tasting room history.
Pacific Beach (the neighbourhood north of Mission Beach, the most populous beach community in San Diego) has the Crystal Pier (the 1927 wooden pier with the Crystal Pier Hotel — the only hotel in California where rooms are built on an ocean pier, so guests sleep to the sound of the Pacific directly beneath their room), the Garnet Avenue bar strip, and the Mission Bay sunset — San Diego's most popular evening walk is the Mission Bay circuit (7 km around the perimeter of Mission Bay, the protected recreational bay west of Mission Beach, flat cycling/walking path, the bay turns golden at sunset with Sea World's visible Skycoaster and the Coronado Bridge in the distance).