San Diego's best asset costs nothing: 110 km of public coastline. Three days here run on free bluff parks, $2 rolled tacos in Barrio Logan, Saturday market samples and viewpoints where the only fee is the walk uphill.
A 1.5 km strip of eroding sandstone bluffs on the south end of Point Loma, open sunrise to 10 pm with free street parking on Ladera Street. Sea caves, arches and a natural bridge sit below; grey whales pass December to April.
Newport Avenue runs eight blocks of thrift stores, surf shops and antique malls down to the sand, with Dog Beach at the north end where dogs run leash-free 24 hours beside the San Diego River mouth. Free 3-hour street parking.
More than 70 murals cover the concrete bridge pylons under the Coronado Bay Bridge in Barrio Logan, painted from 1973 onward and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2017. Open dawn to dusk, no fence, no ticket, free lot on Logan Avenue.
Five hectares of lawn and a 250-metre-long fountain wrap the County Administration Center on the Embarcadero, facing the bay and the masts of the Star of India. Open 6 am to 10 pm, with benches angled west toward Point Loma.
Saturdays 8 am to 2 pm, around 200 stalls fill five blocks of Date Street with $2 stone fruit, $6 breakfast burritos and free tasting spoons at the olive-oil and honey tables. A smaller Wednesday market runs 9:30 am to 1:30 pm.
A cash-only family kitchen on Logan Avenue serving since 1933: rolled tacos, chorizo con huevo and hand-pressed tortillas for $2-4 each. The queue runs down the block from 11 am; the kitchen closes at 3 pm and all day Sunday.
Thirty vendors fill a former naval mess hall at Liberty Station, the 1920s training-centre campus turned arts district. Most plates run $9-14, parking across the whole site is free, and the lawns outside are open for eating.
Two kilometres of strip malls hold the city's densest Asian food run: $6 noodle bowls at Dumpling Inn, Korean tofu stews under $15, Taiwanese bakeries selling buns for $3. Most kitchens serve past 10 pm, later on weekends.
Eight kilometres of trails cross sandstone badlands holding the rarest pine in North America, dropping from the Guy Fleming loop to Flat Rock on the beach below. The reserve opens 7:15 am and closes at sunset year-round.
Sea lions haul out on the sandstone shelf at the Cove while harbour seals pup on the sand at the Children's Pool 400 metres south. A paved clifftop path through Ellen Browning Scripps Park links the two, open around the clock.
The 1855 Old Point Loma Lighthouse sits on a 130-metre headland with the whole bay and downtown skyline below, plus tide pools on the ocean side that are best worked at low tide. Grounds open 9 am to 5 pm daily.
A 250-metre summit above La Jolla ringed by 6,000 engraved veterans' plaques, with a 360-degree view stretching from the Mexican border to San Clemente on clear evenings. Free parking at the top, gates open until 10 pm.