Travel Guide for San Diego - Sea World, Balboa Park, World's best zoo, Balboa Park, USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum, some of the most stunning beaches like La Jolla, Coronado & a lot more
San Diego is one of the best destinations in USA, which offer you quite diverse experiences and the city is beautiful. When I go back to those days spent around San Diego, I feel like going back and this time for a month at least. San Diego is a city which has beautiful weather and appropriate to walk for explorations. This Blogpost will share about some of the tips to help you your stay, travel and exploration in San Diego city.
During our trip to San Diego, we completely relied on local transportation and Google helped us take best decisions to save time & money.
Here are few things which we intend to cover and we will go one by one.
1. How to get free shuttle from Airport to closest MST station.
2. Why to chose one or multi-day MTS pass instead of single route ticket.
3. How to get discounts on app based taxis like Uber or Lyft
4. Why & how to use Google for deciding most optimized route.
5. Hiring car for local commute and it's advantages.
Above photograph shows one of the shuttles which start from Airport and take passengers to parking area, where people can rent a car. Most of them go through MTS station and if you request for the lift, they would drop you there. We jumped into these because of some other reason and there is a story associated, which I would skip for now. These shuttles are available from the parking area which just across the airport. You need to take the foot-over to go to the other side and then look for some of these shuttles.
MTS is best fit for folks who don't want to rent car, because MTS covers different parts of San Diego. And if you get daily or multi-day pass, you save a lot. And the pass you get also covers bus ride. If you have to take 2 rides in a day, cost for your one day pass is covered. And on an average you take 6 rides in a day when you are out for exploration. These 6 are mix of train and bus rides.
At times you may feel that MTS route can take more time so why not book a cab. Decision becomes easy if you are in a group. A group of 3 can also chose to stick with taxies and not buy MTS passes, but it depends if you can crack some discounts for app based taxies. Like we used Lyft and we had $5 discount for first 5 rides. So for 2 of us we had 10 rides and since my friend used my promo code for first ride, we got 3 more. We made good use of these in San Diego and Las Vegas.
And the final tip is to use Google maps when you are planning your commute. Please above screenshot, which speaks a lot. You just have to enter your starting position and the destination. On the basis of this information and current time, it would suggest you the route you should follow, which bus/train to catch and from where? Walking directions, if any. Exact timings of these buses and trains. Most of the times this plan works and success rate was 100% for us. We tried this for at least 10 times in San Diego.
For first timers these are little tricky things to plan and I wish I had came across such tips before I planned my trip to San Diego. If you have been to San Diego and have anything else to suggest, please drop a comment below.
Now that you are sorted about commute.
Sea World is one of the most interesting as well as controversial place in San Diego. Lot of communities feel that it's not a right way to do a business at the cost of animals. Animals of Sea World have to go through stressful training and that's natural to them. I didn't pay attention to this aspect and I can buy the argument. At least one day is required to explore Sea World well. In fact, it demands more than a day if you want to explore it properly.
Let's talk about ticketing and how to save money when you plan to explore San Diego. Go Card is the most popular option. You get good discount when you buy tickets for multiple places in San Diego. We bought Go Card for the Sea World and San Diego Zoo. Please note an important fact that there are 2 zoo options - San Diego Zoo and Zoo Safari. Zoo Safari is a little far away and we made this mistake of opting for the safari and at the end couldn't go there. So finally we ended up paying more as we had to pay for Zoo separately. But if you choose carefully Go-Card is always beneficial. We also included USS Marine Museum on Go Card and got a 20% discount.
Above photograph shows dolphin on a huge water pond surrounded by glass wall.
It's highly recommended to spend 10 minutes with map before you start walking and exploring the places. Prioritize the place you want to see and which route you want to take.
It's extremely important to reach Sea World early in morning and explore places which open early. Most of the rides start at 11am and that's the time when you see lot of crowd coming in. So reach early, explore some of the places, aquariums before 11am and then start moving towards the rides and shows. You need to be really quick and chose your next destination carefully. It's important to skip queues and attend shows which are accessible without wasting time.
During my visit to Sea World, a special show Lunar was happening and some acrobats from China performed brilliantly. This was a phenomenal performance. Please do check out the video in the end of this post. There were multiple performances as part of this Lunar show. This girl, who looks like a spring when she moves different parts of her body, was on the stage for good amount of time and performed various things. Just check out the photograph below where she is handling 5 huge light lamps while lying down on the stage.
It's hard to tell about the performance through words & photographs. It was mind blowing. There was another girl who lying down on the floor by keeping her legs up and she was juggling huge drums with her legs for about 10 minutes. All the shows I saw in US were very high standard in terms of quality and excellence of performers. But usually these shows are quite expensive as well. This was included in Sea World ticket, but shows in cities like Las Vegas have separate tickets and range from $30 to $180.
This was another part of the show where the boy in white kept putting chairs one over the other and climbed till the top. And not only climbing, he performed lot of tricks on this high stack of chairs. It was scary but this guy did fantastic job.
There is one huge section in Sea World dedicated for flamingos. And just above this space you can see roller coaster of the Sea World. If you want to have a ride, there are lockers available to put your stuff and go for the ride. Each locker charge is $1.
Dolphin show was the highlight for me, as this was first time I saw such a brilliant Dolphin show. More than the performance of Dolphins, I loved their relationships with their coaches. It was amazing to see their coaches interact with Dolphins and how beautifully they react to different commands and emotions.
In above photograph, a dolphin is greeting everyone in the stadium. There are huge stadiums where you can sit enjoy such shows. Wale show was closed when we were there, and that looked like the biggest stadium in the Sea World but I am not very very. And if you take first 10 rows in this stadium, Dolphins will ensure that you take another bath, so by the end of the show you will be all wet & dripping.
Here is my favourite photograph where one of the coach riding on a Dolphin. Imagine how special it would be ride on a Dolphin and have multiple rounds of this water pool.
In this photograph you can clearing see one of the Sea World employee riding over Dolphin. This was one of the simplistic trick. Some of these coaches were standing on Dolphins while they were swimming very fast.
There are various aquariums in Sea World. It's highly recommended to grab a map of Sea World and decide on your route. Also prfioritize what you want to do and is anything that you want to skip to give most of the time at your favourite places.
There are various kinds of Turtles at Sea World and they look amazing when swimming with these colourful bunches of fish. These glass walls make the overall experience very good.
There are various places to eat but we aware that opening time is around 11am, so if you are coming in early make sure you have your breakfast outside and then enter. We did this mistake. We entered into the Sea World and then started searching a place to eat and got to know that most of the outlets or restaurants open after 11am. And I found it costly w.r.t. portion size served.
Turtle Reef at Sea World in San Diego is an attraction housing over 60 sea turtles in an aquarium with a variety of fish and other creatures.
At Sea World, there are 26+ animal habitats, approximately 10 rides, 20 odd shows, 2 play areas, 4 special limited-time events, and 10+ distinctive experiences. Note that some of the shows may vary during dayparts or seasons, but are counted as separate shows.
There is another huge stadium for Sea Lion Show and it was very funny. 3-4 Sea World employees run the show with a small set of Sea Lions. They communicate with these sea lions, challenge them to do few tricks, play games, dance, kiss, hug and show lot of emotional acts.
In above photograph race is happening between 2 popular Sea Lions at Sea World. The condition is that they need to carry a ball and take it till end without dropping. And there are hurdles on the way. In above photograph Sea lion is balancing the ball while jumping over the bamboo stick placed in the middle of the water pool.
This is a unique aquarium with a crossway under the water. You can see variety of fish around you including sharks. Sea World has smartly put an escalator so that people can't stop in this crossway, but still everyone tries to click photographs which is not that difficult a challenge.
Sea World is certainly a very special experience. There are various shows. Like Killer Whale Presentation, which was closed when we visited Sea World. Dolphin Days (Dolphin Stadium) is a show where guests can meet the Whale & Dolphin family and find out what inspires their trainers. Sea Lions LIVE (Sea Lion & Otter Stadium) is another show that spoofs TV shows and music featuring California sea lions and Asian small-clawed otters.
There is this beautiful section which is frozen for Penguins and there are multiple varieties of Penguins at Sea World.
The Sky Tower is a 320 feet Gyro tower that was built in 1969 designed by Intamin. The ride was refurbished in 2007 with a new capsule. The ride gives passengers a six-minute view of SeaWorld and San Diego. It rises up slowly while spinning slowly .
Beluga Whale at Sea World. It's part of Wild Arctic. Wild Arctic is a simulator ride through the Arctic set in a giant helicopter. It features both a simulator or the option to go straight to the exhibits of the wild arctic. After the ride, guests can view animals of the Arctic from both underwater and above. The first exhibit features three adult beluga whales and two adolescent beluga whales.
The second exhibit features two female polar bears, but it was closed at the time we visited Sea World and that was very disappointing part.
There is a ropeway installation within Sea World, which take you to other part of the bay and takes you back. This ride offers great views of places around Sea World and a harbour.
Bayside Skyride is gondola ride located in the northwest corner of the park near the 'Cirque Electrique' show. It travels over part of Mission Bay for a few minutes ride on two 80 feet towers and lands on the other side before returning for a full loop.
Overall Sea World was the best experience in San Diego and I missed by Nephew & Niece a lot. Both of them would have loved spending a day here.
Dolphin Show -
Penguins at Sea World, San Diego -
Sea Lion show at Sea World, San Diego -
2 must visit places in San Diego are Sea World & San Diego Zoo. There is another similar sounding option in San Diego but little away from the city - 'San Diego Safari Park'. Tickets are also different for these places.
Lot of folks claim that San Diego Zoo is World's best zoo but I can't claim that as I haven't explored many Zoos, but certainly this one would be one of the best Zoos in the world. The very first impression was awesome and as the spent more time in this Zoo, we were sure to recommend it to everyone. San Diego Zoo is not only for families & kids but for solo travellers as well. You would see plenty of new animal and there are chances that you haven't even heard of them.
This was my first experience of Zoo outside India and the very first experience was enough to conclude that these Zoos are made and maintained in a very different way. More organized, technology driven and with sharp focus on upgrading things regularly. Above photograph shows the ticket counter area. If you already bought Go-Card you don't need to queue up here.
Must do - pick the Zoo Map from the entry area.
Above photograph shows the entry queues for San Diego Zoo, but they are quick as they scan the bar code on Go-Card or the ticket. Just next to the entry you would find a stack of Zoo maps, so don't forget to pick one. This zoo is huge, so it's important to get a sense what to find where, routes and create a priority list for you. Without a plan, it would be difficult to make best of your day here at San Diego Zoo. Keep a pen with you.
Take the bus tour at the beginning (just after you enter into the San Diego Zoo)
Before I start sharing about what all to expect at San Diego Zoo, let me share about few basic things to ensure. Wear comfortable shoes as you will need to walk a lot. All routes are made in such a way that wheel-chair can be roam around comfortably. One bus ride is included in your entry ticket fees but the bus just takes the tour of outer route and hardly stops on the way. It's a very good way to get a sense about the place and where to find one. Mapping things with map becomes easy after a round. So it makes sense to take bus ride as first step inside San Diego Zoo.
Since I had heard a lot about San Diego Zoo, I searched a lot about this place, how to reach San Diego zoo, list of animals in San Diego Zoo, appropriate time to explore San Diego Zoo, how much time it takes, main places to eat inside the zoo etc. We have tried to answer all these questions in this post. But if you think we missed something, please feel free to comment and ask your questions.
Let's talk about the very first thing - How to reach San Diego Zoo from different parts of San Diego City.
This post talks very clearly about best ways to commute within San Diego City in USA. Basically San Diego Zoo is very close to Balboa Park area. Both of these are approachable through walk and I found this region best for walking around the green landscapes. This place is well connected with buses but expect to walk a little. And if you are a group, book any cab based taxi.
San Diego Zoo has plenty of animals & birds including Koala, Giant Panda, Giant Anteater, Fishing cat, Elephants, Dolphins, Crowned Eagle, Cobra, Chimpanzee, Caracal, Capybara, Binturong, Bat eared Fox, African Penguin, AfricanPygmy Goose, Spurred Tortoise, Agouti, Anaconda, Andeanbear, Antelope, Armadillo, Bali Myna, Banded Archer Fish, Boa snakes, Bird of Paradise, Bowerbird, Brown Bear, California Condor, Camels, Cassowary, Chameleon, Clouded Leopard, Crane, conquerer’s Sifaka, Dhole, Dung Beetle, Dwarf Mongoose, Fennex Fox, Flamingos, Fossa, Gelada, Giraffe, Gorilla, Guenon, Koi, Lemur, Manatee, Mountain Lions, Nubian Ibex, Ocelot, Painted dog, Peafowl, Pelicans, Porcupine, Red Panda, Rhinoceros, Small cat, Sun bear, Wombat, Wolf, Warthog, Tiger, Toucan, Spotted hyena, Snow Leopard, Sloth Bear, Reindeer, Raccoon, Polar Bear and many more.
It's recommended to keep a water-bottle with you, along with some munchies. Usually walk around the zoo keeps you engaged, so it's important to keep hydrating your body.
Different zones in San Diego Zoo has areas dedicated for restaurants & places to do some shopping or relax.
Here is a photograph of Brown bear in San Diego Zoo. It was huge and we were lucky that he was in active mode. I clicked lot of his photographs and I found this one as most interesting. He was continuously moving around the water body and the caves. There was very low light when he was around the caves.
As I said earlier, take the bus at first to get a sense about the routes. Walk around the place and try to maintain silence.
This sloth bear was having fun. He had a lovely place to relax and soak the sun.
San Diego zoo animals are kept pretty well and there is enough space for everyone. I loved the way things are taken care at the Zoo and when I interacted with some of the employees at Zoo, their EQ was amazingly good. That's what is more important for these things. I found a little higher level of human-animal interaction at Sea World but there animals are essentially trained and forced to work. I believe 'force' is the right word. Let me know if you think otherwise.
I loved the way these cats are kept in San Diego Zoo. They have huge space to play and there is a one part from where you see them through solid glass. There was time when this leopard was sitting at a distance of 1 meter and clearly visible to everyone standing close to the glass wall.
This guy was sitting on a high rock at a long distance and focussed on people boarding rope-way inside San Diego Zoo. Can someone tell me the name, as I forgot. Please drop a comment if you know the name.
Don't miss the rope-way ride inside San Diego Zoo !
Did I miss telling that there is a Rope-way inside the Zoo which is an awesome way to take an aerial view of the Zoo. I intend to do a separate post because it's special and there are reason for not to miss this ride, even if there is a little longer queue.
After Panda, Tiger was the most popular animal in San Diego Zoo. I noticed lot of folks navigating towards Tiger during first half of the day. Usually people ensure that they see things in priority order, so that in worst case if they have to miss anything that should be ok. Going to San Diego Zoo and missing Panda, Koalas & Tiger is not done.
This is most healthy Tiger I have ever seen. I have seen tigers in different Zoos in India and Wildlife sanctuaries like Ranthambore National Park. The recent one I saw in Kabini National Park in Karnataka state of India and that one was also huge.
This is one of my favourite photographs from San Diego Zoo. The way she was hugging her kid was awesome and I loved the fact that at San Diego Zoo, many of the cages have glasses installed to see the special landscapes built for these animals and their action full of fun. This photograph is clicked through glass wall and these guys were sitting pretty close.
It's important to keep watch on time, as there is lot of explore in San Diego Zoo.
Koalas are one of the most lazy species on this earth :). There were 8 koalas sleeping on the trees and there was hardly any movement. We waited for at least 15 minutes and during this time, one of the koalas moved his head & slept again. It was so quick that I couldn't even point the camera towards this particular Koala.
Red Kangaroo was enjoying the sleep when we were walking through his area in San Diego Zoo. Lot of kids were eagerly waiting for this Red Kangaroo to get up and show them the walk on 2 legs :).
Patagonian Mara. Almost all the places had these signages with appropriate details. This was extremely helpful, otherwise I hadn't heard many of the names mentioned in San Diego Zoo.
Reptile park inside San Diego is awesome. There are dozens of snakes & other kinds of reptiles. Each section has appropriate details like name, habitat, geo location where they are found, life, physical description etc. I have seen a similar reptile park in Bengaluru, India and that one also has huge variety. The good part about Bengaluru is that each reptile has lot of space allocated, which was a little disappointing in San Diego Zoo. There were very small sections, although I am not sure how comfortable/uncomfortable those areas are for these snakes.
Malayan Tapir were quite lazy when we were walking around this part of San Diego Zoo in California.
It was fun to see this Hippopotamus swimming in water. I loved the fact that whole water pond had 75% area visible through this glass wall. So it was fun. It's hard to imagine how active Hippos are in water, which is hard to imagine otherwise. I have also created a video but yet to be processed, before sharing.
We had lot of fun at San Diego Zoo and highly recommend this when you are in the city. San Diego Zoo ticket is worth the experience it offers.
After having exciting times in Old Town, Downtown, Beaches, Sea World and San Diego Zoo we wanted to conclude the trip with much talked museum in the city. And it was amazing to such a different place.
We reached around the harbor early in the morning and the museum opens at 10am. During this time we just walked around the harbor. Mornings in San Diego are beautiful and lot of folks can be seen doing jogging around the harbor line.
There are various interesting ships around the harbor line. There is this ship called ’Star of India’ which can be seen around the Harbor. This ship was built in 1863 and was retired in 1926. Later in 1962, restoration work started and now it’s a museum ship. This one is the oldest ship still sailing regularly and also the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship still floating. While we were walking around, this museum was also closed and we noticed few folks who were actively busy in maintenance.
While we were walking around the museum, we noticed a huge cruise ship parked around the harbor. There were good number of security folks around the ship and some of the families were checking-in, while some folks were coming out of the cruise. So far, I haven’t experienced any cruise and a closer look at this one made me curious about the experiences one gets on a cruise.
Finally it was time to enter this huge museum which is actually in a ship - Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. There were lot of school kids in the queue to enter into the museum. We loved the fact that museum has a provision to keep your luggage in clock-room and take it back when you want to exit the museum. There are no charges if you have one bag to keep there. This really made our experience convenient & more delightful.
There are different kinds of sections in the ship. On entering into the ship, you hit it's main floor and there are few floors down that floor and few above. There are plenty of airplanes on display along with their respective history. Some of these were also used in World War 2. A movie is also shown to the visitors and I recommend to watch this movie before exploring the museum. This movie sets right context about Midway Aircraft Carries museum and how this huge ship was used in different battles against Japanese troops in the ocean.
Above photograph shows the main control room of the lower section of the ship and these are statues installed on seats. Machinery around is original.
Above photograph shows the main control room of the lower section of the ship and these are statues installed on seats. Machinery around is original.
At some of the important places in museum, there are volunteers to explain you some of the components of the ship. If I remember correctly, this was the place to monitor water pressure, direction in which ship is moving, any obstacles, air pressure etc. If you have studied science well, you will be able to correlate to some of the measures written inside these monitoring equipments.
There are various decks on the ship and many airplanes are also placed on these. There are few planes inside as well. Top of the ship is full of planes and helicopters. And as I mentioned, many of them are used in different battles.
There is a photograph of one of the helicopters on the top of the ship. Interiors show that it's been used extensibly and lot of the components are in bad shape now. Lot of folks come inside to get photograph clicked and move on.
From top of the of the ship, it offers brilliant views of San Diego city. Above photograph shows the popular trolley in San Diego. These Trolley tours are little expensive but you find them around most of the popular places in San Diego. They have different stops across the city to pick and drop tourists. I think this one was close to the downtown & harbor.
There is a cafe on Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum which serves good meal options and drinks. We had our brunch there and it was good, but little expensive. Close to the cafe, there is a merchandize shop where you can find various things related to the museum and stuff for various age groups is available. We didn't buy anything as we found it expensive :) .
Close to the Midway museum there is this memorial ground with various statues of army folks from the past. In above photograph you can see Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum in the background. Do notice the airplanes on the top of Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum.
Unconditional surrender statue is pretty close to Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum and clearly visible from the deck. You may want to check out the link to know more about this statue and why you see these in different parts of US.
Above photograph shows the ticket counter and the entry queue starts from here. This photograph was shot early in the morning when ticket counters were not open yet and staff was gearing up for the show.
Here is a photograph of World War 2 veteran. Lot of folks were interacting with him and he had some interesting stories to tell about Midway Aircraft Carrier and how it was used in different sensitive situations. There was long queue of people who wanted to talk to him. He was extremely passionate about the things he has done and it was clear from his description of events. Lot of folks get selfies with him.
After taking a look at all this, it seemed like top officers of the ship used to have luxury setup when it comes to the places where they used to stay, work or eat. Huge space on the space was allocated to these officers. Conference rooms, meeting areas were also well equipped with appropriate accessories.
This museum is huge, so it would be better if you can plan a day for the same. But if you have a tight schedule, plan one half of the day for visiting Midway Museum in San Diego.
Above is the photograph showing the place where sick people on the ship take rest and get treatment. It's essentially hospital inside the ship which has doctor rooms close by.
Above photograph shows model depicting doctors doing a surgery on the ship. It was impressive to see the ship well equipped with all infrastructure to take care of emergencies on the ship.
On this museum, administration has done a great job at showcasing the life in such a ship when it's in ocean for months. There are different sections where you see where officers have their meals vs other staff members, medical facilities. Cabins where officers work and some of the officers get their personal cooks to serve specialized meals on order. There is a huge area where most of the staff members eat together. Play areas, bunkers, break areas etc. It's pretty interesting to experience all this and it can be more exciting for kids.
There is a lot that I can share in this post about this museum but it makes more sense to plan a visit there and witness things yourself. It's must visit place in San Diego in my opinion and if you have kids along, don't even think of missing it.
Grand, Heritage, Green, Culture, People, Celebrations, Art, Museums, Architecture - add some interesting adjectives to these words and create a definition for Balboa Park of San Diego. If you are in San Diego and missed taking evening stroll around Balboa park, you should plan another visit to this city to experience it in better way. Like Sea World, San Diego Zoo, Old Town, USS Widway Museum, Gaslamp Quarters, Unconditional Surrender Statue and beautiful beaches of San Diego, Balboa park is also one of the must visit places in this beautiful city of California.
Balboa Park is close to the famous San Diego Zoo, so most of the times folks spend whole day inside the Zoo and then walk around Balboa Park for tasting some interesting food. Lot of folks come to Balboa Park during the evening and can be seen enjoying the beauty of Balboa Park. I was there in the month of February and the park was looking more beautiful with these flowers all around. Lot of couples were enjoying this romantic setup of Balboa.
During the weekends, Balboa park is full of photographers for pre-wedding, maternity & kids shoots. Balboa park offers brilliant setup for these kinds of shoots. Photographer don't need to spend lot of energies on setting up things and rather focus more on better compositions.
Balboa park has various museums, theaters, green belts, walking paths, restaurants and entertainment places. I am sure I am missing various other things in this list like beautiful water bodies, fountains and colorful trees/plants.
There are various historic buildings in Balboa park and many of these are being used as museums. Most of these buildings have walking paths, although most of the folks like to walk on the main road as vehicles are not allowed on these roads.
Above photograph shows one of the beautiful water bodies inside Balboa Park. You can see various birds around this water body and there are lush green lawns on the back side of these beautiful buildings and water bodies. Lot of folks bring their stuff and plan picnics around this place. You can also see some artists performing around these lawns and heritage buildings.
Above photograph shows one of the San Diego artists who was singing live and selling his recorded DVDs. I love this awesome support system for artists in US. I have seen many of these exceptional folks around the streets of popular cities in California.
Above photograph is shot inside Balboa Park. Balboa park is visited by lot of birds and they love to take a dip in these colorful water bodies. I loved these hues on water surface because of sunset time.
Museums inside Balboa park includes - Centro Cultural de la Raza, George W. Marston House, Mingei International Museum, Museum of Photographic Arts, Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, San Diego Air & Space Museum, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego Automotive Museum, San Diego Hall of Champions, San Diego History Center, San Diego Model Railroad Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego Natural History Museum, Timken Museum of Art, Veterans Museum and Memorial Center.
Some of the popular gardens inside Balboa park includes -
Cactus Garden
Alcazar Garden
Australian Garden
Botanical Building
California Native Plant Garden
Casa del Rey Moro Garden
Desert Garden
Florida Canyon Native Plant Preserve
Marston House Garden
George Washington Carver Children's Ethnobotany Garden
Inez Grant Parker Memorial Rose Garden
Japanese Friendship Garden
Lily Pond
Palm Canyon
Trees for Health Garden
Veterans Memorial Garden
Zoro Garden
Some of the interesting things to explore inside Balboa can be -
Balboa Park Carousel
Balboa Park Miniature Railroad (16 in (406 mm) gauge)
Balboa Stadium
Casa del Prado (home of San Diego Youth Symphony)
Electriquettes (1915 electric-powered wicker carts)
House of Pacific Relations International Cottages
Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater
Old Globe Theatre
San Diego Mineral and Gem Society
Spanish Village Art Center
Spreckels Organ Pavilion
Starlight Bowl
WorldBeat Cultural Center
There is a beautiful walk from San Diego Zoo towards Downtown through Balboa Park and as you exit main gate of Balboa park, you cross a bridge which offers above view of the highway which goes towards Los Angles.
Above photograph shows these interesting vehicles called Electriquettes, which can be rented to roam around Balboa Park in San Diego. I guess it costed $35 for 30 minutes ride around the park. It's pretty simple to drive.
Just look at above photograph and notice these vibrant colors. We sat around this place for 45 minutes at least and enjoyed beautiful weather.
Hope these photographs and the details in this post are enough to inspire you to plan a visit to Balboa :). Would love to hear your thoughts through comments below.
Old Town in San Diego is very unique place and has a very interesting setup overall.
San Diego is one of the busiest airport in USA and also a popular destination amongst domestic & international tourists/travelers. It’s very easy to reach Old Town from San Diego Airport. There are free cabs available to one of the MTS train station (blue colored mini buses). If you don’t find these, go to bus stand just across the road from Airport and ask someone that you want to go to any MTS train station. On MTS station, we got our 3 days card and that’s highly recommended if you plan to commute in public transportation. This not only covered MTS trains, but buses as well.
San Diego is one of the busiest airport in USA and also a popular destination amongst domestic & international tourists/travelers. It’s very easy to reach Old Town from San Diego Airport. There are free cabs available to one of the MTS train station (blue colored mini buses). If you don’t find these, go to bus stand just across the road from Airport and ask someone that you want to go to any MTS train station. On MTS station, we got our 3 days card and that’s highly recommended if you plan to commute in public transportation. This not only covered MTS trains, but buses as well.
Old Town in San Diego is visited by locals as well as tourists. History and the setup of this part of the city attracts lot of folks multiple times. There are various museums in Old Town and it's a best place to find authentic cuisines. There are 20+ restaurants which are always full. You need to wait outside for some time in any of these restaurants in Old Town of San Diego. Since we came here from the airport, the very first we did was finding a restaurant and have our first meal. Restaurants were not open by then and it's cold outside. Finally we located one restaurant and the lady switched on heaters first. Then she brought the menu. Food in old town is little costlier. We couldn't find any reasonable option. Apart from being costly, portion sizes were smaller. Since we only had food in one of the restaurants but checked menus of 3-4 more restaurants. So overall we got a sense that place is little expensive for budget travelers. Having said that, it was worth.
After having some food and picking a water bottle, we started walking inside the Old Town. As of now we were going through some of the shops with colorful stuff all around, but the real thing was inside. For a moment we were wondering if we are at right place or not. Because certainly we didn't want to come to Old time to see these shops or do any shopping. We were carrying our backpacks with us and a little tired.
As we moved ahead and went deep into the town. Then we started feeling the place and it's heritage. There are some pretty old houses and sign-boards are placed at most of the places which explain the history about these houses. Apart from old houses there was one stable where different kinds of horse gears are kept from past.
There are some interesting hotels within Old town and we were wondering if we should have booked our hotel inside the Old town. Now after exploring various parts of San Diego, we feel that we could have chosen to stay here. Old Town MTS station is very well connected to most of the places we wanted to explore - San Diego Zoo, Sea World, some of the popular beaches, Downtown etc.
There are few green areas in Old town and we chose to sit down around these places to observe the hustle bustle around the place. We observed that lot of trolly tours of city start from Old Town. We also enquired about these tours but found them little expensive and we didn't want to strict ourselves to fixed routes. These trollies look awesome and have fixed pick/drop locations & routes. So it's important to decide about your itinerary and good amount of time, if you plan to explore San Diego in these trollies.
Many of these old houses sell some interesting stuff created within this town, but there are very few such shops. Otherwise most of the shops in Old Town sell touristy stuff which is manufactured in bulk.
Above photograph shows one of the old houses inside this town. There are different rooms dedicated for different activities and some of the old stuff is kept safely here. In the main courtyard, there are some machines & water sources. These houses looked much similar to Indian rural houses which are built over a huge piece of land. In fact, this style of having open space in front of every room is pretty common in Indian houses. We spent good amount of time around these houses. We couldn't explore many of the museums in Old Town of San Diego.
There are different sections of markets within Old Town and we reached a point where we found plenty of shops all around. And in the middle of this market there were few artists who were performing one by one. All of them were encouraging my Travellingcamera to click. The lady you see in above photograph was awesome with her guitar and the voice. We stood there for some time and listened to her songs.
As you climb a bit, you reach an area which has some brilliant houses. I am not sure if I should the word 'house' or 'mansion'. And interestingly all these mansions are tagged with some details and if I remember correctly, there are also the names of the owners. Some of these houses have boutique shops and tea lounges etc. I found this part the most interesting part in Old Town of San Diego.
Such houses are rare to find, when we talk about the space & the open areas around. Especially in main cities like San Diego. All these houses in Old Town were huge and had plenty of green space around. There are good amount of lush green lawns and healthy plants around these houses.
Roaming around Old Town was an interesting experience and if you have time & interest in exploring museums, please ensure that you take out at least a full day to explore this place.
La Jolla Beach - One of the most beautiful beaches in San Diego
La Jolla is little away from the downtown and Sea World.
We booked a cab from Sea World to La Jolla Beach, which costed us approximately $14. Since we had some offers from lyft, we got $5 discount of first 10 rides. This model works well for international travellers who have new numbers and can gain such discounts by refering each other. Bigger the group, better the chances to getting awesome number of discounts. Also in a group, you can book cabs instead of public transport which saves time and at times money as well. We also had MTS pass for a week and we used that extensively. While coming back from La Jolla to San Diego Downtown, we took MTS bus only and an interesting thing happened when we came back, so just check out the last part of this post to know how fixed passes hep you explore a place in a better way.
The beach was quite full. There were more people on La Jolla beach in comparison to Coronado Beach we had visited a day before. Although I should not conclude as that can be a co-incident, but having more residential areas around La Jolla could be the reason.
Sun was about to set when we reached the beach and that's what I love about beaches. Although weather in San Diego was pleasant in Feb (a little cold), but sun can be very harsh during the day time. There are lot of beaches in San Deigo and we always planned to visit them either during early morning or late evening. That's the time when sunlight doesn't bother you much and in fact, it offers interesting shades of sunrise & sunset.
Here is a Panoramic view of La Jolla Beach in San Diego, California. One one side there is a beautiful hill full of housing colonies and just opposite to the beach, place was maintained with lush green lawns, high palm trees with a series of eating joints. There is a huge residential area near the beach and all these apartment look beautiful. This is such a lovely place to live.
We walked around the beach and sat around the lawns for some time. We were having very hectic schedule so going to beaches in evening and relaxing helped us a bit.
After Sunset, we headed to nearby Starbucks for quick round of coffee and interesting Subway was close to it. So we spent good time around this place and enjoyed a quick meal before we head back towards the downtown where we were staying. Staying around Downtown helps you in lot of things - good connectivity, a little happening place if you want to spent more time out of your room, nightlife and availability of things you may need. And in San Diego, lot of interesting places are close to downtown - Balboa Park, San Diego Zoo, USS Marine Museum, Harbour and Seaport village etc.
While coming back from La Jolla, we googled and checked which bus will take us to Old Town for changing the bus from there. We got a number and reached the bus stop. We were waiting on the wrong side of the road but still same numbered bus came. We boarded the bus and it was already dark. When we checked Google maps after a 15 minutes, we realised that we are going in opposite direction. By now we were little familiar with the city but still it was scary as activities are very little after dark. We chose to get down near University of California and took a round of this place. The environment around this place is very different in comparison to Downtown and other parts of San Diego. So it was a good mistake for us :). Now we exactly knew the place from where we need t take the bus and head back.
Overall we loved La Jolla Beach and if you have time, you must visit this one. I also found it kids friendly as there are multiple things kids can do here.
San Diego is famous for a lot of beautiful beaches and I had specifically heard a lot about Coronado. I didn’t want to miss it. So after exploring the Old Town of San Diego, we moved towards Coronado Beach. It’s little far from the town, so we took the MTS bus.
We heavily used Google for planning our commute through public transportation and it worked really well. We always knew how much we need to walk, when to expect the bus or trolley at the stop and how much time it would take to reach a place. It was hardly a 3-4 minutes walk from nearest bus stop to the beach.
Above is the view from the bridge that you need to cross to reach Coronado.
Coronado beach faces a magnificent hotel that is designed to look like an old castle. Though you can be forgiven for thinking that it is a mixture of a pagoda and a stupa.
When we visited Coronado beach, a sand artist was making some art-works on the beach. His surroundings were quite busy with people clicking selfies with his creations and I noticed a few kids talking to him to understand how he makes such big sand arts.
This was one of the most happening places on Coronado Beach. The artist was walking around and had put music on. We also clicked some photographs of his creations and then headed closer to the beach.
This was one of the most happening places on Coronado Beach. The artist was walking around and had put music on. We also clicked some photographs of his creations and then headed closer to the beach.
This beach has one side which is sandy and the other side is full of rocks, where you can see some shells stuck between the rocks. I also noticed something interesting apart fromn the shells on the rocks. Please leave a comment if you know what it is?
It was a clear day, so sunset was awesome. I also created a time-lapse of sun going down, but accidentally deleted it. But no regrets as I have some beautiful shots, which are yet to be processed. Hope I get time during the coming weekend to process these photographs.
Unconditional Surrender Statue in front of Midway Aircraft Museum, San Diego
When we walked to Midway Aircraft Museum in morning, we had some time to explore areas around as there was time for museum to open. Then we noticed Unconditional Surrender Statue which is just front of Midway Aircraft Museum.
There is a very interesting place, with interesting facts. This is a series of statues in different cities of USA - Sarasota, New Jersey, Pearl Harbor & New York. Apart from these there is one in Italy and one in France.
Just close to Unconditional Surrender Statue in San Diego there is another park with few installations of soldiers. Above photograph shows statue of Clinton A.F. Sprague who was vice admiral in United States Navy. Above statue also has list of awards he got. He was part of World-War 1 as well as World War 2.
There is a cool setup with audio commentary which gives you some sense about the way USN used to operate during World War 2 and how they executed. There are many who lost their lives and it was also shares about some speeches by Clinton A. F. Sprague.
Both the Surrender Statue as well as the park dedicated to warriors are close to the blue ocean. Lot of folks can be seen around this place, especially during mornings and evenings. There is no ticket and entry is open. This doll was roaming around the place and her mom was little worried so she politely made her sit on the bench.
After roaming around this place it was time to move towards Midway Aircraft Museum. Opening time of this museum is 10am. This was part of our Go-Card pass so we didn't have to queue up for ticket.
If you plan to visit Midway Aircraft Museum, do also plan Unconditional Surrender Statue and if you love getting clicked, this is one of the most popular place in San Diego to get a photograph clicked.
Gaslamp Quarter - main places to visit San Diego Downtown during evenings
If you search a list of top places to visit & explore in San Diego, Gaslamp Quarter also secures a place in those lists. When I googled myself I was not able to figure what exactly is this and it sounded pretty small area in the downtown. It was not in my plan but since we were living near Downtown area and every evening we used stroll around San Diego downtown to explore some of the restaurants and showrooms. During those visits we came across Gaslamp Quarter. This post shares some quick facts about the place and why it's not that big deal, even if you miss this place. Having said that, it can be pretty interesting for some set of travellers. We have tried to share some cautions to take while roaming around San Diego Downtown.
I didn't find it very interesting in comparison to some of the other awesome places in San Diego like Old Town, awesome beaches, Sea World, Zoo & Baboa etc. But at the same time you can't neglect it. There are some of the awesome restaurants, pubs, shows in this area of San Diego. Apart from that there are quite a few open areas where you enjoy with your family and kids, if weather is good.
And it's not very far from Seaport village or harbour. This area is usually more populated during evenings in comparison to day time. But that comes with different set of challenges. Like it can be hard to find a table in some of the popular restaurants in this part of the downtown. And safety is also one of the concerns, so it's important to be careful about your own safety. So please ensure that you don't go deep into dark areas or less populated parts of the downtown. Even populated areas are not that safe as I saw a boy snatching purse of a lady and running away. That happened near the main road around MTS stop, which is one of the most populated area around here.
If you are around downtown during evenings, do plan a visit and share with us how was the experience.
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