San Diego
San Diego is a big city, where locals take pride in its small-town feel. With more than 1 million people living within the city limits, San Diego is second only to Los Angeles in population among California cities and ranks as the seventh-largest municipality in the United States. It also covers a lot of territory, roughly 400 square mi of land and sea.
San Diego is a coastal city in the southwestern corner of California, close to the border with Mexico. You'll find reminders of San Diego's Spanish and Mexican heritage throughout the region - in architecture and place-names, in distinctive Mexican cuisine, and in a handful of historic buildings in Old Town.
When to Go
San Diego has an all-but-perfect climate, so weather-wise any time is a good time to visit. If you want to indulge in watersports and bake yourself on the beach, it's best to come between May and October, when average daily highs range from 70° to 85°F (22° to 30°C). Even in the coolest months (December and January), daily high temperatures still hover pleasantly close to 68°F (20°C). Surfing is always good, but the best conditions are from September to November, with strong swells and offshore Santa Ana winds. Gray whales head south past Point Loma from mid-December to late February and return on their way north in March.
What to See
Gaslamp Quarter: In the city's early days, this colorful downtown neighborhood was home to San Diego's most profitable businesses - saloons, gambling joints, bordellos and opium dens. By the 1960s, it had declined to a skid row of flophouses and bars, whose seedy ambiance made it so unattractive to investors that many of its old buildings survived by default. When developers finally moved in, locals and the Gaslamp Quarter Council saved the area from demolition, and a 16 block area was designated a National Historic District. Now, restaurants, bars and galleries occupy restored buildings dating back to the 1870s, and wrought iron street lamps in the style of 19th century gas lamps give the area its historic flavor. The most enjoyable time to visit is on a warm evening, when people throng the streets and crowd the sidewalk tables.
Balboa Park: This huge park on the northeastern edge of downtown San Diego is a major civic asset, boasting extensive areas of greenery, museums, theaters, a zoo and an abundance of sports facilities, including tennis courts, a swimming pool and golf courses. Many of the park's buildings sport a Spanish Colonial theme, thanks largely to the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition held here. The park is home to the ornate San Diego Museum of Art, which houses a modest collection of European paintings, American landscapes and Asian artifacts.
Seaworld: One of the world's largest marine-life amusement parks, SeaWorld is spread over 100 tropically landscaped bay-front acres. The majority of the exhibits are walk-through marine environments. In a perpetual favorite, the Penguin Encounter, a moving sidewalk passes through a glass-enclosed Arctic area where hundreds of emperor penguins slide over glaciers into icy waters. At the Shark Encounter you come face-to-face with sharks by walking through a 57-ft clear acrylic tube that passes through the 280,000-gallon shark habitat. But SeaWorld's highlights are its large-arena style entertainments. The traditional favorite is the Shamu show, with synchronized killer whales bringing down the house.
San Diego Zoo: One of San Diego's biggest attractions, this superb zoo has a worldwide reputation, a colorful history and an enlightened zoo management program. It hosts more than 3000 animals in beautifully landscaped grounds in the northern part of Balboa Park, northeast of downtown San Diego, and also runs a free-range 1800 acre (720ha) Wild Animal Park, 32 miles (50km) north of the city in Escondido. The zoo and associated park breed endangered species in captivity for re-introduction into their natural habitats. Its successes include the Arabian oryx, Bali starling and Californian condor. Highlights of the zoo include the Tiger River bioclimatic exhibit, which realistically re-creates an Asian rainforest environment, and Gorilla Tropics, which does the same with an African rainforest.
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