Spend time in San Diego and Baja California
San Diego is full of surprises. Besides San Diego’s climate being 72 degrees year-round, it offers great scenic road trip opportunities, beautiful cliffs, coves, and international travel to the corner of Latin America: Tijuana.
Here are some suggestions of what you can do if you are in San Diego for work, or for leisure in a short period of time.
Day 1 - San Diego
Embarcadero: Food and Sightseeing
The downtown Embarcadero is lined with fun bay front attractions and activities, including Waterfront Park, the Maritime Museum of San Diego and USS Midway, harbor tours and whale watching excursions aboard Horn blower and Flagship Cruises, and shopping at Seaport Village and The Headquarters at Seaport. Also great places to enjoy lunch or drinks at a patio, shopping and more.
Old Town – Tequila tours
Old Town has over 30 restaurants, most with great outdoor dining, and a quaint atmosphere plus there are more than 75 unique places to shop. This historic area is situated next to the State Park with 32 historic sites and shops. Haunted tours and Tequila tours are available.
Gaslamp Quarter: Fun, dinner and drinks
San Diego’s premier entertainment district, the vibrant downtown Gaslamp Quarter boasts 16 ½ blocks of restaurants, nightclubs and retail shops, as well as the historic Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House.
Day 2 - Balboa Park, La Jolla Cove, Sunset Cliffs, Ocean Beach
Balboa Park: The Smithsonian of the West
Balboa Park, America’s largest urban cultural park features 17 museums set amidst ornate Spanish-Colonial style buildings, performing arts venues like the Tony Award-winning Old Globe Theatre, lush gardens and the world-famous San Diego Zoo.
La Jolla Cove – Seal the deal
Lovely La Jolla features postcard-perfect La Jolla Shores; panoramic views atop Mt. Soledad; the renowned Salk Institute, the “Acropolis of Modernism” which offers architecture tours, and the vibrant Murals of La Jolla, showcasing internationally renowned artists.
Something hidden not everyone knows is the Sunny Jim’s Cave. This fun attraction is a store that has a 143 step man-made tunnel built into it that heads down to a large sea cave below.
Sunsets and Cliffs + Surfing
The Point Loma area features Harbor Island; Shelter Island, San Diego’s original tiki isle; Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego’s only national park, and spectacular Sunset Cliffs. Make sure you catch a sunset at Sunset Cliffs.
Ocean Beach – BOHO Dinner and Drinks
Rent bikes, or just stroll around this funky bohemian beach, Ocean Beach, and find inviting dive bars and shopping along Newport Ave.
Day 3 - Tijuana: The corner of Latin America
Multicultural, young, borderline, creative, and fun, the city of Tijuana fits all these adjectives. Tijuana is located on the world’s busiest border with the United States. Perhaps that is why, among other nicknames, it is known as “the corner of Latin America.”
Getting there
About 50 million people pass through the San Ysidro border crossing that connects Tijuana with the U.S. city of San Diego each year. So the large number of cultures that meet on the streets of Tijuana have made their creative side develop extraordinarily, expressing themselves in various artistic manifestations.
You will need your passport and the Pronto app to take the train ($2.50) from San Diego to San Ysidro/Tijuana and cross the border on foot. Exchange currency before crossing. You’ll need about $100 in pesos. Upon arrival, take a taxi and go to the main plaza by Avenida Revolución. Here you will find many touristy attractions like the cathedral, the arc, the museums, restaurants where food and margaritas are all about $30 for 3 people.
Visited the #murodelahermandad. This section of the wall meets with the Pacific Ocean in Playas de Tijuana. Back in 2016, artist and activist Enrique Chiu started this project thinking the more wall that is built, the more canvas to paint. Since then, over 4400 volunteers have taken part of this artistic expression.
Sun and sand in Tijuana and The Wall
In a border city of the importance of Tijuana, it is impossible to overlook the wall that separates it from the neighboring country, which in this case is also usually the object of the most varied cultural manifestations.
Playas de Tijuana (Tijuana Beaches) is a good place to walk, relax or take a photo at the lighthouse or in the large letters that proclaim “Tijuana, aquí empieza la patria” (Tijuana, homeland begins here) and soak your feet in the Pacific Ocean with views of the border wall. This section of the wall meets with the Pacific Ocean in Playas de Tijuana. Here you will see the famous #MuroDeLaHermandad.
About the #MuroDeLaHermandad
Back in 2016, artist and activist Enrique Chiu started this project thinking the more wall that is built, the more canvas to paint. Since then, over 4400 volunteers have taken part of this artistic expression. “We want to send a message of peace, of kinship, of unity between the two nations,” Chiu says. “If they build the wall, it’s more canvas for us. I believe we’ll paint that one, too.
This is how you spend time in San Diego and Baja California.
