Upcoming solo trip to San Diego - any advice?
Hey, I'm headed to San Diego in March after getting selected for a work conference. The last time I was in California was San Francisco more than a decade ago with my dad, so I'm excited to be visiting again.
The first few days will be the conference (which includes a recreational afternoon for networking, I picked the San Diego Zoo). I purposely scheduled my plane flight to be a few days after the conference ends to I can explore the city, but it'll be my first real solo trip; originally, my sister was going to tag along in my hotel room, but she had an injury and needed to drop out.
I fly in on March 18th, check out from the conference is the morning of Saturday the 21st, and I fly back home on the morning of the 24th. That gives me almost all of Saturday, and all of Sunday and Monday to explore the city.
Definitely, one of the things I want to check out is Balboa Park, though I would appreciate advice on specific museums, since I can't imagine it's possible to see even half of them in a day.
Another thing I've considered is a day trip to Tijuana to walk around. It's been a while since I had a good opportunity to practice my Spanish. Worst case scenario I can get a dental cleaning if I can't come up with any other ideas 😂.
Eating out alone isn't really something I've done before either. I think I want to do a nice sushi bar Omakase one night just to treat myself, if people have suggestions on where, and I'd love other suggestions for places to try where it wouldn't be too weird eating solo.
Does anyone have any suggestions for other things to do, places to see? Where I should stay after leaving the Marriott Marquis, since at >$500/night it's a little expensive for me? I won't be renting a car, so ideally, something either in walking distance or easily accessible via transit. I'll probably do a mix of ride shares and public transit for travel.
I'd love to hear ideas, along with what anyone else here has done in San Diego. Worst case scenario, I'm sure I'll figure it all out, but it's nice to poll the crowd sometimes.
Balboa park has the Spreckles Organ, the world’s largest outdoor pipe organ, which does concerts every Sunday at 2:00pm. Definitely worth checking out! https://spreckelsorgan.org/
The zoo is phenomenal, good pick there. I’ve also enjoyed all the museums around Balboa park - hard to go wrong with any of them but I love the air museum.
My personal favorite spot around San Diego is the La Jolla area, although it may be a little tougher to access with no car, I’m not sure the public transit situation to get there. But the Athenaeum is a really cool little music library that sometimes has art exhibits. The walk from La Jolla Cove south along the cliffs to the tide pools area is absolutely gorgeous and there’s lots of cool little shops and delicious food in the neighborhood.
La Jolla cove is fantastic! It’s quite possible to get there via transit - the blue line trolley that opened a few years ago takes you right to the UCSD campus, and there’s plenty of buses from there. Would recommend staring at the water for a little! (Source: graduated from UCSD a couple years ago)
My brother and I went to San Diego a couple years ago for a long weekend. And the San Diego Museum of Art at Balboa Park was really good. I think both of us were surprised. Overall, just walking around Balboa Park is great, like Frinet says.
We stayed in the Gaslamp Quarter, like within a few blocks of Petco Park. Lots of restaurants and bars in that area. And it gets pretty lively over there most nights. Though I'm sure there are less touristy spots that the locals know.
We also took the ferry over to Coronado and just walked around. I don't think there was anything specific we were looking for, but just went over there as part of overall experience.
I'm a UCSD student so I'm more biased towards the northern parts of SD, but I can try to give some recommendations.
I will point out that quite a large portion of Balboa Park is taken up by the golf course, so its not as large as it seems on the map. Agree with @Frinet though, all the museums are quite good so just pick out ones whose subjects interest you.
Unfortunately SD is very car-oriented and very very spread out; you'd definitely need to rideshare to areas like Convoy or Mira Mesa (both good food areas), but from downtown they'd be very expensive. In terms of public transit, you'll probably want to stick with the trolley system. The blue line will take you all the way up to UCSD, where it'd be easier to get to La Jolla or Del Mar, and also runs all the way down to the border with Tijuana. The green line can take you to SDSU and some of the more eastern areas. All three main trolley lines have plenty of stops in downtown, so they should be pretty easy for you to access.
It is my opinion that San Diego has two main draws: the food and the beach. Unfortunately I don't care much for the beach, and have thusly put on weight since starting school here. At least that means I have some restaurant recommendations!
Given the proximity to Mexico, Mexican food is excellent. While you could probably walk into any and have a good time, two classic local chains with locations in downtown are Tacos el Gordo and The Taco Stand. Also in relatively close proximity to downtown is the neighborhood of Little Italy; San Diego has some fantastic pasta restaurants across the whole city, but that core is fairly close to where you'll be staying. The previously mentioned Convoy (Kearny Mesa) and Mira Mesa neighborhoods are where you'll find some of the best Asian restaurants in SD.
I'd be remiss to not mention An's. The three locations, An's Dry Cleaning, An's Hatmakers, and An's Electronics Repair are consistently voted some of the best ice cream in the country, and in my opinion are worth the hype (and the up to 2 hour waits). Unfortunately they are all fairly out of the way for you, but if you decide to make a day trip to Del Mar (which in my opinion is a nicer, less-touristy La Jolla), definitely try An's Hatmakers.
As far as Omakase goes, Soichi is probably as good as it gets, as one of San Diego's two Michelin-starred restaurants (and conveniently up the road from An's Dry Cleaning), though reservations may be tricky to get. Other strong options are Kinme, Tadokoro, Matoi, or Hidden Fish.
I do also know that San Diego has a thriving speakeasy/themed bar culture, but I'd need to ask a friend for specific recs.
As far as a different hotel goes, it probably depends on if you want to keep staying in downtown, or move to somewhere else in San Diego. If you want more info on any of the neighborhoods mentioned, specific cuisine recommendations, or just generally more things to do that aren't food, let me know!