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Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, housed in a graceful Spanish renaissance structure, is devoted exclusively to art and music. You can relax here while reading daily newspapers from around the globe.
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Birch Aquarium
Birch Aquarium, off N Torrey Pines Rd, isn't as blatantly razzle-dazzle - or immense - as those other aquariums you'll find in Monterey or Long Beach, but this top-notch educational and research institution has brilliant displays on marine life. The staff has the time and the inclination to answer any underwatery question you can throw at them. Check out the touch tidepool overlooking the ocean, and don't leave without glimpsing the diminutive weedy sea dragons, in the Art of Deception hall.
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Cabrillo National Monument
On the southern tip of Point Loma, you'll find Cabrillo National Monument, offering fine views across the bay to San Diego's downtown. It's also the best place in San Diego to see the gray whale migration (January to March) from land.
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Centro Cultural De La Raza
Devoted primarily to Mexican and Native American art, the Centro Cultural De La Raza, sits on the fringe of the main museum area (easiest access is via Park Blvd). The round, steel building is actually a converted water tank decked out by Chicano muralists. Inside, exhibits can run the gamut from contemporary Chicano and indigenous artwork to photographs documenting San Francisco's first gay marriage ceremonies in 2004.
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Children's Pool
Private property along the coast of La Jolla restricts coastal access, and parking is very limited in places, but there is a wonderful walking path that skirts the shoreline for half a mile. The path's western end begins at the Children's Pool, where a jetty protects the beach from big waves. Originally intended to give La Jolla's youth a safe place to frolic, the beach is now more popular with sea lions, which you can view up close as they lounge on the shore.
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Coronado
Across the bay from downtown, Coronado provides natural protection to San Diego's port - and just as carefully guards its own conservative ambience. Locals call it an island, but although it's administratively separated from San Diego, it's connected to the mainland by the spectacular, 2.12-mile Coronado Bay Bridge (opened in 1969), as well as by a long, narrow spit of sand known as the Silver Strand.
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Crystal Pier
Up in Pacific Beach (or PB) the activity spreads further inland, especially along Garnet Ave, with bars, restaurants and vintage clothing stores. At the ocean end of Garnet Ave, Crystal Pier is worth a gander. Built in the 1920s, it's still home to a cluster of rustic cabins built out over the waves.
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El Campo Santo
El Campo Santo, is a tiny, touching cemetery dating back to the earliest Spanish settlers. One grave near the gate was so placed because the man, 'Jesus the Indian', died while 'completely drunk'. The construction of San Diego Ave accidentally covered many resting spots, so you may notice some medallions marking grave sites embedded in the street.
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El Prado
El Prado. Originally built for the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition, these Spanish colonial buildings are particularly beautiful in the morning and evening. The original exposition halls, which were mostly constructed out of stucco, chicken wire, plaster, hemp and horsehair, were only meant to be temporary. However, they proved so popular that, over the years, they have been gradually replaced with durable concrete replicas.
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Ellen Browning Scripps Park
Atop Point La Jolla, at the eastern end of the walking path, Ellen Browning Scripps Park is a tidy expanse of green lawns and palm trees, with views of La Jolla Cove to the north. The cove's gem of a beach provides access to some of the best snorkeling around.
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Geisel Library
The University of California San Diego's 26,000 lucky students live and study amongst the campus' rolling coastal hills that are covered in fragrant eucalyptus trees. By far its most distinctive structure is the Geisel Library, an upside-down multileveled pyramid of glass and concrete whose namesake, Theodor Geisel, is better known as Dr Seuss, creator of the Cat in the Hat. He and his wife contributed substantially to the library, and there is a collection of his drawings and books on the ground level.
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Hillcrest
Just up from the northwestern corner of Balboa Park, you hit Hillcrest, the heart of Uptown (buses 1, 3 and 25 go to/from downtown along 4th and 5th Aves). The neighborhood began its life in the early 20th century as a modest middle-class suburb. Today, it's San Diego's most bohemian district. University and 5th Aves are lined with coffeehouses, thrift shops and excellent restaurants in all price ranges.
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Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater
The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater puts on shows at , and Wednesday to Sunday (reduced show times in winter), and has puppet-making workshops for kids.
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Maritime Museum
The 100ft masts of the square-rigger Star of India will help you spot the Maritime Museum. Launched in 1863, the tall ship plied the England-India trade route and carried immigrants to New Zealand. The museum takes you on a journey through the history of water voyage, plus a fair amount of navy stuff.
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Model Railroad Museum
The Model Railroad Museum, the largest indoor model railroad display in the world, has working models of real railroads in Southern California, past and present. Awesome.
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Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - Downtown
As of January 2007, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - Downtown completed work on its ambitious expansion, with renovation of the existing building - which used to be the train station's baggage building, plus a three-story contemporary art space, which adds a modern counterpoint to the museum's Mission-style architecture. MCASD is the downtown branch of the La Jolla-based institution that has brought groundbreaking art to San Diegans since the 1960s.
Read more about Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - Downtown
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Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - La Jolla
The small but excellent Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - La Jolla supports a permanent post-1950s collection that is especially strong in minimalist, pop and California art.
Read more about Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego - La Jolla
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Museum of Man
As you enter Balboa Park via Laurel St, you cross the picturesque Cabrillo Bridge and then pass under an archway and into an area called the California Quadrangle, with the Museum of Man. Its richly decorated Tower of California has become a symbol of San Diego itself. The museum specializes in Native American artifacts, in particular from the American Southwest.
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Museum of Photographic Arts
The permanent collection at the stellar Museum of Photographic Arts traces the history of photography in terms of both technology and aesthetics, with particular strength in social documentary and photojournalism.
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Museum of San Diego History
The previously blah-ish Museum of San Diego History has sexed itself up a bit, most notably with a cool interactive walk-on map of San Diego. The city's history is also displayed through thousands of historical costumes.
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Ocean Front Walk
Between the South Mission Jetty and Pacific Beach Point stretch 3 miles of pure, unadulterated SoCal beach scene. Ocean Front Walk bristles with joggers, in-line skaters and cyclists - the perfect place for scantily clad pretty people-watching. Back from the beach, Mission Blvd consists of block after block of surf shops, burger joints and beer busts. Down at the Mission Beach end, beach bums pool their resources to rent small houses and apartments for the summer season. The surf is a beach break, good for beginners, bodyboarders and bodysurfers.
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Old Globe Theater
Built in the style of Shakespeare's Old Globe in London, the Old Globe Theater won a Tony award in 1984 for its ongoing contribution to theater arts. You can catch performances year-round.
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Old Point Loma Lighthouse
The 1854 Old Point Loma Lighthouse, dramatically built at the top of the hill, was so prone to fog-in that a new, lower lighthouse took over duty 36 years later. On the ocean side of the point, you can drive or walk down to the tide pools to look for anemones, starfish, crabs, limpets and 'dead man's fingers'.
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Old Town State Historic Park
This park is the site of the original pueblo (village) that sprang up in San Diego below the mission and fortress back in the 18th century. It preserves five of the original adobe (mud brick) buildings alongside scores of recreated structures, including a schoolhouse and a newspaper office.
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Presidio Hill
In 1769 Padre JunĂpero Serra and Gaspar de Portolá established the first Spanish settlement in California on Presidio Hill, overlooking the valley of the San Diego River. The walk from Old Town along Mason St rewards you with views of the bay.
