san diego

i plan to be in san diego from mid-june to early sept. i will work at san diego zoo and plan to stay at Studio 819. i will travel from Turkey and it will be my first trip to abroad...

what do you recommend to do in san diego? any cheap student residences,hostels or dorms for long term stay??? any warning?

if i fly to L.A directly, will it be possible for me to catch a train to san diego? how much and how long?

thnx in advance

When in San Diego, you go to the beach!

San Diego Beaches - Mission, Pacific, Coronado, La Jolla etc

Also, don't forget to vist the famous Black Beach!

Black Beach

I presume that money is something of an issue here, so I'm not going to tell you to rent a car and drive. But I'm also going to presume that you don't want to take a bus, which will be a lot less comfortable and probably not a lot cheaper anyway, although I might be wrong about that.

Take L.A.'s light rail ("the green line") to Union Station. From there, you can do one of the following:

1. Take Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner train to San Diego.

2. Take a Metrolink's Orange County line to Oceanside. At Oceanside, transfer to the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System's Coaster train.

I believe (but could be wrong) that option #2 will take longer but be cheaper. You'll have to look up the fares.

As far as places to live, I'd suggest making inquiries with your new employer. You can also check Craig's List. As for what to do in San Diego, that's too broad a question. You need to buy a guidebook. Also check local free newspapers, such as the San Diego Reader.

Correction: "What to do" is too broad a question for me to answer, but maybe others here will want to do it.

Yep, you can take the LAWA Flyaway Bus from LAX to Union Station downtown, where you can catch a train to San Diego.

From LA, you can take the train to SD cheaply. Goes from Union Station in LA to downtown SD in a bit over 2 hours. I'm not sure how much it is now, it used to be $20 one way. I'm sure it's gone up, but I can't imagine it's over $30.

While in SD, there are soooo many things to do. Hiking, swimming, biking, playing volleyball on the beach, going out in La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, the Gaslamp, Old Town, and Hillcrest. I think you may also be there when the race meeting is under way at Del Mar Racetrack, which is good for an afternoon. They also used to have free Friday afternoon concerts at the track. Opening Day is a huge event, if you can score a ticket, definitely go. The zoo is located within a huge park with many museums, and there is also a frisbee golf course that is loads of fun. Make sure to go to a baseball game at the Padres' new stadium.

If you like sushi, or if you develop a taste for it there, you are in luck. SD has some fantastic sushi, very fresh fish. One of my favorite sushi places is Sushi on the Rock on Girard Ave. in La Jolla. Innovative rolls, not cheap, but mighty tasty. Speaking of fresh fish, you really should take a half day or 3/4 day fishing trip - boats leave from Point Loma early early in the morning. Loads of fun, and you keep what you catch - they'll clean it and gut it for a small fee on the boat.

Take a day or a weekend and head down to Baja California. Skip Tijuana and head for Puerto Nuevo (the specialty here is rock lobster restaurants), Rosarito Beach, or further down to Ensenada. Tecate is also within 6 hours, or San Felipe is fun on the Sea of Cortez side.

Good lord, that almost sounds like I enjoyed my 5 years in SD.

The problem with Green Line is that it doesn't actually go to the airport. You have to take a Metro Bus to the "LAX Transit Station," which is a few miles away from the airport. That's what happens when you have the auto lobby designing your public transport system.

Turkish Airlines has agreements with American Airlines. You can fly THY to New York, then American, nonstop, to San Diego. If you fly THY to Los Angeles, the same thing will happen--you will fly to New York and then to LA. You can also fly THY to Chicago and then fly from Chicago to San Diego.

You might want to contact the Association of Turkish Americans of Southern California, San Diego for help in finding a cheap place to stay. They also have periodic get togethers if you feel homesicjk and just want to find someone who speaks Turkish. They are workign on a program for "establishing and maintaining a house in the International Cottage area in Balboa Park, San Diego. This house will be a location, where we, as the Turkish Community in San Diego, can display the diversity and richness of the Turkish culture, country, and its people." Balboa Park is where the Zoo is located, so you might be intersted in this.

I'm going to do a FAQ entry on this one. I already ran across my first error. You take the green line to the blue line, and the blue line to downtown L.A.

OP, if you can find a way to fly straight to San Diego that's the best way to do it. I was answering your question as if you were definitely flying into LAX.

Turkish airlines is very expensive for me. i have some american friends living in the usa and they will buy return tickets for me from the usa. because the fares are much cheapher in the usa. i dont know whether this is possible but its worth asking an agent?
do you have an opinion?

by the way, i asked the L.A option because the fares to L.A are cheapher than to fly San Diego. what i was thinking to do is flying to L.A and then take a train to San Diego. i have checked the fares of Amtrak L.A to SD and it costs 34$ for students...

i am still looking for the cheapest way to get to San Diego in june!!!

To all who read this: I'm going to make this a FAQ item, but I wanted to give everyone an opportunity to poke holes in it first.

LAX to San Diego Via Public Transit</b>

I’m landing at LAX. What’s the cheapest way to get to San Diego? Okay, I say the thing to do is rent a car and drive. It will take a couple hours, and the car will cost 50 bucks or so. But for one of a zillion different reasons, some of which might even be valid, you’ve decided you don’t want to do that. What are your alternatives?

They boil down to this: Bus, train or plane. We can dispense with flying, because if you don’t want to rent a car it’s probably because it costs too much money. The cheapest one-way flight from LAX to San Diego I could find on the day that I did this research cost $84 with an advance-purchase restriction. Airlines often run sales, but it’s unlikely you’ll beat the price of renting a car. Even if you can do it, you wind up at San Diego’s airport, which is a lot less convenient than winding up downtown via bus or train.

So let’s look at the ways to do this by bus and train.

The simplest, most comfortable way

Step 1</i>: Take Shuttle Bus G (free) to L.A.'s light rail. Take the Green Line to the Blue Line, and the Blue Line to Union Station. Fare: $1.25. Time: 1 hour.

(or)

Step 1</i>: Take "Flyaway Bus" from Tom Bradley Terminal at LAX to Union Station. Fare: $3. Time: 45 minutes.

Step 2</i>: Take Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner train to San Diego. Fare: $30. Time :2 hours, 40 minutes.

Total fares: $31.24-$34.25. Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes to 3 hours, 45 minutes. (Note: This does not include connection time between light rail/bus and Amtrak.)

This will save you some money, at the expense of comfort

Step 1</i>: As above.

Step 2</i>: Take a Greyhound Bus to San Diego. Fare: $16.50. Time: 3 hours

Total fares: $17.75-$19.50. Time: 3 hours, 45 minutes to 4 hours. (Note: This does not include connection time between light rail/bus and Greyhound.)

This is the cheapest but most complicated

Step 1</i>: As above.

Step 2</i>: Take Metrolink's Orange County line to Oceanside.

Step 3</i>: At Oceanside, transfer to the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System's Coaster train. Fare: $18 weekday/$11.75 weekend Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes. (Note: This does not include waiting time for connection at Oceanside; be sure to check timetables!)

Total fares: $13-$21. Total time: 3 hours to 3 hours, 15 minutes. (Note: This does not include connection time between light rail/bus and Metrolink, or between Metrolink and Coaster.)

You will be able to go to the San Diego County Fair at the Del Mar Race track. For you it will be VERY different, so check it out.

A quick check of flights from Turkey to California, shows that the extra cost to San Diego Vs. LA will probably be less than the cost of train or bus round trip from LA, and a lot less hassel. Unless there is more than $100 in it, it probably isn't worth the hassel.

Thanks alot for your useful suggestions!!!

Willy, you can take the Flyaway from any terminal at LAX, not just Tom Bradley. They stop at the green "Flyaway, buses and long-distance vans" at the concrete islands that divide the inner and outer traffic rings.

Also, the Greyhound option is missing a step - you have to find a way to get from Union Station to the Greyhound station (it's a couple of miles in a non-walkable area). I'd estimate cab fare to cover that distance at about $10.

Everything else looks good to me.

#12, the Amtrak fare on the days I checked is $29, a minor change.

The most helpful link for the Flyaway service seems to be http://www.lawa.org/flyAwayInfo2.cfm<BR><BR>Please note #15's advice: Walking between LA Union Station and the Greyhound station is a no go. In another tread, you mentioned that you have visited San Francisco. Imagine then a place as bad as the Tenderloin district, but much larger. That's what you walk through between these two terminals.

There's also the issue of the route via the Green line, Blue line, and the LAX shuttle bus, which saves $1.75 over the Flyaway service. Please don't include this.

For two years, I lived in a Washington, DC, neighbourhood that was 99.9% black. This mostly owner occupied home area had a crime rate as low as any predominately white DC suburb.

Unfortunately, the area around the station where you connect from the Green to the Blue line has the reputation of having one of the highest crime rates in the LA area, as well as being a centre of gang activity.

The $1.75 savings isn't worth the stress this route might bring, especially to those international travellers not used to urban America.

Thanks very much, #15 and #16. I have incorporated your revisions into the FAQ posting.

Bus transportation around San Diego is facilitated by on-line sdcommute.com

Working at the Zoo puts you in Balboa Park. Museums and The Old Globe Theatre. Out to La Jolla across the street from the University of California, San Diego is the Birch Aquarium and down the grade from there is the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The Zoo will no doubt take you up to the Wild Aniimal Park. I have a friend I haven't seen for years who works at the Zoo. She is from Mazatlan. Lots of nice people work there and making friends to trek up to the Mountains to the Casinos and the town of Julian with its little gold mine should be no problem. The Gaslamp Quarter downtown has jazz. You won't run out of things to do in San Diego!

Just outside the Zoo to the North is a high density residential neighborhood. Some rented rooms and studios and a number of apartment buildings. I doubt very much that the Zoo people expect you to fend for yourself. More than likely they will help you find a place.

Before you go to Mexico from San Diego, be sure about your visa (for some visas, if you leave the US and go to Canada or to Mexico, they won't let you back in again), your employer should be able to fill you in on the do's and don'ts. If you can go to Mexico, it's better to skip Tijuana and head to Rosarito Beach or farther south. If you can go with one of the locals so much the better.

I have no warnings about San Diego, we always have a great time there and we go at least twice a year. The locals will be able to fill you in on where to keep your wits about you at night time. It is a nice city. Enjoy your stay.

Just subscribing to this thread

hey! bck from beautiful san diego and i have just wanted 2 thank every1 enlightened me with very helpful insights... i had great time in san diego and worked at the zoo. i visited almost everywhere in SD plus L.A and Las vegas...i also visited TJ which was the worst part of my US trip-very dirty city,lots of hassle and unfriendly policemen :S

anyway if u need any help about Turkey feel free to ask me ;)

rgrds

amesian

Thank you for the feedback, amesian.

Glad everything north of TJ apparently went well.

Best Regards,

Don

every tuesday four or more of the 20 plus museuums in balboa park are free...always one of them is a major one...like the history, aerospace, museum of man...the zoo is in balboa park & close to the museums

...buy a cheap beach cruiser type bike...kobey swap meet will have a number of them to choose from for around $20

...all the buses & trolleys take bikes...so you might consider a bus/trolley pass...check out sandiego's bus schecules on line...you can get just about anywhere & enjoy whatever area via the bike...