Your (inner) four-year-old child will love this railroad museum; one of the largest indoor railroad museums in the world, it has some 27,000 sq ft of amazingly landscaped working models of actual Southern California railroads and stations, both historical and contemporary.
San Diego Model Railroad Museum
San Diego
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
Children's Pool
10.99 MILES
Built in the 1930s behind a wave-cutting seawall, La Jolla’s Children’s Pool was created as a family beach but has since been invaded by herds of seals…
Birch Aquarium at Scripps
11.01 MILES
This state-of-the-art aquarium is a wonderous underwater world home to 5000 fish. Visitors can watch sharks dart, kelp forests sway, and even meet a…
Maritime Museum of San Diego
1.58 MILES
Next to the new Waterfront Park, this collection of 11 historic sailing ships, steam boats and submarines is easy to spot: just look for the 100ft-high…
New Children’s Museum
1.67 MILES
This interactive children’s museum offers interactive art meant for kids. Installations are designed by artists, so tykes can learn principles of movement…
Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
3.26 MILES
On the site of San Diego's first European settlement, Old Town consists of a cluster of restored or rebuilt historic 19th-century buildings filled with…
San Diego Main Library
1.56 MILES
A couple blocks east of Petco Park, the city's recent landmark is a beauty. Crowned by a steel-and-mesh dome, the futuristic, nine-story library features…
San Diego Zoo
0.26 MILES
This justifiably famous zoo is one of SoCal’s biggest attractions, showing more than 3000 animals representing more than 650 species in a beautifully…
USS Midway Museum
1.87 MILES
The hulking aircraft carrier USS Midway was one of the navy’s flagships from 1945 to 1991, last playing a combat role in the First Gulf War. On the flight…
Nearby San Diego attractions
1. Casa de Balboa
The Casa de Balboa has a fabled past. A Spanish renaissance-style structure was built in this very spot for Balboa's 1915 exposition. It burned down in…
2. Museum of Photographic Arts
Tracing the history of photography, the museum offers special exhibits from crowd-pleasing animal themes to landscapes by Ansel Adams and avant-garde cell…
3. San Diego History Center
0.02 MILES
The San Diego Historical Society operates this center, with permanent and temporary exhibitions on city history. Previous exhibitions have included the…
4. Japanese Friendship Garden
0.06 MILES
Designed using the simple principles of Japanese gardening, this well-maintained quiet garden includes flowers like the cherry blossom.
5. Timken Museum of Art
0.06 MILES
Don’t skip the Timken, home to a small but impressive collection of American and European paintings, including works by Rembrandt, Rubens, El Greco,…
6. Casa del Prado
0.08 MILES
An ornate reconstruction of a building to honor the 1915 Panama–California Exposition fair held in San Diego. It's not possible to go inside the building,…
7. Balboa Park Museums
0.08 MILES
Balboa Park is a 1200-acre space with 17 museums and cultural institutions, including key attractions San Diego History Center, San Diego Air & Space…
8. Botanical Building
0.1 MILES
The Botanical Building looks lovely from El Prado, where you can see it reflected in the large lily pond that was used for hydrotherapy in WWII when the…