USA : San Diego – Woke and Awake Travel

To & From:

San Diego is a long haul destination with no direct flights out of Dublin. We decided to visit whilst in California, having flown to LA and after spending a week in Palm Springs, drove around the Mt San Jacinto State Park and through the Palomar mountains to arrive a couple of hours later into San Diego. Aptly sandwiched between the two is the Paradise Valley Café, they proudly welcome bikers, hikers and horseback riders, and served us mighty lunches.

See Useful link 1.

We were staying at the Westin in Downtown close to the Gaslamp Quarter, the hotels suggests views over San Diego Bay, but they seem scarce from the main part of the hotel other than from its rooftop pool. However, a fine hotel with Marriot member benefits, not extending to overnight parking which was across the street at a premium. Oddly the garage costs were more than the daily car hire costs, welcome to America.

So after settling in and enduring the Marriot member welcome drink, we ventured forth out onto the City streets.

Like so many second tier US cities downtown stores can be limited and much in the immediate vicinity of the hotel is dominated by the large financial services providers. That said the Gaslamp Quarter is a lively downtown neighbourhood, with some nightlife. Clubs, dive bars and cocktail lounges draw the crowd, a mix of chain and independent restaurants in the area, caters for most tastes–even curry so we headed for Royal India a tandoori restaurant a couple of blocks South of Horton Plaza Park.

Day 1.

One of the main attractions in San Diego is the Zoo, world renowned for its breeding programs and web-cam innovation, and celebrating 100 years of existence to coincide with our visit.

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Located North of Downtown in Balboa Park the Zoo shares the park with the Botanic and Japanese peace gardens, it takes roughly the same time to drive out as it does to recover from the sting of the overnight parking charges.

Having visited many Zoos across the World we were somewhat underwhelmed by Bilboa Park, but it did have a few Pandas to uplift the experience.

Trying to keep the car away from the garage for as long as possible we headed to the Air & Space Museum, don’t miss the flight simulators especially the aerial combat.

See Useful Link 5 below.

That evening we set out to explore Little Italy sandwiched between Gaslamp and Waterfront park, it’s only a five minute walk from the hotel.

Following Columbia St South you arrive at Karl Strauss Brewing Company a great authentic brew house with IPA the only thing served without cheese and fries.

Burgers and beer just work perfectly sometimes.

Day 2.

We had planned to take a trip to the Mexican border town of Tijuana, but tensions were high and security tightened as the Trump team were making noises leading into the November elections, it was late September and all non -essential foreign travel between the USA and Mexico was effectively closed down. At the best of times the border crossing at Tijuana is challenging, so we decided to stay local.

San Diego, is a compact city, and due in part to its deep water port hosts the largest Naval fleet in the world. Just to the South of Waterfront Park you pass the Cruise ship terminals, and arrive at USS Midway Museum, a fascinating insight into the workings of a massive aircraft carrier.

See useful link 7 below.

Further along the coast you arrive into Seaport Village a welcome oasis of outdoor eateries and shopping.

Day 3.

We started out doing an Historical True Crime Tour of the Gaslamp Quarter in downtown . The tour takes about an hour and is a great way to see downtown on foot and you end up in Seaport Village, where we picked up the Hop on Hop Off Trolley, great way of exploring the city districts further.

As it was our last day we had to find some shops and weren’t disappointed by West field UTC with over 200 shops, it is only a 20 minute drive North of the city close to the University, so a great place to fill the cases.

Day 4.

We were on a midday flight back home from LAX, its a fairly straightforward drive around 120 Miles, we didn’t run into much traffic so arrived ahead of schedule as we had read it could take up to 4 hours, we did it in about 2.5, and the car drop off and shuttle to the terminal is efficient, so no last minute dash required to catch the plane back.

We really enjoyed San Diego & would definitely recommend it for a quick bolt onto your Californian /West Coast trip even if only to see the Panda’s in the zoo!

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