Apologies for the late newsletter! Although I’ve been busy with family and travel lately, I’ve had plenty of time to get this out. I actually had 90% of this written already, but once I missed my personal deadline, I started avoiding it and procrastinating. I’ll do my best to get these out in a timely manner in the future. In the meantime, I hope you find my guide to San Diego helpful!
A beautiful day at Torrey Pines State Beach
My time in San Diego has finally come to an end, and what a time it’s been. From beach hopping to hiking to visiting museums, I’ve had one of the best winters ever. America’s Finest City has truly lived up to its name. I will miss it for sure.
I figured that now that my time here is over, I should make a little travel guide compiling all of my favorite places and things to do. Of course, I covered most of these places in my videos, but I think it would be useful to have it all compiled in one ultimate travel list, so here goes.
The Beaches
You really can’t go wrong with the beaches in San Diego. They’re probably the biggest draw to this city, besides the weather. Here are my favorites and why:
Pacific Beach: The beachiest beach. If you only had one day to spend in San Diego, this is where I would tell you to go. It’s a wide sandy beach with a lively boardwalk and immaculate vibes.
Mission Beach: The most family friendly beach. Just south of Pacific Beach. Wide, sandy, and right next to Belmont Park with its rides and arcade. If I had kids, this is where I’d take them.
Coronado Beach: The noisiest beach. Gentle waves, tons of space, and lots of aircraft flying overhead. While it may not be the best place to relax, there’s no better place to be if you want to watch fighter jets, helicopters, and ospreys taking off and landing at the base.
Blacks Beach: The least family friendly beach. A steep hike down unstable cliffs to a clothing-optional beach. This one’s for the adventurers. Don’t forget that you have to climb back up.
Pacific Beach - My first sunset in San Diego
The Attractions:
San Diego has more than just beaches. I spent three months living here, and there’s still so much more I want to see. Of all the places I did go, these are my favorites and they’re all worth a visit.
San Diego Zoo ($): If you can only visit one attraction in San Diego, this is the one to go to. Located in Balboa Park, it’s one of the best and prettiest zoos in the world, with animals I’ve never seen anywhere else. Shout out to the pandas!
Balboa Park: The rest of Balboa Park is well worth exploring. Packed with numerous museums, gardens, shops, cafes, and sports facilities, this park has some of the most stunning architecture and beautiful gardens in the entire city. A couple of my favorites were the Spanish Art Village and the Japanese Garden.
La Jolla Cove: A beautiful stretch of coast to explore, with lots of shops and restaurants nearby. The highlight is the big sea lion colony living there. It’s hard to miss. If you can’t hear them, you’ll definitely smell them!
Petco Park ($): If you can catch a Padres game at Petco Park, you should go! It’s a beautiful ballpark and a great way to enjoy the sunny weather.
USS Midway Museum ($): The biggest surprise for me on this list. I almost didn’t visit, but I’m glad that I did. This ship is a city on water, and it’s fascinating exploring all of its inner workings and learning about how it all functioned. I’m not much of a military buff, but I really enjoyed my time here.
Opening day at Petco Park
The Walks
To say I like walking would be an understatement. While I was in San Diego, I ended up walking at least five miles every day. These were some of my favorite places to walk, wander, and explore.
Embarcadero: Located in the heart of San Diego and following the Bay, this is the area I would walk each morning. Following the promenade behind the Convention Center, there’s so much to check out — the marina, the parks, the concert venue, Seaport Village, the Midway Museum, the Maritime Museum, and the naval base across the bay. If you get lucky, you’ll see a destroyer getting deployed or a carrier getting sent to the shipyard. And the best place to watch the sunset if you’re in downtown is at the top of the convention center.
Gaslamp Quarter: Next to the Embarcadero and also a part of my morning walks, the Gaslamp Quarter is the heart of entertainment in Downtown. With historic buildings packed with lively bars, restaurants, shops, and hotels, it’s a fun area to explore. Bonus points if you’re going to a Padres game at Petco Park nearby.
Little Italy: Just east of the Maritime Museum, visit Little Italy on Wednesday or Saturday mornings and afternoons to check out the best farmers’ market in San Diego. It stretches several blocks and is packed with vendors selling fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, food, and artisan goods. There are also a ton of restaurants in the area.
Sunset Cliffs: If you’d like a little more nature in your city walks, Sunset Cliffs is a great place to visit. Just south of Ocean Beach, you can follow trails for a few miles all the way to Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. It’s a great place to catch the sunset while you watch surfers catching waves.
The view from the top of the Convention Center
The Hikes
If you’re looking for a little more nature in your walks, San Diego has you covered. These were my favorite hikes that I did. Don’t forget to wear sunscreen because the sun gets intense!
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve: One of the most popular hiking areas in the city, Torrey Pines is worth the visit. You can park at the bottom of the hill, hike up and then back down to the beach, going through coastal sage and Torrey pine groves. If the tide is low enough, you can also just follow the beach down for several miles. Either way, you’ll get stunning views of the coastline. Just be careful about how far you walk because a couple miles south is Black’s Beach!
Cabrillo National Monument: Located at the mouth of the San Diego Bay, Cabrillo gives you sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean, San Diego, and even Tijuana on a clear day. There are a few short hiking trails that you can follow that take you down to the ocean. Just make sure you’re back at your car before 5 PM because the monument has a strict closing time!
Mount Woodson: The coolest hike I did in San Diego. The Mt. Woodson Trail, aka Potato Chip Rock, is a strenuous seven mile hike up 2000 ft to a nerve-wrackingly thin slice of rock jutting out over the landscape. Incredible views of East County on a clear day.
Annie’s Canyon: A short and sweet hike through a slot canyon in the middle of San Diego. While the hike itself is shorter than the walk to get there, it’s fun and gives you really nice views of San Elijo Lagoon when you reach the top.
The view from Mt. Woodson
The Eats
I’m not a foodie by any means. I can (and do) eat the same thing every day for long stretches of time. However, every so often I come across a restaurant or a dish that I will think about for the rest of my life. I encountered two such places in San Diego.
Taco Centro: The two dishes San Diego is known for are fish tacos and California burritos, and Taco Centro excels at both. While there, I would eat out about once or twice a week, and Taco Centro was always my first choice. I will genuinely be thinking about the burritos there for the rest of my life.
Din Tai Fung: Rated as one of the top ten restaurants in the entire world, this Taiwanese chain is worth the hype (and the wait). While I only went once during my stay, I ate enough for three people. If you go, get the soup dumplings, the spicy wontons, and the spicy cucumbers.
And that’s all for now! If you ever visit San Diego, I hope that you find this helpful. It truly is worth visiting. It’s a little slice of paradise. In the meantime, I’ll be working on the next newsletter and it’ll be out not long after I send this out.
Love always,
Ben