9 reasons WE like SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA
San Diego, California is a young, fun city full of interesting cultural mixes, sensational beaches as well as tasty food. No question we like it so much. right here are our top 9 things to perform in San Diego, California as well as why we like this town so much.
Mrs romance as well as I get on extremely well with San Diego. maybe it’s since we share some crucial values – beaches, fantastic food, a kicked back lifestyle… however then who wouldn’t want that, right?
Of all the cities in the USA, we’ve spent a lot of time in San Diego, so we feel like we get this city a lot more than we do other locations we’ve visited.
Having stated that, I likewise feel a deep connection with Chicago as well as the like Mrs romance has for nyc nearly verges on bigamy. however San Diego truly does have something special. There’s a reason it’s understood as America’s Finest City.
We believed we’d share a few of our much-loved things to perform in San Diego as well as the reason why we like this city.
9 things to perform in San Diego that make us like it so much
1. The beaches
San Diego has a big amount of shoreline looking out over the Pacific ocean – about 115km of it in fact.
The likes of Pacific Beach, ocean beach as well as objective beach put the ‘sandy’ in San Diego. Sorry, that was lame. These beaches are all on the city’s doorstep. They’re wide, sandy as well as have some fantastic eating as well as drinking areas ideal on them.
There’s likewise Coronado, a peninsular that’s a lot more like an island off the city’s coast. On its ocean side is Coronado Beach, which is absolutely stunning. We’d like to stay at the famous hotel del Coronado, which overlooks the beach as well as is just stunning.
Further north of the city is the Torrey Pines national Park. Not only is this bit of coastline an outstanding hiking area with some easy-going tracks with the clean as well as along the cliffs, the beach below is huge as well as magnificent.
Here’s a lot more on Torrey Pines.
With the sun setting over the water each night, San Diego’s beaches are quite much all an Instagram dream.
2. The food
San Diego is ideal on the Mexican border – as well as was in truth part of Mexico for a extremely long time. undoubtedly this has influenced the food choices right here as well as Mrs romance nearly refuses to eat anything else when we’re in town.
The Mexican food right here is outstanding – one of our all-time much-loved locations to eat is a bit tacoria as well as bar called El Camino in bit Italy – however there are so lots of other choices here.
Little Italy, a cool bit suburb ideal near the airport, it isn’t a great location to be if you’re hungry: there are so lots of locations to select from. You’ll be broke as well as fat by the end of the afternoon!
Everything from Ballast point Brewery’s taprooms to Ironside seafood restaurant as well as oyster bar resides right here as well as it’s all fantastic.
In the city itself, there are holds of locations to eat. From Phil’s barbeque (a true meat extravaganza) to fine dining at Cucina Urbana in Bankers hill you’re truly spoilt for choice.
And if you want Mexican food in genuine Cali-Mex style, the only location to go is Old Town.
Check out our a lot more in-depth run-down of where to eat in San Diego here.
3. The city
San Diego city itself has a fantastic feel to it. San Diego is one of America’s bigger cities, however even downtown feels chilled out as well as easy-going.
From the fun touristy areas like the Gaslamp Quarter as well as the Marina to the nightlife of Hillcrest – the heart of SD’s gay scene, there’s a vibrant as well as extremely friendly feeling on the streets here.
It’s likewise amazingly simple to navigate this city. just like a great deal of well-planned cities, SD is in a grid pattern. North to south are numbered streets as well as a lot of of the east to west are either tree names (1st letters running alphabetically) or just lettered A, B, C, D after that.
Coronado, off the city’s coast, is house to the huge air force base made popular in films like top Gun, however there are some fantastic restaurants dealing with the city as well as – on the ocean side – the famous Coronado beach as well as Resort.
4. The people
The locals (San Diegans?) are a friendly, fascinating mix. Laid back, polite as well as helpful, it’s likewise a quite young crowd right here – mainly owing to the big number of universities as well as colleges in San Diego.
They likewise truly get into stuff. Dia de los Muertos – the Mexican Day of the Dead, Halloween, even ComiCon are all heavily subscribed by San D’s denizens.
We’ve been lucky sufficient to be right here for all three of these as well as it’s awesome. These people take every chance to go out, gown up as well as have fun.
5. Mexico as well as Old Town
San Diego is only 25km north of Tijuana, so Mexico is a big influence on this us city. Going across the border into Mexico is simple enough, however even better is San Diego Old Town.
Old town has an old cemetery with the graves of a few of the original founders of San Diego. The cemetery is a focal point for the Dia de los Muertos parade.
There are buildings in the Old town proper, which have been brought back as well as turned into museums to show the vibe of exactly how things were right here in the 1800s.
And of program there are the restaurants.
The primary street – San Diego Avenue – is a bright, colourful row of eateries as well as bars that are full of life as well as laughter. as well as a lot more importantly, tasty food! There’s even a cigar bar – Churchill’s – on the street, which I never stop working to take advantage of!
If you’re into your cigars, San Diego has a great deal of bars where you can even take pleasure in your smoke inside your home – a unusual treat these days. Here’s our excursion of cigar bars around San Diego.
6. Rooftop bars as well as terminate pits
Southern California is a extremely warm part of the USA with around 265 days of sunshine a year, however that doesn’t seem to matter in San Diego – they like their terminate pits so much.
We even went round a friend’s apartment or condo who has a terminate pit on her balcony, as well as in the typical area of her complex is one more big terminate pit for everybody to utilize too.
Pretty much every bar as well as restaurant with an outside area will have an area with naked flames licking from granite chips.
San Diego truly takes advantage of its friendly climate with its outside spaces. There are tons of awesome rooftop bars in San Diego.
Here are a few of our much-loved rooftop bars in San Diego.
7. San Diego Zoo as well as Balboa Park
Balboa Park is ideal at the centre of San Diego as well as it’s absolutely massive. In truth it’s the greatest metropolitan cultural park in the USA. It’s house to 15 museums, botanic gardens, award-winning theatres, art galleries as well as finest of all San Diego Zoo.
We’re not normally into zoos, however this is world popular for great reason. It’s an extraordinary facility with some interesting programmes.
Our much-loved conservation programme is exactly how the zoo provides the cheetahs, which are notoriously flighty as well as tend to experience from nerves in captivity, a ‘buddy’. They grow up with a canine buddy as well as the pet dog stays with them a lot of of the time.
The dogs calm the cheetahs down as well as assist guide them with their lives in the zoo. It’s so clever.
Here’s our evaluation of San Diego Zoo.
8. Breweries, wineries as well as distilleries
San Diego is the house as well as heartland of craft beer in America. There are around 150 craft breweries as well as brewpubs in the region with some excellent beer coming from them.
Some breweries even have distilleries attached, like Ballast Point. Their beer is awesome, however their gin Old Grove is a genuine event.
Further north of the city is the mighty stone Brewery’s closest taprooms, which are amazing. stone is one of the greatest as well as a lot of prominent craft brewery, even discovering its method to Australia’s shores.
Here’s our evaluation of Stone’s taprooms in Escondido – such an extraordinary space.
There are some fantastic wineries in as well as around San Diego. a lot of people go north past Escontido to the wineries there, however the vineyard excursion I went on headed west to San Pasqual Valley as well as Ramona Valley.
I need to state I was extremely pleasantly surprised. Here’s what occurred on the white wine excursion of San Diego.
9. La Jolla
La Jolla (pronounced “la hoya”) is a northern suburb of San Diego (but additionally south than Torrey Pines) as well as is rather different to the rest of the city.
It’s a coastal suburb with some outstanding views out over the Pacific, gorgeous houses as well as – finest of all – seals as well as sea lions. This colony has resided in LA Jolla for ages as well as is an crucial part of the community.
They’re simple to area lounging along the cliffs at La Jolla Cove as well as other parts of the coastline. For a lot more info, inspect out La Jolla Mom’s insights into this exceptional spectacle.
To see the less evident as well as harder to reach sea life of the area, you must absolutely inspect out the Scripps organization of Oceanography aquarium in La Jolla. It’s a charming bit aquarium as well as comes without the dispute of Sea World.
Make sure you’re at the aquarium for sunset – the views from the cliffs over the Pacific are sensational.
Bonus: weather condition as well as climate
I’d be missing a major function of San Diego as well as So Cal if I didn’t mention the outstanding climate here.
If you’re trying to find somewhere that you’re nearly guaranteed to have best weather condition all year round, it’s San Diego. even in wintertime the sun still lusters as well as in summer, while the mercury rises, the humidity is still extremely low.
As for rainfall, there’s never sufficient water in California, as well as they’ve been having a hard time with drought for ages now. however for the visitor it indicates no requirement to bring those horrible emergency ponchos with you everywhere!
Please do be mindful of water usage right here though. Please don’t squander water or spend an unreasonable amount of time in the shower.
I hope these things to perform in San Diego have provided you a remove insight into why we like it here. For a lot more ideas on things to perform in San Diego as well as our First-Timer’s Guide to San Diego, click here.
If you’re trying to find a local’s ideas on the very best things to perform in San Diego with kids, inspect out this publish by the charming Katie from La Jolla Mom.
Do you have any type of ideas on what to perform in San Diego? are there any type of other reasons why San Diego is just so bloody good? tell us in the comments!