San Diego, California

About

San Diego sits in the far southwestern corner of the continental United States, a short drive from the Mexican border and about two hours south of Los Angeles along the Pacific Coast. With more than 1.4 million residents, it’s the second-largest city in California and ranks among the ten largest in the country, though the pace and feel are closer to a cluster of connected beach towns than a dense metro.

The county holds the largest number of farms of any U.S. county, a quieter fact that explains why the food scene here leans so heavily on fresh produce, seafood, and California wine. Balboa Park, covering more than 1,200 acres in the center of the city, contains 17 museums, the famed San Diego Zoo, botanical gardens, and the original Spanish Colonial Revival architecture from the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Old Town preserves the earliest Spanish and Mexican history of California, while Gaslamp Quarter, Little Italy, Hillcrest, and North Park anchor the modern restaurant and neighborhood scene.

The region has more than 70 miles of coastline, from La Jolla’s sea caves and tide pools to the surf breaks at Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, and Mission Beach, and the quieter sand at Coronado and Silver Strand. Inland, Anza-Borrego and Cleveland National Forest are within day-trip range.

A San Diego road trip often caps a Highway 1 Pacific Coast tour, and smaller guided retreats use the mild climate year-round to pace walking, hiking, and coastal recovery time.