Top Reason to Go

Top Reason to Go

The Outdoors

In a city with easy access to beaches and parks and an eminently civilized climate, it would be hard not to do as the San Diegans do and venture outdoors. You'll find dozens of great beaches up and down the coastline. Some, like the Silver Strand on Coronado, are wide and sandy; others, like Sunset Cliffs on Point Loma, are narrow and rocky. At many beaches and marinas, you can rent water-sports equipment and take everything from surfing to kayaking lessons.

But away from the beach, there's plenty more to get you outdoors. Head out to the region's inland hills, and you'll find sweeping desert parks laced with hiking, mountain biking, and horseback riding trails. Then you'll find excellent fishing throughout the area, both saltwater and freshwater. In North County, you might even opt for a hot-air balloon ride. Here are a few of our suggestions for getting outdoors in and around San Diego.

Hit the beaches in La Jolla, which has some of the most magnificent sands on the West Coast. Investigate the shellfish-filled tidal pools at La Jolla Cove, which is also excellent for snorkeling or diving; watch the sunset at Black's Beach; or swim the gentle surf at La Jolla Shores.

Ride a bike up scenic Route S21, from La Jolla to Oceanside -- it stays close to the beach the whole way.

Hike the trails at Tijuana Estuary in Imperial Beach -- it's one of the top spots around for observing migrant and resident waterfowl.

Performing Arts

San Diego makes such an outdoorsy getaway that visitors -- even some residents -- overlook the fact that it's a first-rate performing arts center. We don't just mean that, like all major cities, it has a fair share of theaters and music halls.

The city's most vaunted attribute is its theater scene, which draws a fair share of top-name actors. You'll find about two-dozen theaters around the area, from smaller, avant-garde spaces to major venues hosting top national touring shows. Be on the lookout for performances by the esteemed San Diego Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Opera, and San Diego Ballet.

Some venues we love:

It's worth visiting Copley Symphony Hall just to see its ornate Spanish Baroque interior; the 1920s performing arts center hosts the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and touring musicians.

If you're up for unusual filmmaking, check out what's playing at the Ken Cinema, a superb art-house theater.

La Jolla Playhouse often presents Broadway-bound shows before they head east and can always be counted on for first-rate acting and direction.

The Old Globe, the oldest professional theater in the state, occupies a handsome building in Balboa Park and hosts a world-renowned Shakespeare Festival each summer.

Bicultural History

As the site of California's earliest European settlement, San Diego occupies a special place in U.S. history. The city's well-preserved and reconstructed historic sites help you to imagine what the area was like when Spanish and Portuguese explorers and missionaries arrived, usually by sea, in the 16th and 17th centuries. San Diego was the birthplace of California, claimed for Spain by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. About 220 years later, another Spaniard, Franciscan missionary Father Junípero Serra, established the first of 21 California missions here. And the Spanish influence didn't stop with California's admission into the Union in 1850 as America's 31st state -- it's continued to support a thriving, dynamic Latin American community.

Although it doesn't date back so far, the Anglo side of U.S. history is also alive and well in San Diego, much of it revolving around the city's role as a major U.S. navy center since the turn of the 20th century.

Here's how to enhance your understanding of San Diego's heritage:

See where explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo landed in 1542 at Cabrillo National Monument, a 160-acre preserve perched on a bluff with fantastic views of the harbor and downtown.

Tour the historic buildings, mostly from the 19th century and including some original adobes, preserved at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, a living-history compound.

Visit the beautifully preserved Mission San Luis Rey, in nearby Oceanside, the 18th of California's missions to be established and one of the most spectacular.

Shopping

You expect to find fancy megamalls in San Diego -- it's Southern California, after all. But this city offers a far more distinctive retail experience than the mere national-chain shopping you can find anywhere. Your best bet is to head for some of the more engaging neighborhoods around San Diego, from Coronado -- with its blocks of fancy boutiques and galleries -- to Old Town, where, at Plaza del Pasado, you can browse goods reminiscent of those that might have been on offer back when Old Town San Diego was San Diego, and, at Bazaar del Mundo Shops, you can pick up arts and crafts from Mexico as well as other international goods, toys, and souvenirs.

Farther afield, La Jolla has a collection of trendy designer boutiques and galleries along Prospect Street and Girard Avenue.

Here are a few of the best overall shopping destinations in metro San Diego:

Horton Plaza, in the heart of downtown, has department stores, mall shops, and one-of-a-kind boutiques.

Downtown's funky and historic Gaslamp Quarter is chock-full of art galleries, antiques shops, and specialty stores -- and it's a great place to grab a bite to eat afterward.

Seaport Village on the waterfront is thick with theme shops and arts-and-crafts galleries.

Finally, for a marvelous off-the-beaten-path shopping trek, head up the coast to Solana Beach, whose downtown Cedros Design District bustles with some of the hippest home-furnishing and design shops in the state.