Things to do in El Cajon
Home to one of the largest Iraqi and Chaldean communities in the country, and the Middle Eastern food that comes with it.
Things to do
Things to do in San Diego
Where to go and what to see across the county — pick a neighborhood for the local rundown, or start with the attractions everyone should see at least once.
By neighborhood
All neighborhoods
Things to do in Chula Vista
The second largest city in the county — a bayfront under construction, Third Avenue, and the eastern master-planned half.
Things to do in Downtown
Ballpark, convention center, and the highest concentration of new residential towers the city has ever built.
Things to do in North Park
Craft beer origin story, 30th Street, and the densest run of independent restaurants in the city.
Things to do in Point Loma
Peninsula of Navy housing, Liberty Station, and the tide pools at Cabrillo. Sunset Cliffs on the ocean side.
Things to do in Alpine
Up the 8 at 2,000 feet — oak country, a distinct climate, and the last stop before the desert.
Things to do in Bankers Hill
Craftsman mansions and quiet fine dining on the western edge of Balboa Park, with the canyon bridges in between.
Things to do in Coronado
An island that is not one. The Hotel Del, a Navy air station, and the bridge that defines the skyline from downtown.
Things to do in East Village
The largest downtown neighborhood and the one changing fastest — breweries, towers, and the hardest civic questions in the city.
Things to do in Gaslamp Quarter
Sixteen Victorian blocks doing the heaviest nightlife lifting in the county, currently mid-reinvention toward daytime.
Things to do in La Jolla
Cliffs, coves and the highest commercial rents in the county. Old money, biotech money, and sea lions that predate both.
Things to do in La Mesa
The Village — a genuine small-town main street with the trolley running through it, eight miles from downtown.
Things to do in Lakeside
Rodeo grounds, the river, and the rural edge of the county where the suburbs stop.
Things to do in Little Italy
India Street, the Saturday Mercato, and the piazzas that turned a freeway-severed district into the busiest dining strip downtown.
Things to do in Ocean Beach
Newport Avenue antique shops, the longest pier on the West Coast, and a farmers market that doubles as a town meeting.
Things to do in Pacific Beach
Garnet Avenue, the boardwalk, and a long argument about what the neighborhood should be when it grows up.
Things to do in Santee
River park trails, the eastern end of the trolley, and a downtown plan that has been in motion for a decade.
Things to do in South Park
Four walkable corners of shops and small kitchens, hemmed in by canyons and fiercely protective of the scale.
Things to do in Vista
A brewery district that rivals North Park, a walkable old downtown, and far less traffic than the coast.
Things to do in Barrio Logan
Chicano Park murals under the bridge, Logan Avenue galleries and taquerias, and an ongoing fight over industrial zoning.
Things to do in Carlsbad
Village core, a lagoon system, and the golf-and-tech corridor inland. Bigger and less uniform than visitors assume.
Things to do in Carmel Valley
Master-planned, high-performing schools, and the corporate campuses along the 56 corridor.
Things to do in Escondido
North County inland hub — Grand Avenue, the California Center for the Arts, and a downtown food scene that keeps surprising people.
Things to do in Hillcrest
The heart of LGBTQ San Diego, a Sunday farmers market, and a University Avenue corridor arguing about its own redevelopment.
Things to do in Imperial Beach
The last beach before Mexico, a serious surf history, and a water-quality fight that is now a national story.
Things to do in Mira Mesa
Mira Mesa Boulevard strip malls hiding some of the best Filipino, Vietnamese and Indian food in the region.
Things to do in Old Town
The original settlement, now a state park and a tourist corridor, with the county archives and some genuinely good Mexican food.
Things to do in Ramona
Backcountry wine, horse property and a main street that has nothing to do with the coast.
Things to do in Rancho Bernardo
Golf, corporate parks and retirement communities, with a business corridor that outlasted several tech cycles.
Things to do in University City
UTC mall, the UCSD edge, and the densest job cluster in the county outside downtown.
Things to do in Encinitas
Surf town that grew up without entirely agreeing to. Five communities under one city name, each convinced it is the real one.
Things to do in Golden Hill
Victorians on the edge of Balboa Park, 25th Street, and a view of downtown you cannot get anywhere else.
Things to do in Kensington
A small village center with the Ken Cinema, Spanish revival streets, and nothing much taller than two stories.
Things to do in Mission Valley
Malls, the river, the stadium site turned campus, and a transit spine the rest of the city keeps arguing about.
Things to do in National City
The Mile of Cars, a working port, and one of the oldest Filipino communities on the West Coast.
Things to do in Normal Heights
Adams Avenue dive bars, vintage stores and street fairs, on a mesa above the 15.
Things to do in Oceanside
The pier, the harbor, and a downtown that has changed faster in five years than in the previous thirty.
Things to do in Poway
Its own city, "the city in the country," with horse trails, Lake Poway and a strong school district.
Things to do in San Marcos
Cal State San Marcos, Restaurant Row, and the fastest residential growth in North County inland.
Things to do in Spring Valley
Unincorporated and often overlooked, with strong Filipino and Latino communities and some of the best carne asada in the county.
Things to do in Cardiff-by-the-Sea
Seaside Reef, the Kook statue, and restaurant row on the bluff with the best sunset seating in North County.
Things to do in Del Mar
Fifteen blocks of village between the racetrack and the bluff, and a fight over the fairgrounds in every election cycle.
Things to do in Eastlake
Master-planned Chula Vista — lakes, trails and the retail core that serves the eastern South Bay.
Things to do in Kearny Mesa
Convoy Street — the best Asian food corridor in Southern California — wrapped in light industrial and car dealerships.
Things to do in Leucadia
Eucalyptus over the 101, funky by ordinance, and the last stretch of coast highway that still feels unplanned.
Things to do in Logan Heights
One of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, with deep community institutions and the most contested air quality in the county.
Things to do in Mission Beach
Two blocks wide, ocean to bay, with Belmont Park in the middle and nowhere to park anywhere.
Things to do in Mission Hills
Canyon-edge homes above Old Town, a compact Washington Street business strip, and the best-preserved early architecture in the city.
Things to do in Otay Ranch
The newest large-scale development in the county, still adding neighborhoods and the schools to go with them.
Things to do in Rancho Peñasquitos
Canyon preserve, suburban grid, and a commute that explains most of the traffic on the 15.
Things to do in Scripps Ranch
Eucalyptus groves, Lake Miramar, and a community that rebuilt itself after the 2003 Cedar Fire.
Things to do in Solana Beach
Cedros Avenue design district, the Belly Up, and the quietest stretch of the 101 north of Torrey Pines.
Things to do in University Heights
Park Boulevard and Adams Avenue, the old trolley sign, and some of the best-value dining in the urban core.
Things to do in City Heights
The most linguistically diverse square miles in the county, with El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue running through.
Things to do in San Ysidro
The busiest land border crossing in the Western Hemisphere, and a community that lives on both sides of it.
Things to do in Bonita
Horse trails and large lots in the valley between Chula Vista and the 805, deliberately unincorporated.
Things to do in Talmadge
Gated street entrances, 1920s Spanish homes, and a quiet grid tucked between Kensington and City Heights.
Things to do in Clairemont
Postwar tract housing across four mesas and the canyons between them, now the front line of the missing-middle housing debate.
Things to do in Linda Vista
A WWII housing project that became one of the most ethnically mixed neighborhoods in the county, with the food to match.
Top attractions
All listings
Balboa Park
The 1,200-acre cultural heart of San Diego — 17 museums, gardens, the Old Globe theaters and Spanish Revival architecture along El Prado. Free to enter; museums ticket separately.
Attraction
Belmont Park
A beachfront amusement park on the Mission Beach boardwalk, home to the 1925 Giant Dipper wooden roller coaster. Free to enter; rides ticket separately.
Attraction
Birch Aquarium at Scripps
Scripps Institution's public aquarium on a La Jolla bluff — tide-pool touch tanks, a two-story kelp forest and big ocean views.
Attraction
Cabrillo National Monument
The tip of Point Loma, where Cabrillo landed in 1542 — sweeping harbor views, a historic lighthouse and some of the county's best tide pools.
Attraction
Chicano Park
Under the Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan, the world's largest collection of outdoor Chicano murals — a National Historic Landmark.
Attraction
Coronado Beach
Wide, gold-flecked sand regularly ranked among the country's best beaches, in the shadow of the Hotel Del.
Attraction
Hotel del Coronado
The 1888 beachfront 'Hotel Del' — a red-roofed Victorian landmark worth visiting for the beach, shops and history even without a room.
Attraction
La Jolla Cove
A postcard cove where sea lions and seals haul out on the rocks — snorkeling, kayaking and clifftop views over the ecological reserve.
Attraction
Legoland California
A Lego-themed park in Carlsbad built for younger kids, with rides, an aquarium and a water park.
Attraction
Liberty Station
A former naval training center turned arts, food and shopping district, with galleries, a public market and walkable waterfront paths.
Attraction
Maritime Museum of San Diego
A fleet of historic ships on the harbor, anchored by the 1863 Star of India — the world's oldest active sailing ship — plus submarines you can climb through.
Attraction
Mount Soledad National Veterans Memorial
A hilltop veterans memorial with one of the widest 360-degree views in the county, from the coast to the mountains.
Attraction