3 Perfect Days in San Diego: Day 1
3 Perfect Days in San Diego: Day 2
3 Perfect Days in San Diego: Day 3
This is Part 2 of our trip to San Diego – if you haven’t had a chance to read Part 1, which has details about our flights and first day in San Diego, you can check that out here. For now, on to Day 2…
For Day 2, we planned to go to the San Diego Zoo, which is absolutely one of the highlights of the city. It’s not necessarily cheap (1 day admission costs $44 per adult), but there are lots of ways to get discounts. At the gate, they offer 10% discounts to AAA members, and there are also a number of popular multi-attraction passes that can help reduce your costs if you’re planning to visit multiple attractions, like the Go San Diego Card.
We looked into the Go San Diego Card, but decided that we probably weren’t going to be running around like crazy on this trip and trying to see every possible sight, so we decided against ordering the card – but if you’re interested at hitting multiple attractions, it can certainly offer savings. If you do look into the Go San Diego Card, there are often discounts available on the card itself. Take a look at http://
Anyway, back to the zoo…we had originally looked into renting a car to get around, but decided against it, and we definitely made the right decision. If you want to get up to some of the suburb beaches (Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla), a car could be useful, but if you’re staying within the main part of the city and are primarily looking to see the sights in and around the city, public transportation can get you just about anywhere you need to go. Getting from downtown to the zoo was a simple 20 minute bus ride (same bus, no transfers), and the stop is right at the zoo entrance:
We arrived around 11:00 am, and started to map out our plan for how to navigate the zoo to see as much as possible, but without backtracking too much. This proved a bit challenging, as the zoo is huge, but we put a plan into place and headed off to the reptile exhibit first. To be honest, I don’t really mind snakes much, but large lizards absolutely make me want to run screaming for the hills. I’m still having nightmares about this HUGE [2 ft long], MASSIVE [5″ tall], DESTRUCTIVE [resting on a branch], MAN-EATING [carrots and leaves], SAVAGE [mostly sleeping] BEAST:
One other thing to note about the zoo – they do let you bring backpacks and food in (but no large coolers), so if you plan ahead and use a few soft coolers in backpacks, you can pack and bring a picnic lunch. I did eat at one of the restaurant/shops they had, and it was a decent chicken sandwich, but nothing special (and about $9). After lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon checking out all the other exhibits…there are LOTS of monkeys, elephants, giraffes, penguins (the line looked to be about 45 minutes long, so we didn’t get to see the penguins), polar bears, birds, and everything in between:
Once we had seen practically every corner of the zoo, it was about 3:30 and we made our way out. The zoo really does take most of a day, so I wouldn’t recommend planning too many other activities on the same day. We took the bus back to downtown, and stopped by a local supermarket called Ralph’s which had some of the best prices I’ve seen at any grocery store. It’s great for picking up a few snacks, drinks, etc and we ended up making some salads at their huge salad bar for an easy and relaxing dinner in.
As I mentioned above, the public transportation in San Diego worked pretty well for getting to the zoo and back. Most of downtown and the Gaslamp Quarter is easily walkable, so we really didn’t need a rental car. On Day 3, we did make our way up to Ocean Beach, which took about 40 minutes on the light rail + bus, compared to a 20 minute drive. Although it took a little longer, it was still easy and comfortable enough. Another factor was that parking in downtown is very expensive. To park a car at the Hyatt was around $27 per day, which is comparable with most other hotels and parking garages around, so that can really add up. By the end of our 2nd day, we really were enjoying the laid back, not-overly-touristy feel to the city.
Stay tuned for Day 3!