40 Best Sights in San Diego, California

With an amusement park and rows of eclectic local shops, this 2-mile-long beach has a carnival vibe and is the closest thing you'll find to Coney Island on the West Coast. It's lively year-round but draws a huge crowd on hot summer days. A wide boardwalk paralleling the beach is popular with walkers, joggers, skateboarders, and bicyclists. To escape the crowds, head to South Mission Beach. It attracts surfers, swimmers, and volleyball players, who often play competitive pickup games on the courts near the north jetty. The water near the Belmont Park roller coaster can be a bit rough but makes for good bodyboarding and bodysurfing. For free parking, you can try for a spot on the street, but your best bets are the two big lots at Belmont Park. Amenities: lifeguards; parking (no fee); showers; toilets. Best for: surfing; swimming; walking.

Curated by Joe Frangiosa, this 800-square-foot exhibit is dedicated to depicting the history of the U.S. Navy, its ships, and their evolution from the Revolutionary War period to World War II. In addition to constructed model ships, the exhibit includes artifacts, photographs, uniforms, and toys detailing the Navy's history.

Every Wednesday from 4 to 8 pm, this Certified Farmers' Market features over 100 vendors selling fresh produce, crafts, prepackaged food, hot food, and more. Other popular offerings include handmade apparel and accessories, holistic products, and fresh flowers. Live music rounds out the show.

Petco Park is home to the city's major league baseball team, the San Diego Padres. The ballpark is strategically designed to give fans a view of San Diego Bay, the skyline, and Balboa Park. Reflecting San Diego's beauty, the stadium is clad in sandstone from India to evoke the area's cliffs and beaches; the 39,860 seats are dark blue, reminiscent of the ocean, and the exposed steel is painted white to reflect the sails of harbor boats on the bay. The family-friendly lawnlike berm, "Park at the Park," is a popular and affordable place for fans to view the game, which brings the total capacity to over 42,000. The ballpark is known for an exceptional variety of local food vendors and craft breweries, including burgers from local icon Hodad's, garlic fries from family-owned Gaglione Brothers, "Cardiff Crack" nachos from Seaside Market, and slices and brews from Pizza Port. Behind-the-scenes guided tours of Petco, including the press box and the dugout, are offered throughout the year.

When the exhibits at this 27,000-square-foot museum are in operation, you can hear the sounds of chugging engines, screeching brakes, and shrill whistles. Local model railroad clubs built and maintain the four main displays, which represent California railroads in "miniature," with the track laid on scale models of San Diego County terrain. Out back, the Centennial Railway Garden features replicas of the streetcars and scenes of Balboa Park during the 1915 Exposition. The Toy Train Gallery has an interactive Lionel exhibit and whimsical vignettes.

There are 8 million fossils, dinosaur models, and even live reptiles and other specimens under this roof. Favorite exhibits include the Foucault Pendulum, suspended on a 43-foot cable and designed to demonstrate the Earth's rotation, and an Allosaurus fragilis dinosaur skeleton made from casts of original fossil bones. Permanent exhibits highlight citizen scientists and the regional environment, and traveling exhibits also make a stop here. Films shown at the museum's giant-screen theater are included with admission. Check the website for information about films, lectures, and free guided nature walks.

You'll find some of the best views of the harbor at Seaport Village, three bustling shopping plazas over 14 acres designed to reflect the New England clapboard and Spanish Mission architectural styles of early California. On a prime stretch of waterfront, the dining, shopping, and entertainment complex connects the harbor with hotel towers and the convention center. Specialty shops offer everything from a kite store and swing emporium to a shop devoted to hot sauces. You can dine at snack bars and restaurants, many with harbor views.

Live music can be heard in the Food Court and Lighthouse District from noon to 3 pm on weekends during the fall and winter and 1 to 4 pm in the spring and summer. The Seaport Village Carousel ( Rides $5) has 54 animals, hand-carved and hand-painted by Charles Looff in 1895. Across the street, the Headquarters at Seaport Village converted the historic police headquarters into several trendsetting shops and restaurants. Every Saturday from 8 am to 2 pm (or until sold out), the adjacent Tuna Harbor Dockside Market offers the freshest fish directly from over a dozen local commercial fishermen.

Spread over 190 tropically landscaped bayfront acres, SeaWorld is one of the world’s largest marine-life amusement parks. The majority of its exhibits are walk-through marine environments like Shark Encounter, where guests walk through a 57-foot acrylic tube and come face-to-face with a variety of sharks that call the 280,000-gallon habitat home. Turtle Reef offers an incredible up-close encounter with three species of green sea turtles, while the moving sidewalk at Penguin Encounter whisks you through a colony of nearly 300 penguins.

The park also wows with adventure rides like the Electric Eel, a shocking multilaunch coaster that sends riders twisting forward and backward 150 feet in the air at speeds reaching 60 mph, and the Emperor, a floorless dive coaster with a 14-story face-down vertical drop. Another guest favorite is Arctic Rescue, a family-friendly straddle coaster simulating a perilous animal rescue mission aboard a snowmobile at speeds of 40 mph. For a comparatively milder thrill, Journey to Atlantis water coaster splashes down a 60-foot plunge. Younger children will enjoy the rides, climbing structures, and splash pads at Rescue Jr.

SeaWorld is most famous for its large-arena entertainments, now part of their efforts to refocus its orca program toward education and conservation. The park's Orca Encounter features a nature-inspired backdrop and demonstrates orca behaviors in the wild, and other educational opportunities and live entertainment shows feature dolphins, sea lions and otters. Several upgraded animal encounters are available including the Dolphin In-Water Interaction Program, which gives guests the chance to interact with SeaWorld's bottlenose dolphins in the water. The hour-long program (20 minutes in the water), during which visitors can feed, touch, and give behavior signals, starts at $179.

Significant admission discounts are available by purchasing tickets online ahead of time at seaworld.com/san-diego.

This quiet beach on a narrow sand spit allows visitors a unique opportunity to experience both the Pacific Ocean and San Diego Bay. The 2½ miles of the ocean side is great for surfing and other water sports while the bay side, accessible via foot tunnel under Highway 75, has calmer, warmer water and great views of the San Diego skyline. Lifeguards and rangers are on duty year-round, and there are places for biking, volleyball, and fishing. Picnic tables, grills, and firepits are available in summer. The beach is close to Loews Coronado Bay Resort and the Coronado Cays, an exclusive community popular with yacht owners. You can reserve RV sites ($85 beach; $65 inland) online. Four day-use parking lots provide room for up to 1,000 cars. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); showers; toilets. Best for: surfing; swimming; walking.

Kids will love the playgrounds at Trolley Barn Park, just around the corner on Adams Avenue. The park is also home to free family concerts in the summer.