"Saint Doug - - - -San Diego, ..." a San Diego Travel Page by Richmond

San Diego's superb coastline, near-perfect climate and Mediterranean facade make it the quintessential Southern California beach city. Forget the pace and pollution of LA - if you want to wet your feet in the So-Cal beach scene, pull on your shorts and start styling with the boardheads or shopping for rugs and real estate in affluent, conservative, blessed-by-nature, merging-with-Mexico San Diego.
San Diego is located two hours south of Los Angeles and less than a half-hour from the Baja, Mexican border. The airport – Lindbergh Field – is so close to downtown, people often get wide-eyed on approach because the planes come in at almost eye-level to the buildings. It is both compact – San Diego Bay, Coronado, Balboa Park and Old Town are within minutes of downtown - and spread out. It would take a month to see all of San Diego, as it runs from Mexico to the North County beach towns of Cardiff by the Sea , Encinitas and where I live 35 miles up the coast in Carlsbad.
San Diego is a small town in a big city's body. It's the seventh-largest city in the U.S., yet it has the mentally of Mayberry RFD. Credit the sunshine and the coastline.

For those on a short schedule, downtown is where to hang. It's the city's heartbeat, pulsating with the dining, drinking and shopping spots of the Gaslamp Quarter. It's an easy walk to the massive Convention Center and shopping-heavy Seaport Village. Coronado is across the big brige that serves as the skyline backdrop. Balboa Park is just east of downtown and the beach cities are to the north.

For city novices, the San Diego Trolley Tour ($24, pickup at Horton Plaza) is a good orientation guide. Like the London double-decker buses, it allows for on-and-off privileges at any of its nine stops, plus the drivers are informative and humorous. This is different than the city-operated trolleys; they run on tracks, not the streets.