3-day itinerary · United States

3 Days in San Diego

A realistic first-timer plan that spends day one on the mesa of Balboa Park, from the San Diego Zoo at opening to the California Tower of the Museum of Us, the Botanical Building and the Japanese Friendship Garden, with dinner in Little Italy; day two on the water, the USS Midway aircraft carrier, the tall ship Star of India, the ferry across the bay to Coronado and its beach, and the Gaslamp Quarter after dark; and day three along the coast by car, the adobes of Old Town, the sea lions of La Jolla Cove, the lighthouse and the view from Cabrillo National Monument and the sunset at Sunset Cliffs. Every stop comes with distances and the rules that matter in 2026.

3days
13sights
1.9 kmon foot between sights

Updated 12 September 2026 · 9 official sources checked · report an error

Cabrillo National Monument — Photo: Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0

The plan at a glance

Balboa Park, then the bay and Coronado, then the coast by car

San Diego is spread out, so the plan groups it: day one is all inside Balboa Park, which is walkable, day two all along the downtown waterfront and across the bay, and day three a coastal loop that needs a car or ride-hailing. The zoo takes a full morning and is the one ticket to buy in advance; the California Tower climb and the Midway also sell timed tickets. The Coronado ferry from Broadway Pier runs hourly and is the best cheap boat ride in the city. On day three, check the tide tables for the Cabrillo tidepools, and remember that the park gates close at 17:00, so it comes before Sunset Cliffs, not after.

Day 1Balboa Park: the zoo, the California Tower, the gardens and Little ItalySan Diego Zoo · Museum of Us and the California Tower · Botanical Building and Lily Pond · Japanese Friendship Garden · Little Italy5 sights · 1.1 km on foot Day 2The bay: the USS Midway, the Star of India, Coronado by ferry and the Gaslamp QuarterUSS Midway Museum · Star of India and the Maritime Museum · Coronado and the Hotel del Coronado · Gaslamp Quarter4 sights · 750 m on foot Day 3The coast: Old Town, La Jolla Cove, Cabrillo National Monument and Sunset CliffsOld Town San Diego State Historic Park · La Jolla Cove · Cabrillo National Monument · Sunset Cliffs Natural Park4 sights · Transport between sights

At a glance

Ways to use these days

Outdoors: Botanical Building and Lily Pond · Japanese Friendship Garden
Lightest day on foot: Day 1 — 2.9 km between stops
Most walking: Day 3 — 39.3 km

Day 1

Balboa Park: the zoo, the California Tower, the gardens and Little Italy

Be at the San Diego Zoo when it opens and give it the morning, walk down the Prado to lunch, climb the California Tower at the Museum of Us, see the lily pond and the Botanical Building and the Japanese Friendship Garden, and take a taxi down to Little Italy for dinner.

5 sights
1.1 km on foot
Longest walk 530 m

Stops in order, straight-line distancesRoute in Google Maps ↗

Morning

1Zoo

San Diego Zoo

The zoo that began with the animals left behind by the 1915 exposition is now 100 acres of canyons in the north of Balboa Park and one of the great zoos of the world, with more than 12,000 animals in habitats rather than cages: the giant pandas returned in 2024, koalas, the Elephant Odyssey, the Lost Forest with its gorillas and hippos, and the Skyfari gondola and guided bus tour that come with the ticket and save the hills. Be at the gate at opening and take the bus tour first for the layout; the pandas draw a queue by mid-morning.

Plan about 4 h
1-Day Pass USD 78 adults, USD 68 children 3–11, including the guided bus tour and Skyfari; buy online and go at opening

Midday

LunchThe Prado restaurant in the House of Hospitality is the park's sit-down lunch, with a terrace over the gardens; Panama 66 behind the art museum has sandwiches, salads and local beer in the sculpture court, and the Japanese garden's Tea Pavilion does noodles and bento.

Afternoon

530 m · about 8 min on foot

2Museum and tower

Museum of Us and the California Tower

The anthropology museum lives in the Spanish-colonial California Building of the 1915 Panama–California Exposition, whose tiled dome and 60-metre tower are the symbol of the park; the museum's galleries on race, cannibalism, monsters and Maya casts are small, and the reason to come is the tower, closed for 80 years and reopened in 2015, with 125 steps to a gallery eight floors up and the whole park, the bay and Mexico beyond. Tower tours are timed and limited to a dozen people; book online.

Plan about 1 h 30 min
Tower tours USD 10 plus museum admission, 40 minutes, minimum age 6; Mon–Thu at 10:30, 12:30, 14:30 and 16:30, Fri–Sun hourly 11:00–16:00

290 m · about 5 min on foot

3Garden

Botanical Building and Lily Pond

The lath house of 1915, one of the largest in the world, with its redwood slats letting in dappled light over 2,000 orchids, ferns, palms and cycads, reopened in December 2024 after a two-year restoration; in front of it the long lily pond with the Casa del Prado reflected in it is the most photographed view in the park. It is free and takes half an hour; the Spanish Village artists' studios and the Timken's free old-master collection are a few minutes away if there is time.

Plan about 30 min

320 m · about 5 min on foot

4Garden

Japanese Friendship Garden

Twelve acres down a canyon behind the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, planted in honour of San Diego's sister city Yokohama: a dry garden, koi ponds, a bonsai collection, a tea pavilion, a wisteria arbour, and the lower garden's 200 cherry trees, azaleas and a waterfall, best in the late-afternoon light when the day-trippers have gone. The organ pavilion beside the entrance gives free concerts on Sunday afternoons on the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world.

Plan about 1 h
Daily 10:00–18:00, last entry 17:00; USD 16 adults, USD 14 students and seniors, under-6s free

Evening

Taxi or ride-hail from the park about 10 minutes; bus 7 from Park Boulevard to downtown and a 10-minute walk

5Neighbourhood

Little Italy

The old tuna-fishing quarter of Sicilian and Genoese families north of downtown, saved from the freeway in the 1970s, is now the city's best eating neighbourhood: India Street and the Piazza della Famiglia lined with Italian and Californian restaurants, the Little Italy Food Hall, wine bars, gelato and the Saturday Mercato farmers' market that fills six blocks. Come for dinner on the first night; it is a 10-minute taxi from the park and a walk from the waterfront.

Plan about 2 h

Day 2

The bay: the USS Midway, the Star of India, Coronado by ferry and the Gaslamp Quarter

Walk the flight deck and the hangar of the USS Midway when it opens, board the 1863 Star of India at the Maritime Museum next door, take the ferry from Broadway Pier across the bay to Coronado for the beach and the Hotel del Coronado, and come back for dinner in the Gaslamp Quarter.

4 sights
750 m on foot
Longest walk 750 m

Stops in order, straight-line distancesRoute in Google Maps ↗

Morning

1Museum ship

USS Midway Museum

The aircraft carrier that served from 1945 to the Gulf War, the longest-serving of the 20th century, is moored on the Navy Pier downtown as the most visited naval museum in the country: the flight deck with 30 restored aircraft from Corsairs to a Tomcat, the hangar deck, the island's bridge and primary flight control, the berthing, galley and sick bay below, and an audio tour narrated by veterans who served on her. Docents on deck were pilots and crew. Allow three hours and go at opening before the school groups.

Plan about 3 h
Daily 10:00–17:00, last admission 16:00; USD 39 adults online (USD 41 at the gate), USD 29 ages 4–12, under-4s free

750 m · about 12 min on foot

2Museum ships

Star of India and the Maritime Museum

A few hundred metres along the Embarcadero, the Maritime Museum is a fleet rather than a building: the Star of India, an iron full-rigged ship launched on the Isle of Man in 1863 and the oldest active sailing ship in the world, the 1898 steam ferry Berkeley that carried San Franciscans out of the 1906 earthquake, a Soviet Foxtrot submarine and the USS Dolphin, the replica HMS Surprise from the film Master and Commander, and a Californian topsail schooner that sails guests around the bay. One ticket boards them all.

Plan about 1 h 30 min
Daily 10:00–17:00, last entry 16:00; USD 28 adults at the ticket window, USD 30.36 online; bay sails extra

Midday

LunchEat on the Coronado side: the fish tacos and clam chowder of the Ferry Landing restaurants, or walk to Orange Avenue for the cafés and bakeries of Coronado's main street before the beach.

Afternoon

Flagship ferry from Broadway Pier to the Coronado Ferry Landing, 15 minutes, USD 9 each way, hourly; then a 25-minute walk or the free Coronado shuttle to the hotel and beach

3Beach town

Coronado and the Hotel del Coronado

Across the bay by ferry, the resort island of Coronado is a village of bungalows and Orange Avenue's shops running to a wide, flat, white beach, and at the end of it the Hotel del Coronado, the red-turreted wooden Victorian of 1888 where Some Like It Hot was filmed and Edward VIII is said to have met Wallis Simpson; walk through its lobby and Crown Room, eat or drink on its terrace, and spend the afternoon on Coronado Central Beach with the Navy jets landing next door. The ferry back gives the skyline at its best.

Plan about 3 h
Ferry from Broadway Pier USD 9 each way, ages 4+, hourly 4:50–22:30; beach free

Evening

Ferry back to Broadway Pier and a 15-minute walk, or bus 901 over the bridge

4Historic district

Gaslamp Quarter

Sixteen blocks of Victorian commercial buildings from the 1880s boom, once the red-light Stingaree and now the downtown entertainment district: restaurants, rooftop bars, jazz clubs and steakhouses under the iron gas lamps of Fifth Avenue, the 1850 William Heath Davis House, and the ballpark of the Padres, Petco Park, at the bottom of the grid. Walk Fifth from Broadway to the ballpark, eat on one of the patios, and finish on a rooftop.

Plan about 2 h

Day 3

The coast: Old Town, La Jolla Cove, Cabrillo National Monument and Sunset Cliffs

Start with the adobes and Mexican breakfast of Old Town, drive up the coast to the sea lions and tidepools of La Jolla Cove, come back down to Point Loma for the lighthouse, the tidepools and the great view of the bay from Cabrillo National Monument, and end with the sunset from Sunset Cliffs.

4 sights
Transport between sights

Stops in order, straight-line distancesDriving route in Google Maps ↗

Morning

1Historic park

Old Town San Diego State Historic Park

The first European settlement in California, founded below the presidio hill in 1769, survives as a state park of restored and reconstructed adobes and wooden buildings around the old plaza, with the 1827 Casa de Estudillo, the first schoolhouse, the stables, a blacksmith and museums in period dress, all free; around it the Bazaar del Mundo's shops and a row of Mexican restaurants make it the standard place for a huevos rancheros breakfast or a margarita at night. It is on the trolley and the start of the coast road.

Plan about 1 h 30 min
Park buildings open daily 10:00–17:00 May–September and 10:00–16:00 October–April; free

About 20 km north by car or ride-hail, 25 minutes; bus 30 from Old Town Transit Center takes an hour

2Beach and viewpoint

La Jolla Cove

The small sandy cove under the sandstone cliffs of La Jolla is the loveliest stretch of coast in the city, and the sea lions have taken it: dozens of them haul out on the rocks and the beach itself, bark, and ignore the crowd above on the railing, with pelicans and cormorants on the bluff, snorkellers in the marine reserve's clear water and the Children's Pool a short walk south, where harbour seals pup in winter. Walk the coast path from the cove past the Sunny Jim sea cave to the Children's Pool, and keep your distance from the animals.

Plan about 2 h
Free; keep back from the sea lions; the Children's Pool beach is closed December 15 to May 15 for seal pupping

Midday

LunchLa Jolla's village above the cove has the lunch: fish tacos at the counters on Pearl Street, the terraces of Prospect Street looking over the water, or a picnic from the market on the lawn of Ellen Browning Scripps Park by the cove itself.

Afternoon

About 25 km south by car, 35 minutes down the length of Point Loma; the park gate closes at 17:00

3National monument

Cabrillo National Monument

At the tip of Point Loma, where Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo landed in 1542 as the first European on the west coast, the national monument has the best view in Southern California, the whole bay, the downtown skyline, Coronado and the Navy carriers below, and Mexico's islands to the south; behind the statue and visitor centre stands the Old Point Loma Lighthouse of 1855, restored to its keeper's day, and on the ocean side a road drops to rocky tidepools that are best at low tide in winter. Grey whales pass the point from December to March. The gate closes at 17:00, so it is the afternoon stop, not the sunset one.

Plan about 2 h
Daily 9:00–17:00, tidepools close 16:30; USD 20 per vehicle, USD 10 per person on foot or bicycle, valid 7 days; under-16s free

Evening

10 minutes by car back along the ocean side of Point Loma

4Coastal park

Sunset Cliffs Natural Park

On the ocean side of Point Loma, 68 acres of sandstone bluffs along Sunset Cliffs Boulevard drop straight into the Pacific, with surfers below, sea caves and arches, and a cliff path that fills every evening with people waiting for the sun to go into the sea; there are no railings on most of it, and the edge crumbles, so stay back. Dinner afterwards is in Ocean Beach next door, the last beach town of the old kind, with its pier, its taco shops and its Wednesday farmers' market on Newport Avenue.

Plan about 1 h 30 min

Before you go

Good to know in San Diego

Tickets and opening days

A San Diego Zoo 1-Day Pass costs USD 78 for adults and USD 68 for children aged 3–11, and includes the guided bus tour, the Kangaroo Express bus and the Skyfari aerial tram; the zoo is open every day of the year.Source: San Diego Zoo, tickets · checked Sep 2026
The USS Midway Museum is open daily 10:00–17:00 with last admission at 16:00, closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day; general admission is USD 39 for adults online or USD 41 at the gate, USD 29 (USD 31) for ages 4–12, and free for children 3 and under.Source: USS Midway Museum, tickets · checked Sep 2026
The Maritime Museum of San Diego is open daily 10:00–17:00 with last entry at 16:00; general admission, which boards all the ships, is USD 28 for adults at the ticket window and USD 30.36 online.Source: Maritime Museum of San Diego · checked Sep 2026
California Tower tours at the Museum of Us cost USD 10 in addition to general admission and run Monday to Thursday at 10:30, 12:30, 14:30 and 16:30 and Friday to Sunday hourly from 11:00 to 16:00; each tour lasts about 40 minutes, climbs 125 steps, and the minimum age is 6.Source: Museum of Us, California Tower · checked Sep 2026
The Japanese Friendship Garden is open daily 10:00–18:00 with last entry at 17:00; admission is USD 16 for adults, USD 14 for students, seniors and military, and free for children 6 and under.Source: Japanese Friendship Garden, visit · checked Sep 2026
Cabrillo National Monument is open daily 9:00–17:00, with the tidepool area closing at 16:30 and the Bayside Trail at 16:00; the entrance fee is USD 20 per private vehicle, USD 15 per motorcycle and USD 10 per person on foot or bicycle, valid for seven days, with children 15 and under free.Source: National Park Service, Cabrillo National Monument · checked Sep 2026
The Coronado ferry sails from Broadway Pier downtown to the Coronado Ferry Landing in about 15 minutes, hourly from 4:50 to 22:30; the fare is USD 9 each way for everyone aged 4 and over, and bicycles ride free.Source: Flagship Cruises & Events, Coronado Ferry · checked Sep 2026
The Children's Pool beach in La Jolla is closed to the public from December 15 to May 15 each year for the harbour seal pupping season; the seals can be watched from the sea wall.Source: City of San Diego, Children's Pool · checked Sep 2026
Sunset Cliffs Natural Park is a 68-acre city park along the western shoreline of Point Loma, with a linear stretch of cliffs along Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and a hillside section, open to the public and free.Source: City of San Diego, Parks & Recreation · checked Sep 2026

Questions

3 days in San Diego: quick answers

Is 3 days enough for San Diego?

Three days cover Balboa Park, the bay, Coronado and the coast from La Jolla to Point Loma. A fourth day is either the Safari Park, the zoo's 1,800-acre sister in the Escondido hills, or the beaches north of the city, Torrey Pines State Reserve and its cliff trails, and Del Mar; a day trip across the border to Tijuana is 30 minutes by trolley to San Ysidro and a walk over the bridge with your passport.

Which days should I plan around?

The zoo, the Midway, the Maritime Museum, the Japanese Friendship Garden and Cabrillo are open every day of the year except a few holidays; Balboa Park's museums mostly close one weekday each, so check the one you want. The Children's Pool in La Jolla is closed from mid-December to mid-May for the seal pupping season, but the sea lions at the cove itself are there all year. Summer weekends fill Coronado beach and the ferries; May and June bring the marine layer called June Gloom until noon.

How much do the tickets cost?

The zoo is the big one, USD 78 for adults and USD 68 for children, including the bus tour and the Skyfari. The Midway is USD 39 online for adults, the Maritime Museum USD 28 at the gate, the California Tower climb USD 10 on top of museum admission, the Japanese Friendship Garden USD 16, and Cabrillo USD 20 per car for a week. Balboa Park's gardens, the Botanical Building, Old Town, the beaches and Sunset Cliffs are free.

How do I get around?

Downtown, Little Italy, the waterfront and the Gaslamp are walkable, and the MTS trolley and buses cover Old Town and the border with a PRONTO card or app. Balboa Park is a short taxi or the number 7 bus from downtown. Day three is easiest with a rental car or ride-hailing, since La Jolla, Point Loma and Sunset Cliffs are spread along 40 km of coast; parking at the cove is tight, so go early.

How much walking is this itinerary?

About 4 km on day one, most of it inside the zoo, which is hilly; about 3 km on day two along the flat waterfront and Coronado's beach; and about 2 km on day three in short walks between drives, with the Bayside Trail at Cabrillo an optional 4 km round trip. The weather is mild all year; bring a layer for the boat and the cliffs.

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3 Days in San Diego

Balboa Park, then the bay and Coronado, then the coast by car

Ways to use these days