Page 107 - 2014 Travel Guide to California

Park. The Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse,
both Tony winners, frequently send plays
to Broadway. Multiple scientific landmarks
including the Salk Institute and Scripps
Institute of Oceanography are magnets for
some of the world’s brightest minds.
City & Town
Thanks to prescient developers and deter-
mined preservationists, downtown San
Diego has become an exciting, cosmopol-
itan city with several hip neighborhoods.
The heart of the action is the historic
Gaslamp Quarter packed with classy night-
clubs and restaurants of every description
housed in restored 19th-century Victorian,
Baroque and Frontier buildings. Petco
Park, downtown’s exceptional baseball sta-
dium (and occasional concert venue), has
been the impetus for the burgeoning East
Village neighborhood filled with trendy
condo complexes, boutiques, cafés and a
long-awaited, architecturally stunning
Central Library, which opened in Sep-
tember 2013. The Embarcadero sidewalk
beside San Diego Bay runs past a fleet of
vessels including cruise ships, aircraft car-
riers, ferries, historic paddleboats and
handsome yachts. Little Italy, a few blocks
north of downtown’s core, has undergone
a nearly complete transformation from a
simple Italian community to a desirable
urban neighborhood. Fortunately, several
venerable pizza parlors, bakeries and bars
remain amid modernist condo complexes,
gourmet restaurants and trendy shops.
DRIVE
»
TOUR
Seagulls on blue and yellow signposts lead the way to
central San Diego’s best vistas along the 59-MILE SCENIC
DRIVE. You can do the trip in a couple of hours, but why
hurry? The route conveniently begins downtown at the
SAN DIEGO CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU’S
INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION CENTER. Meandering along
HARBOR DRIVE, it passes along San Diego Bay to CABRILLO
NATIONAL MONUMENT at the tip of Point Loma and on to
MISSION BAY, several beach towns and LA JOLLA. Along the
way you’ll drive through BALBOA PARK and the GASLAMP
QUARTER—both with multiple tempting distractions. The
same can be said for all 26 highlighted stops along the route,
including the BIRCH AQUARIUM at Scripps in the hills
overlooking La Jolla Shores.
2014 T R AV E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A 105