San Diego Travel
Tijuana: A taste of Mexico
You could hardly find a more intriguing day-trip out from San Diego than Tijuana , just over the border in Mexico. While far from the most culturally rich place in Mexico, every year twenty million people cross here from the US. Most of them are Californians and tourists on day-long shopping expeditions, seeking somewhere colorful to spend money on blankets, pottery, cigarettes, tequila, dentistry, car repair, and, more recently, pharmaceutical drugs available through many of the town's cut-rate pharmacies and usually without a prescription. Keep in mind, though, that while everything is lower-priced in Tijuana than in the US, the quality and safety of the merchandise are sometimes questionable.
Although you can't help but be made aware of the vast economic gulf separating the two countries you will be confronted by food vendors and children selling woven bracelets and gum Tijuana is, in fact, one of the wealthiest Mexican cities, and somewhat safer than it was a decade ago. The main streets and shopping areas are a few blocks from the border in downtown, where the major thoroughfare is Avenida Revolucin. Stroll around for a while to get the mood and then retire to one of the many bars and enjoy potent margaritas. At night, the action mostly consists of North American youths dancing themselves silly in flashy discos and rowdy rock'n'roll bars. Iguanas-Ranas (Avenida Revolucin at Calle 3; tel 66/85-14-22) is a good example, and for big food and revelry, check out Tia Juana Tilly's (Avenida Revolucin at Calle 7; tel 66/85-60-24), where you can sample traditional Mexican specialties such as roast pig and chicken mole (mo-lay).
Heavy traffic, and insurance problems, make crossing into Mexico by car a risky business; from San Diego you can take either the Trolley ($4 round-trip) or bus #932 from Santa Fe Railroad Depot. However, if you do decide to drive into Mexico, invest in auto insurance , which can be had for as little as $10 per day in San Ysidro. Dollars are accepted as readily as pesos, so there's no need to change money , though prices are better if you do. Border formalities are minimal: you only need a Mexican Tourist Card (free from consulates in the US or at the Mexican Customs office just inside the Tijuana side of the border) if you're planning to go further than 75 miles into the country or stay for more than three days. Returning to the US, however, even within a single day, immigration procedures are stringent even joking about smuggling weapons or illegal drugs can bring a humiliating interrogation, so be wary of saying or doing anything foolish. Hotels are cheap, with many low-cost lodgings close to the center.
Balboa Park and San Diego Zoo
Sumptuous Balboa Park contains one of the largest groups of museums in the US, scattered either side and to the south of El Prado, the road that bisects the park. Yet its greatest charms are its trees, gardens, statues, traffic-free promenades and Spanish Colonial-style buildings. Within easy reach of downtown by buses #7, #16 or #25, the park is large but fairly easy to get around on foot if you tire, there's a free tram. The $30 Balboa Park Passport , which allows one-time admission to all twelve of the park's museums and its Japanese garden (though not the zoo), is available from the visitors information center (daily 9am4pm; tel 619/239-0512), inside the beautifully reconstructed House of Hospitality. Most of the museums are closed on Mondays, and most are free on varying Tuesdays.
Minor works by Rembrandt and El Greco and a stirring collection of Russian icons make the stifling formality of the Timkin Museum of Art (TuesSat 10am4.30pm, Sun 1.304.30pm; closed Sept; free; gort.ucsd.edu /sj/timken) worth enduring. The San Diego Museum of Art (TuesSun 10am4.30pm; $8; www.sdmart.org ) has few individually striking items in its permanent collection, save for a small selection of 17th-century Dutch works by Hals and Rembrandt, but it's the main venue for touring shows and offers some exquisitely crafted pieces from China and Japan. Outside, don't miss the free Sculpture Court and Garden , with formidable works by Henry Moore and Alexander Calder. The Museum of Man (daily 10am4.30pm; $6; www.museumofman.org ), which straddles El Prado, veers from banal crafts demonstrations to excellent Native American displays, artifacts, folklore and physical remains.
The child-oriented Reuben H. Fleet Science Center (Mon & Tues 9.30am6.30pm, WedSun 9.30am9pm; science center $6.50, with theater or simulator $9, all three $11; www.rhfleet.org ), close to the Park Boulevard end of El Prado, is notable mainly for its Space Theater's huge IMAX screen and virtual reality simulator, which take you on stomach-churning trips into outer and inner space. Across the plaza, the Natural History Museum (daily 9.30am4.30pm; $6; www.sdnhm.org ) has a great collection of fossils and pulls no punches in its coverage of threatened species. Just behind, in the Spanish Village Art Center (daily 11am4pm; free), craftspeople in 37 studios and galleries practice skills such as painting, sculpture, pottery and glassworking.
The enormous San Diego Zoo (daily: mid Juneearly Sept 7am10pm; early Septmid June 9amdusk; last entry an hour before closing; www.sandiegozoo.org ), immediately north of the main museums, is one of the world's best. Its wide selection of animals, many of them rare, are restrained in "psychological cages," without bars. (Don't depend on the much-hyped but usually sleeping Chinese pandas for entertainment, however.) Basic admission , including the children's zoo, is $18.50 (kids 311 $9.50); a Deluxe Tour ticket ($28.50, kids $16.50) includes a bus tour and a round-trip ride on the Skyfari overhead tramway.
Anza-Borrego Desert
Most of eastern San Diego County, which otherwise consists largely of sleepy suburban communities, is taken up by the more than 600,000-acre Anza-Borrego Desert , much of it a state park (free; $5 per vehicle). Some of it can be covered by car, although four-wheel-drive vehicles are necessary for the more obscure and most interesting routes. The best time to come is winter, when daytime temperatures stay around the mid-eighties. In the fiercely hot summer, it's best left to the lizards, but when the desert blooms , between March and May, scarlet ocotillo, orange poppies, white lilies, purple verbena and other wild flowers paint a memorable, and fragrant, picture. To find out more information, and begin your trip at a good jumping-off point, stop by the park visitors center , near park headquarters at 200 Palm Canyon Drive (daily 8am5pm, weekends only during summer; tel 760/767-4205).
Historical reminders in the desert span Native American tribes, early white explorers and Gold Rush fortune-hunters. Approaching from the west, Hwy-78 descends to Scissors Crossing, the junction with Hwy-22, which follows the Butterfield Stage Route , the first regular line of communication between the East and the newly settled West, which began service in 1857. Further on, the old adobe rest stop of Vallecito (vy-ay-SEE-toe) Stage Station gives a good indication of the privations of early desert travel. To the south, around Imperial Valley in the least-visited portion of Anza-Borrego, there's a vivid and spectacular clash as gray rock rises from the edges of the red desert floor. Along Hwy-22, east of Borrego Springs, is a memorial to Peg Leg Smith, an infamous local spinner of yarns from the Gold Rush days who is celebrated by the Peg Leg Liars Contest on the first Saturday in April; anybody can get up before the judges and fib their hearts out.
The only substantial settlement in the desert is BORREGO SPRINGS , at the northern end of Hwy-S3 along Hwy-S22, which is a good base for the area's canyon walks, some with free but waterless campgrounds . Camping is also available at the Borrego Palm Canyon campground, near the Anza-Borrego park visitors center. From here, a 1.5-mile trail takes you to a small oasis with palms and a waterfall.
San Diego
Relatively free from smog and byzantine freeways, SAN DIEGO , set around a gracefully curving bay, represents the acceptable face of southern California. The second biggest city in California may be affluent and conservative, but it's also easygoing and far from smug. Although it was the site of the first mission in California, the city only really took off with the arrival of the Santa Fe Railroad in the 1880s, and in terms of trade and significance it has long been in the shadow of Los Angeles. However, during World War II the US Navy made San Diego its Pacific Command Center, and the military continues to dominate the local economy, along with tourism.