Balboa Park: America's Largest Urban Cultural Park

a narrated walking tour through san diego's balboa park i'm chris this is yellow productions i do travel guides that are fun in form of entertaining and in this video i'm gonna be walking you through one of san diego's most popular attractions taking you on a virtual tour telling you what there is to see around here and what i see as we're walking around let me turn around the camera so you can see what i see and we're starting this walk on el prado el prado is balboa park's central promenade central district we're starting by this fountain here this famous fountain that is right next to the reuben h fleet science center if you've got kiddos and they like science attractions they will like the fleet science center that was one of my favorite museums as a kid growing up there's also the natural history museum right here on the right if your kiddos like dinosaurs lizards that sort of things they'll love the natural history museum balboa park is also home to san diego's zoo we will not be walking by the zoo but it's about a five minute walk just to the right down this way so you can combine a visit to the zoo with a visit to these museums and there's a lot to do in balboa park there's so much to do we're simply not going to be able to cover it all in one video but this district el prado is known as the cultural district because museums bring culture now i'm doing this on a friday morning at about 10 45 so the park is fairly quiet today if you come here on a weekend a saturday or sunday you'll find a lot more people on this main promenade and also a lot more vendors today there were only two vendors when i walked by earlier a tattoo vendor and someone promoting christianity and later on we'll see someone playing the saxophone i can hear him uh but you probably can't yet now the architecture of these buildings is a spanish revival architecture really the architecture of these buildings is neat uh balboa park was originally built as part of the california panama exposition and there's been another exposition here as well in the early 1900s and then in the 1930s and it is one of the united states largest urban parks it's five square kilometers so it's quite big and in addition to the museums and the zoo there's also a golf course and a frisbee golf course and lots of things to do here one of my favorite museums here is the san diego model railroad museum it is in casa de balboa which is this building it's down on the lower level and they've got all sorts of model trains that are in there so if you're a big kid at heart then you will love those model trains down there check it out most of these museums have an admission fee to go into those certain days of the month they're free so if you don't want to pay to go in check out the days that they offer free admission but just know that those days are then going to be pretty expensive on the right we have casa del prado this is not really home to any museums but a lot of associations it's also home to the san diego floral association so actually i've seen a lot of like floral or flower exhibitions in these buildings popular place to take pictures are in these covered hallways if you like pictures with columns these are great places to take pictures popular for engagement pictures and wedding pictures and these little courtyards are pretty neat too because the courtyards have that planet classic spanish style as well and here we go this is the as you see the san diego floral association it's the senior citizen salon i assume that's not just doing their hair in the senior citizen salon uh i think maybe you can hear a little bit of the saxophone in the background i know this microphone does a good job of cancelling out a lot of noise but we can see someone here serenading the tourists with the saxophone it's a good audio from the saxophone because it kind of reflects off both the buildings in this building is in addition to the model railroad museum is the museum of photographic arts now the centerpiece of balboa park in my opinion the centerpiece because it is san diego's most photographed building in the botanical building this building right here when it was built in the early 1900s it was the largest wood building of this kind of lattice construction inside there's a bunch of garden plant exhibits that one is free to go into and it's in front of this neat reflecting pool here with koi fish in it so this right here this picture they're taking this is the classic picture to take i did not pay these people to be here to take pictures but you can see it's a popular spot to take pictures her yellow dress was perfect for this video today so ma'am whoever you are thank you for being there at this time now the main way to come in to balboa park is down this bridge and i'm going to zoom in so you can see it right through here through that arch next to the museum of man there's this bridge that goes over the 163 freeway it's a neat bridge to come across in this video we won't be crossing it because it other than a bridge it's kind of boring to walk and talk over a large bridge over a freeway but the views are really neat that way so when you're here check that out also it's a popular spot for people on the weekends to ride their bikes we see this gentleman here on this kind of neat reclining bicycle we'll just watch him as he goes by this way looks like he's having a good time good sunny friday morning now in this building is the prado restaurant if you're looking for something to eat in balboa park there are not many options this one the prado is a pretty high end option it's a popular place to host weddings the food is definitely of the more expensive variety if you're looking for some of the best and cleanest bathrooms in balboa park they're going to be right here by the el prado restaurant but you see sorry the prado restaurant the street or walkway that we walked on is el prado they open at 11 30 a.m i mean a few times the food's pretty decent but it's not going to be cheap if you're looking for something cheaper they've got a little coffee shop right here next to it that you can get pastries and coffee and things like that of course you can also find food from some of the vendors that set up out here looks like the churro vendor is just getting set up today okay now this area right here if there's like a main circle in balboa park it's this circle if you were driving in across that bridge you would come to this fountain and then you'd kind of be forced to turn right that el prada we were walking on is entirely pedestrianized which is pretty nice now behind the fountain is the san diego museum of art if you like art you'll want to check that out they often have a lot of special art exhibitions and events i should mention that although you know there's currently the pandemic going on most of these museums are currently open i say most because there are still some that have yet to reopen but i would say approximately 90 percent of the museums around here are open today and in addition to the indoor part of the museum of art they've also got this outdoor exhibition over here there's a lot of people wearing colorful shirts today red shirts green shirts yellow shirts i think there's some sort of uh maybe like scavenger hunt going on i see them all with a bunch of pieces of paper as they're walking around we've got another vendor setting up here let's see we've got big squeeze lemonade getting ready and it looks like a hot dog cart getting ready so more food out on that promenade but i would recommend if you're looking for something to eat to get some tacos get some mexican food find some fish tacos before you come to balboa park uh come here if you want less crowds come here before lunch definitely the most crowded time i would say is after lunch you know between noon and 4 o'clock is the busiest you can see here this is the museum of arts sculpture garden where they've got some modern art back there that is in the paid part of the museum of art this is another great one of those picture places and if you look at this and say wow san diego looks really charming i mean san diego is kind of a charming city but this is not like the rest of the architecture in san diego this is really just balboa park which is why it's one of san diego's biggest attractions if you're flying into san diego airport you actually fly in right over balboa park so if you're on the plane and you have a window seat if you're on the right side of the plane you will see balboa park as you come in now here is the old globe theater where they perform shakespeare because there's a replica of shakespeare's round feeder right here so these are typically in the evenings on weekdays sometimes they have some matinees on the weekends too they've also got a pub here so if you're looking for some potential food in the evenings when they have a show you can check out the old globe it is right next to what used to be the museum of man and it's now the museum of us it has this big tower on it the pre-coveted times you could climb the stairs and go up in that tower i'm sure that will be open again from up there you've got really neat views into the whole park all right we're gonna go ahead and go back to our regular lens oh that was the 3x zoom lens this is the 1x zoom lens and we're going to cross that main street that drives into the park now uh the challenge of if you come in this way which is from the bankers hill or hillcrest side down this street while this is the most scenic way to come in it's the hardest to find parking and the slowest and the most trafficky i like to come into the park off of the uh park avenue exit at the end of the 163 and then park over by the new comic-con museum that they're building behind the oregon pavilion if you're watching this you're like chris where is that don't worry we'll get over there in our walk now this is a kind of neat um middle eastern looking garden here this is behind the minge international museum which is kind of like a asian style museum focused on asian art they're currently doing a bunch of remodeling there but behind my bag got stuck on a bush behind the minge museum i call this like balboa park's secret parking lot there's this little tiny parking lot back here all the parking in balboa park is free which is pretty nice but if you're here on a weekday in the morning and you want the closest in parking check out this little parking lot if you drive in off that bridge you turn right at the fountain and then you make your first right after you go around the ming museum and i like to park here because i also like to walk along this neat wooden bridge in addition to the museums and the golf courses there's also a lot of hiking trails along balboa park this is the palm canyon trail right here and they've built this neat elevated wooden path which i think is pretty cool on a hot day this is a great place to get away from the heat because it's always pretty shady here and uh a neat staircase here i often see people taking wedding pictures and engagement pictures on this staircase because it makes kind of a neat backdrop on the top so it maybe you know if you're just looking for your instagram pictures you can take that too oh i just heard the organ we're coming up on the organ pavilion the spreckels organ pavilion is one of the largest organs in the world and they do regular organ performances the city of san diego actually has a full-time organist on staff to play this organ probably not a job that many cities have but when you have one of the world's largest outdoor organs then you need somebody around to play it and so actually it's not always open you can't always see it so it's a little bit of a special treat that we can see the organ today and that the doors are open on it unfortunately i don't think it's show time for the organ but if we walk up here you can see there we go those pipes they've got all these uh chairs set up for when there's a show um let's go and zoom in so you can see that a little bit more all right look at all those pipes that's a really big organ in addition to oregon shows those are other performances they do here a really popular event is december nights um where double it kind of like takes over balboa park for a couple days in december where there's special food and special performances those are probably the busiest couple days at balboa park or during december nights if you do come to december nights get here really really quite early now just next the oregon pavilion is the japanese friendship garden this garden i've actually got a whole video on this uh they've got cherry blossoms down in there you gotta pay admission to go into the japanese friendship garden but if you're here in march or april when the cherry blossoms bloom definitely check that out they also have a tea house if you want to get yourself some tea or some quick japanese food i will say i've never eaten food there because i've looked at it and i'm kind of a japanese food snob and you know it looks like food that's maybe not the most delicious japanese food but if you're hungry in a pinch that would probably work out there's another set of public restrooms here coming up but as i mentioned before i think the best ones to use are by the prado restaurant now i can hear a plane coming in you may be able to see it just up here coming by right there just through the trees so the planes that land in the san diego airport it's one of the most scenic airplane landings there is because on the right side you go by balboa park and then on the left side you go by downtown san diego essentially at the level of the high rises of downtown and a lot of people when they're landing at santiago airport wonder is are we supposed to be this low or are we supposed to be landing like this and for sure because san diego's airport is right next to san diego's downtown that little palm trail that we walked on earlier is in this canyon here on the right these houses on the left that we're gonna walk through here are the international houses these are typically open on the weekends and they're houses that represent different countries they're currently building a new house of the philippines but you'll find a house for uh czech slovakia slovakia germany russia where people who come from those countries will often make foods from their countries pastries and serve them as a cultural experience at these little houses it's combined into two areas on the left side of this road this one right here is the house of italy you can see that flag on it and i guess those are the bigger ones and then these are the smaller ones as we come down this way high rent district low rent district for the international houses you can see some high rises back this way these are the high rises of bankers hill which is not downtown downtown is in this direction and that tower at the museum of us is also a bell tower so it rings the bells every 30 minutes it just rang for 11 o'clock here's the china house we just passed the scotland house right here this is the house of the czech and slovak republics this is the england house this is the france house the old philippines house the israel house the germany house and my favorite the house of finland i have yet to go to finland i just i like the concept of finland and so that's why it's my favorite house at this point also because it was the last one that i was going to mention just like if you have a lot of kids you know they ask you daddy mommy who's your favorite kid and it was always the last one the youngest you know is often the favorite so that's the that's the youngest that's the last one and now i mentioned places to park my favorite places to park uh actually right here this parking lot that's where i parked today this is behind the oregon pavilion this is another great place to park right here on the left back here this is the future home of the san diego comic-con museum which is opening in a couple years and then if you're more into space stuff or flying then right back here you will find the san diego air and space museum well if you enjoyed this video and you want to see more videos about san diego you can click right here for my whole san diego playlist you'll also find more walking tours in the description of other great walking destinations including san diego's beaches like walking tours of mission beach and pacific beach and ocean beach so as usual i won't say goodbye because i'll see you in this video

Channel: Yellow Productions

Views: 19,366

Keywords: Yellow Productions, Balboa park, san diego

Id: QLDPSIY3_S8

Length: 19min 12sec (1152 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021