San Diego Vacation Planning Guide

a detailed guide to planning your next san diego vacation in this video i'm going to give you an orientation on san diego we'll talk about what's where we'll talk about what's near other things we'll talk about what to do where you might want to stay we'll talk about what not to do and where you might not want to stay let's talk about how long should you spend in san diego and of course we're going to talk about what to eat san diego is my hometown i am born and raised in san diego and people often ask me chris when are you going to do more san diego content so this is to answer those questions we're doing more san diego content today and this is going to kick off a series of san diego content that i'll be doing over the next few weeks that i'll talk about as we go through this video by the way if it's your first time here my name's chris this is yellow productions this is a live stream if you're on the live stream i look forward to hanging out with y'all look forward to hearing what you think what your favorite things about san diego are and if you're watching the archive well make sure you click the bell turn on notifications so you never miss a notification of one of these future live streams now one of the things i'm going to do some new things today we're going to look at google earth to fly in to san diego and so let's go ahead and do that now say okay where is san diego well san diego is the most southwesterly big city in the continental united states drilling into here right along the mexican border now when we talk about san diego there's kind of a few different things that make up san diego there's san diego county which generally when people think of san diego when they're traveling here they're talking about the whole county and if we look on google maps that's where this line is drawn here this makes up san diego county now within the county there's a bunch of cities there's a city called san diego which is the major one but there's other ones like oceanside escondido and then there's other places to the north like temecula that people sometimes consider san diego in the local commuting area but it's actually riverside to the north of san diego you've got orange county home to disneyland la up there and then you go out east and eventually hit arizona but you hit a bunch of desert that way all right now san diego the city itself is known as a city of villages and there's a lot of different neighborhoods within the city of san diego that we're going to go through as we do this video but first i want to start with downtown san diego that you see right here this is the heart of san diego often referred to as the gaslamp district which is a particular portion of downtown san diego and one of the great things about visiting san diego and by the way like if there was ever a drinking game to do with this video be how many times is chris going to say san diego in this video a lot i'm sure it will number at least a hundred after this hour maybe more but one of the great parts about visiting this city it's super close to the airport this is san diego's airport right here it's like a five minute drive to downtown from the airport so that's super nice now um this is a map that the san diego tourism agency puts out to kind of show you the different parts of san diego and central san diego is right there in the middle kind of to the left uh to the south of downtown is often known as south bay because it's around the san diego bay just to the south there's east county which is this large swath over there and then north county is kind of to the north uh that basically includes delmar in areas north of that so now looking at downtown san diego this is the famous downtown san diego skyline taken from coronado island we are going to talk more about coronado as we go ronda on the live stream says i love coronado and the haunted hotel they're excellent ronda and downtown san diego it has the most hotels in san diego as you can see it has a lot of buildings it's quite developed in particular most of the hotels are in downtown because it's where the conventions are the convention center is downtown when there are conventions there's a lot of business travelers that come to downtown san diego so if you're looking for the most choice hotels look downtown but don't look there for the cheapest hotels because the ones in downtown san diego are often the most expensive and definitely they'll be the ones that have the highest parking prices maybe 50 a night to park your car in hotels in downtown san diego valley only that sort of thing now the gaslamp district the heart of downtown it's along fifth avenue and let's go ahead and bring up google earth here again and zoom into downtown it's really easy to navigate around here because all the streets just kind of go uh north and south um and it's this grid grid here but uh the gas lamp district is roughly right here around 4th 5th 6th avenue going north and south through downtown this is horton plaza a big shopping center that's being redeveloped and you can see if you just kind of go down through the gaslamp district it hits the convention center this is also petco park which is where the padres play which is san diego's baseball team and all these high rises these are hotels and pretty nice hotels too the uss midway is also parked just to the left of downtown over here this kind of walking path along the harbor is a really nice place to walk it's known as the embarcadero the uss midway is this ship it is a retired aircraft carrier which is now a museum this is uh if you're into military stuff at all this is a great way to spend like a half day in san diego i would spend no less than two hours on the midway it is really big and if you really like navy stuff uh half day if you really really like navy stuff you could actually spend all day on the midway this big plot of land is a new development that's going on um so there's going to be more hotels and shopping over here and over over this way there's like a new spring hill suites and a residence inn i've heard a lot of people really uh enjoy their stay at those places and then just to the left of that there's the cruise ship terminal so if you're taking a cruise into san diego this is where you'd go the last thing to know about downtown is that uh the amtrak train stops here so if you're in los angeles say you're staying in downtown l.a you can take the amtrak train two hours to the south and get off right here in downtown so that might be one reason to stay downtown if you take the train you're not parking then you can just walk to your hotel explore downtown for a couple days then pick up a rental car to do the other things that you want to do all right now let's explore some areas around downtown and the first one that i want to take you to just across the five freeway is right here this big green area this is balboa park balboa park is one of the largest urban parks in the united states and uh this building right here the botanical building in balboa park is like the most photographed location in all of san diego admission to balboa park the park proper is free um but things in it there's a ton of museums that are there those generally all cost money to go into the san diego zoo is located in balboa park the world famous san diego zoo one of the best zoos in the u.s if you like animals i would encourage you to check that one out another great place to check out in balboa park is the japanese friendship garden particularly for the cherry blossoms if you are in san diego in april the comic-con the big convention in san diego every summer they are opening a museum at balboa park the san diego comic-con museum slated to open in a couple years by the way there's some tips in the chat about places to eat uh embarrass says if you're staying downtown eat at richard walker's pancake house there's always long lines at that place for breakfast i second that recommendation uh narrow road says i just ate at the brigantine an hour ago next to the cruise ship terminal best fish tacos in town fantastic near road next time eat at miguel's which is also owned by the brigantine it's in the same complex you get free chips and salsa and white sauce to go with your fish tacos which you don't get over at the brigantine i will talk more about that later vitale says a salt and straw just out of the gas lamp is the best ice cream ice cream chain from portland oregon and we'll talk about that in little italy in just a second and points traveler wants to know what's the best marriott brand property in san diego i think that the most classic one is just the it's like the marriott marina perhaps is what it's called here let me switch over to google earth again make a comment go away and so this is the san diego convention center right here uh this hotel right next to it is like the grandest marriott in san diego so i'd recommend that one to you right next to it is the hyatt manchester grand which is also a really nice hyatt property if you're staying downtown i like these two as some of my favorite hotels to stay in downtown san diego because they're kind of out of the noise and the hustle and bustle of downtown and you get great views from these hotels of the harbor as well all right so going back to things that are near downtown um the next place we're gonna chat about is little italy little italy is a neighborhood just near downtown that when i call said san diego was a city of villages this is one of san diego's urban villages and little italy as you could expect is home to some of the best italian food in san diego and they have a really awesome farmers market on i should remember the day saturdays in little italy sundays in hillcrest that we'll talk about uh on saturdays morning till about two they have this really great farmers market that takes over the street they become pedestrian only so i would definitely encourage you to check that out the heart of the heart of little italy is called india street that's kind of a weird name right india street but downtown san diego's right here and if we just kind of like follow along the five freeway you can see it it said little italy right there zoomed in uh and i guess we we lose the detail on the satellite map right here but there's like a great food court in here and this whole india street is full of great italian restaurants it's also super close to the airport if you're looking for a bed and breakfast there's a couple of uh reasonably priced ones there okay now we're gonna go over to hillcrest which is now up the hill on the other side of balboa park right up about here we see hill crest the major street through hillcrest is university avenue hillcrest is the lgbtq capital of san diego and many of san diego's um neighborhoods have these like signs that hang across them so you know you're there and you know you're someplace when you see the big sign where you see the hillcrest sign that's the center of it hillcrest is the home to san diego's annual pride parade not this last year but i'm sure that will come back again lots of great restaurants lots of great coffee shops in hillcrest now looking into the chat vegas visual comments about that grand uh manchester hyatt that i talked about downtown that it's the largest waterfront hotel on the west coast it is huge there's tons of rooms in there if you want to see more about it i do have a video review on that hotel to search manchester hyatt san diego yellow productions and you'll see more on that one eric points out that in little italy the name of the food hall or the food court is called the little italy food hall that is indeed it and just right across the street from that is salt and straw oh there was a question about what am i drinking today it's a great question let's talk about that today i'm drinking milk tea but what's special about this milk tea well yesterday oc girl and i were at the irvine spectrum shopping mall big shopping mall in irvine really neat one uh and we went to 85 degrees c which is a taiwanese bakery it's a bakery original from taiwan that's opened a lot of locations here in southern california and due to the pandemic in addition to just selling tea in um like cups to go they also sell tea in bottles so this was the bottled milk tea from 85 degrees c i just thought that was so neat that this tea came in a bottle like this that i bought it so that i could drink it and share it with all of you right here it's a pretty good and smooth milk tea um all right and yes if you're enjoying this video make sure to smash the like button really helps me helps the algorithm lets people know that you're enjoying this video and that youtube should share it with others i see there's 124 folks that are on uh and likes we currently have 50 so please everybody get me up to a few more likes i appreciate it uh and then vegas visual points out that hillcrest probably has the biggest gay pride parade on the west coast besides sf it is huge it's massive it like takes over the city when it's here uh and eric says getting married in hillcrest this october very cool eric um and then vegas visual talks about mira mesa a bedroom community of san diego many filipinos live there bubble parks downtown next hillcrest and uptown i think that was answering where mira mesa is yeah san diego is a huge huge county right three million people live in san diego it's a lot of space and so there's lots of places as a tourist that you would never visit and so in this video i'm particularly going over the things you would visit as a tourist all right the next neighborhood i want to share with you still continuing with things that are around downtown is old town san diego so we're gonna go from hillcrest and we're gonna move over here to the left we are passing through what's known as mission hills this over here is mission valley which we'll come to in a bit this is the interstate 8 freeway that we're running along as the spine and then right here where the interstate 5 and the interstate 8 kind of make a little pointy thing this is old town san diego old town san diego is the birthplace of san diego and there's a state park there uh this state historic park has a lot of um old mexican cultural attractions san diego's oldest buildings some of the original adobes and also really um touristy mexican food is in old town i wouldn't say that it's the best mexican food in old town you'll find better mexican food that we'll talk about more towards the end of this video when we talk about food but you will find a ton of mexican restaurants and old towns sit down restaurants easily get a table because they're busy just follow the crowds um and moyes just wants to know if i'll be covering liberty station i will that's a great food hall uh and jacob says the highway looks confusing there's a lot of freeways that are in in san diego highways uh so for sure that's that is one of san diego's major interchanges the interstate 5 and the interstate 8. yeah and eric points out that in old town there's a couple places that make handmade tortillas so i would recommend an old town if you're going to eat one of two spots either one the old time mexican cafe or two the coyote cafe that's right next to it or three miguel's that i mentioned earlier that we'll talk about later but basically walk the main street through old town is called san diego avenue and just look for a restaurant where you see people doing this and making tortillas if you don't want to eat there at cafe coyote they make them right on the sidewalk and you can pay a dollar and you can get a fresh made tortilla with some butter they're really good if you don't have any appetite left and you just want to taste a fresh made tortilla fresh made tortillas make all the difference in mexican food and ronda points out the best time to go to old town san diego is cinco de mayo it's a big party on the 5th of may in old town and alex asks if mexican food is the best food in the world it's pretty good you know when people ask me chris what are your favorite foods i usually respond and say hamburger pizza mexican and i just put like mexican as a whole category that pretty much there's rarely things that good mexican restaurants that i don't like i like mexican as it's just like an entire cultural category of food all right let's go on to the next neighborhood now we're gonna go on to point loma and we're gonna go on to the cabrillo national monument so now we're gonna take a look at things that are on the other side of the airport so let's go ahead and dive into the map so you can see where we're going all right so here we were in old town we're going to zoom out and we're going to see the airport right down here to the south downtown san diego was underneath my head and then this land mass that comes out this way this is known as point loma it's a point and all the way here at the tippy end of point loma is the cabrillo national monument it is uh one of the smallest national parks in the u.s uh just right here on the tip of this point there's a lighthouse here on the top there's some neat tide pools and then what we're gonna look at is this picture of um cabrillo who was one of the initial explorers that found san diego by landing his spanish ship kind of somewhere around here off the coast of point loma which is why there's that statue of uh cabrillo there and uh it's like 15 uh parking fee to come into the park it'll be for all the people that are in your car um there's kind of a neat hiking trail to walk along the point the view here is amazing it's a great place to just get yourself oriented and see san diego we're looking out on coronado the silver strand and then those big hills in the background that's mexico we'll get to what's kind of over there in a little bit as well all right now the next spot you're like chris isn't this a family friendly channel this is a family friendly channel but i want to tell you about the midway district the midway district in san diego which is if we go down the point back here kind of like on the way from point loma between here in the airport is this district which is known as the midway district the midway district is right next to the marine corps recruit depot in san diego where all the marines that joined the marines come for their boot camp and because of that uh this neighborhood is famous for the these types of establishments uh you'll find a lot of um target like big box stores things like that uh it's probably not the world's best neighborhood so as a tourist you could probably skip the midway district although the thing you will want to check out is right here this uh area that we look at it's the former naval training center so previously back in the 80s all the marines on the west coast would come to the marine corps recruit depot and all the sailors who joined the navy would come here to the naval training center this base was closed as part of a brac and it's been turned into some commercial developments there is a food hall in one of these buildings kind of over this way that is known as the liberty station food hall um probably san diego's best food hall right there also stone brewing i can only zoom in so much stone brewing if you like beer and micro brews san diego has a big brew scene uh they have this whole outdoor beer garden which is really good if you're a beer drinker now i see in the chat uh that for the parking at the cabrillo national monument henry has a suggestion that it's actually 20 now but you can buy an 80 national park pass thank you for the tip on that henry um and i see melissa says she's recovering from covid and happy to be a part of this stream well thank you melissa for joining in and i hope you get well soon okay so now let's go ahead and take a look at the other side of point loma so we were looking here at uh liberty station and so now if we come over here to the ocean side of point loma you'll notice there's this large pier and there's this kind of mile of sandy beach this neighborhood is known as ocean beach ocean beach is kind of a bit of a hippie enclave in san diego um it's where maybe the some of the older people that live near the beach live people who are stuck in the 60s stuck in the 70s stuck actually there's plenty of like teens and 20s people that live there that i feel like are stuck in those times as well uh it is home to the west coast's longest pier the ocean beach pier no the pier is currently closed due to damage from high surf hopefully that might be open by the time you visit um if you want to see more about ocean beach stay tuned in the next couple weeks i'll be publishing a walking tour about all of ocean beach now if we go a little bit further to the south on the ocean side of point loma it turns into like a really expensive residential neighborhood over here and if you look at these rock formations this is actually known as sunset cliffs and the cliffs look like this they are really pretty neat it's really popular out here surfing if there's big surf and if you come during sunsets no sunset cliffs this is one of the best places in san diego to view the sunset in the chat um eric points out in ocean beach the ob noodle house is a great place for vietnamese pho noodle soup i've never eaten at the old beet noodle house i know i always see lots of people there and they've opened a second location so i can second that just from other people suggesting that is the san diego zoo open the san diego zoo is open it's been open for a long time zoos have been allowed to be open so no problem there um and there was a question here adventures with troy asks if legoland is near downtown 25 30 miles from downtown we will get to lego land as a part of the stream as we venture north um and alex is going to hawaii aloha alex enjoy and uh meredith credit mafia ass of san diego beaches have a homeless problem is it bad as la the san diego beaches that have a homeless problem are ocean beach has the most significant homeless problem maybe followed by pacific beach second which will also get to um mission beach a little bit but not a lot la jolla not much of a problem coronado really no problem with the homeless there and then north county does not really have a homeless problem so if you if you want to avoid the homeless that are camping at the beach then ocean beach might be a place at least the beachfront that you might want to skate and i mean it's not definitely not as bad as um it's definitely not as bad as like venice beach or places like that but a story on ocean beach is i was going surfing in ocean beach and i walked into the bathroom in ocean beach which is in the main lifeguard tower and i'm in a wetsuit because it's cold in the water and i hear two guys in the bathroom as i walk in they they go oh sh you know they use a bad word and they uh they like try to extinguish whatever they're doing because this was five years ago or something like that before we had some laws passed that legalized marijuana because they were smoking a joint and then they looked at me and they saw i was a surfer and they said oh no man it's cool it's a surfer and then they're like hey do you want to hit and i'm like i i'm not sure that i want to hit off the homeless guys joint in ocean beach i really don't uh whispering bee because of that recommends go to coronado beach people coronado is a nice beach uh it's just not the best uh for surfing right if you want to surf then ocean beach or pb or things like that are much better policy says san diego or huntington beach as a question like huntington beach is such a smaller place and san diego is so much bigger so san diego because it's so big and compared to huntington beach is like a tiny place and ronda says i love going to san diego to watch the bioluminescence when it's there right so certain times of year when there's this um like plankton in the water the waves actually bioluminesce and turn blue it's really neat um it's in san diego and you'll also see it in orange county though more of it in san diego okay [Music] all right so now we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna leave point loma and we're gonna go across the bay and we're going to check out coronado that we've been talking about a lot i want to zoom out to do this and give you this big zoom of san diego again and we're going to go ahead and zoom into this island right here which is known as coronado island but you'll notice though the coronado island is technically not an island because it's connected by land there's a thing called the silver strand which we'll talk about and there's this residential part of coronado right here which is where you'd go if you're visiting there's another part of it here which is naval air station north island um so this is where the real aircraft carriers park and this is where they take off the navy aircraft you're likely not going there unless uh you're in the navy marines retired if that's the case then there's a really great golf course and there's also a beach that's only open uh to military folk because there's a fence and a guard right here that would prevent the rest of us mortals from going in one thing that's really neat on their beach and this is kind of upside down but they've got these sand dunes uh formed out that actually say uh like coronado and and beach but beach has kind of gone over the years they piled up the sand and they grew like pickle weed on it so that you can see that from the air or a plane okay this island there's two ways to get here one is via the coronado bay bridge anywhere in san diego looking out in the bay you can pretty much see this is this gigantic blue bridge um and the other way to get here is via a ferry you can take a ferry from downtown san diego to the ferry terminal right here the coronado ferry landing the main street through coronado is this one that's kind of grassy it's called orange avenue that's where the collection of most of the shops are a around the ferry landing and b around this and then really the heart of coronado where most people go is this beach and the hotel del coronado which we will get right here the hotel del coronado is the largest wooden hotel on the west coast of the us many people say it's haunted is it haunted i'm not sure uh it if you've been to disney world and you've seen the grand floridian hotel the grand floridian hotel is modeled after the hotel dell california there's a historic building which is the wooden one that has the red roofs there's some more modern buildings but i feel like if you're going to the hotel del you'd want to stay in the classic wooden one right i mean that's where i would want to uh stay um and narrow roads suggest the best alternative to the hotel dell is the glorietta bay inns mansion rooms right across the street from the dell thank you for that recommendation narrow road uh and brandon points out and says i love going to the ocean but the pacific is too cold for me the ocean in san diego is pretty cold in the winter it's maybe like 55 degrees fahrenheit in the summer june july august it can get up to the 70s the warmest time for the water is generally september where it might trend up to 75 if you are lucky um sports guy paul says he's staying at the manchester hyatt downtown san diego it's a nice hotel i think you'll enjoy it mike wants to know how is the old town holiday and definitely cheaper than the hotel del and cheaper than the grand it's probably okay you probably get what you pay for in that case old town san diego is actually a great place to stay if you're looking for some more budget accommodations and don't want to pay the rates in downtown san diego jacob wants to know how walkable is san diego quite walkable most of these touristy neighborhoods have really um walkable areas coronado is really walkable downtown san diego's walkable hillcrest is walkable the beaches are walkable you're not gonna walk between them you're gonna need to take like a car or something to get between the neighborhoods but then you'll get there there's a lot of places that you'll just leave your car and walk around now going to coronado i mentioned uh you could take the ferry there and back if you don't have a car you could also uber in and take the ferry back i think that's kind of a kind of a fun way to do it all right now the silver strand is another beach that's down this way if you find coronado beach is too busy for you here in a busy holiday weekend this whole beach is a beach you can go to too and if we look at how that beach looks it looks just like this so sandy white flat beaches very small waves great for the kiddos not many people along the silver strand heading just south of the silver strand we get to imperial beach uh imperial beach also has kind of a new marriott that's there in imperial beach right in front of the pier this i would describe it as kind of a developing beach community so things are cheaper less expensive here unfortunately the water in imperial beach is often closed due to sewage that comes in from the tijuana river from mexico and then just to the south of imperial beach is the border field state national park i mentioned the san diego is the most southwesterly city in the continental united states and there's a state park on the most southwesterly part of san diego that is where the border fence is and so you can go on the beach you can see the border fence you can see the border monument that marks the place and says this is the most southwesterly point in the u.s if we look at that on a map from the silver strand we go south this was like imperial beach where we saw that pier and all this is the state park and then this is that border fence that comes into the water uh and so actually i think the state park is actually pretty interesting to go to because the beach here is literally deserted it'll be you and and and the border patrol and about nobody else on the beach here and then you see on the other side where it's tijuana it gets like super busy again oh and you can view the neat um bullfighting ring from the the u.s side uh ronda points out about walking that san diego is so huge it can take over an hour to get from one side to the other that's true it is a really big city so yeah you wouldn't be walking from one side to the other of san diego and moises points out that in coronado the parking is lousy it is lousy because there's no big parking lots in coronado so plan to park in the residential neighborhoods and and walk to the beach uh izzy says hey man i'm planning a weekend with my girlfriend in july your vids are really helpful izzy i hope you enjoy san diego thank you uh mikey nuts that's what's a good budget hotel with a big pool for kids i would tell you some of the best budget hotels are probably in the mission valley area um which we're gonna get to in a little bit but mission valley doesn't really have any big touristy things so there wouldn't be like a big tourist attraction next year hotel you'll probably find less expensive hotels there they've got more land and so you'd probably find uh pools there also and kevin asked if they still have the public scooters in san diego they do you rent them like buy them the minute things like that um the oh what are they called like i don't know uber lift operate them the bolt maybe there's a whole bunch of these things i don't ride them because i think they look like death traps but they are still here ron that says i like to go to the outlets at the border two maybe rhonda is looking at my outline for this like she's like peering over my shoulder to see it uh and so the next thing if you're at that border field state national park would be to check out the outlets at the border there's a gigantic outlet mall that is right there next to the border crossing into mexico what you see just to the top of this where you see like the lights and things like that those are the lights that shine on the border that tells you how close this outlet mall is to the border you could absolutely just walk right across the border into mexico from here but it's a great it's a good outlet mall if you are down south there's another great outlet mall up in carlsbad near legoland which is to the north and if you're out east the kind of third big outlet mall in san diego is uh at the viejas casino there's another outlet mall there so those are the three big outlet malls in san diego if you're going up north in orange county there's another good outlet mall in san clemente that one is actually my favorite of all the outlet malls in the area because it has a really neat ocean view brandon says i would like to make a day trip to tijuana while i am in san diego so let's go ahead and talk about that you can totally make a day trip into tijuana if you are doing that i would suggest that you don't drive into tijuana because the traffic from like particularly coming back from tijuana into the u.s can be like three hours to sit there to wait to drive back into the u.s so i would encourage you to go near that outlet mall find a parking lot to park your car and then walk across the border and then walk across back the weights walking are much less than they are driving if you're planning to go to tijuana that being said for me if i go into mexico i much prefer ensenada over tijuana you gotta drive it's about uh another hour south into mexico but it's less of a tourist trap and i feel a bit more of a real mexico in ensenada rather than tijuana rhonda says yeah when you're there at the outlet mall you see everyone walk across the border with their luggage right they'll bring their big suitcases to the outlet mall to fill up with stuff and then make it easy to walk back um chicken marsala wants to know what's the best college in san diego it depends who you ask i went to san diego state university rated the best party school in the u.s the other big school in san diego is ucsd the university of california at san diego not rated a party school but one of the top computer science schools in the country and one of the best uc schools ucla typically ranked number one ucsd typically ranked there pretty high as well and that's what vegas visual says ucsd on some list is on par with ucla i will point out i think the weather is better at san diego state than is ucsd ucsd is always under fog if you're picking your college based on weather uh and guthrie agrees with what i said about tijuana thank you uh guthrie um okay and yes there's some people that said uh tijuana is dangerous so yes uh be careful if you go to tijuana uh all right let's let's make our way back north again okay now we're going to hit up mission beach so let me show you on the map where we're going okay so we we are we are leaving mexico here and we're going to go north by the way i just i want to zoom out probably to maybe show you where ensenada is because i was talking about that ensenada is down here so if you're if you really want to experience like real mexico visit ensenada down here in the south there's a toll highway that goes along the coast that you can visit uh and check the historic center of ensenada out there's in ensenada by the way there's a um ceviche stand uh that uh both anthony bourdain and mark wiens have eaten at and done videos on um so that's a great place my favorite ceviche i've had anywhere is down in ensenada at that stand okay so we're gonna zoom back into san diego now here's point loma who's coronado here's the airport we're gonna hop along north of the interstate eight uh and we're gonna take a look here at the ocean first and we'll work our way east and we're going to start with this beach right here which is known as mission beach about this two mile sandy portion right here on this narrow strip of land mission beach is probably san diego's busiest beach and the most popular thing about mission beach is the oceanfront boardwalk it's this really large sidewalk that you can walk on you can ride your bike on you can rollerblade on it runs from mission beach into pacific beach in front of mission beach there is also a old wooden roller coaster in belmont park it's the seaside amusement park admission is free so you can walk around check it out and if you like roller coasters that's one to check out too i will be publishing a walking tour on mission beach i'll be publishing that video this friday so if you're not already subscribed subscribe check that out and if you want to see more about mission beach then see that this friday we'll spend 20 minutes on a deep dive walking around checking out the boardwalk checking around the amusement park checking out the roller coaster taking a look at some of the places also to eat down there all right now if we uh take a look here to the right this area is known as mission bay san diego has two bays there was this big bay down here this is san diego bay san diego bay is where the big ships go in it's where the cruise ships go this is where the navy ships go this is where the cargo ships go mission bay is a pleasure bay so this is where like little stinky sailboats and stuff and kayaks go uh mission bay is this whole thing is like entirely man-made um but mission bay has a ton of beaches that ring a ton of walkways you can ride your bike all the way around mission bay it's one of my favorite rides in san diego it's about 13 miles to ride your bike around mission bay and if we want to take a look at what that looks like uh this is one of the beaches along mission bay this is the beach in front of the catamaran hotel if you're looking for a hotel near mission beach near the beach things like that that's kind of quiet i would recommend the catamaran the bahia is also a good hotel down there too there's also a hyatt regency little back from mission beach not as close to walk but it's a it's a good hyatt by the beach and you can see the the bay front beaches are a great place to get away from the crowds compared to the ocean front beaches um guthrie asks if i've covered coronado i have so you'll have to check that out in the archive melissa says i love a good boardwalk and guthrie says i think pacific beach is the best beach all right we will uh we'll be hitting up pacific beach in just a second uh let's go ahead and hit sea world next along mission bay is sea world san diego san diego's oldest theme park belmont park's older but when people think about theme parks they don't really think about belmont park they think about sea world and if you like um water mammals then you like seaworld dolphins uh orcas i really like the penguin counter at sea world it's gotten more expensive over the years and they've added more rides oc girl and i will be going to sea world in a couple weeks so you can stay tuned for a video on sea world if you want to see what it's looked like and how it's evolved uh over the years okay now heading to the north from mission beach we get to pacific beach uh pacific beach has another pier it has this pier this is the crystal pier what's really special about crystal pier is you can rent these over water cabins or bungalows and you can sleep right over the crashing waves that is pretty neat but pacific beach is really known as san diego's party beach if you're in your 20s and 30s and you like to live it up you like to go to the bar then pacific beach is the place for you boos and tattoos is absolutely the name of the game in pacific beach and the main street with all the bars in pb is um garnett avenue uh jessica asks if it's true that california doesn't have uber lip that is not true we have uber and lyft aplenty um juju game says hey chris my dad watches your vids every day and my favorite place to go in san diego san diego comic con senior comic con is pretty cool thank your dad for me for watching my videos every day and rhonda says shamu rocks i agree shamu rocks i grew up going to um sea world i had an annual pass to sea world for years and years and years so sea world has a special place in my heart uh narrow road says i'm staying at the pacific terrace hotel in pb as we speak it is one of the only decent hotels that has a real ocean front not raid rooms with balcony awesome views thank you nero i've always rode my bike by it i've never stayed there that one does look nice i also think what tower tower 24 maybe right another hotel just down on the oceanfront one um that one looks pretty nice in pacific beach as well and rhonda sfc world is opening and yes sea world is reopened again and rides are open at sea world as well steve says hey i'm san diego native and the very best beaches are la jolla shores and coronado coronado was awarded as the best beach on the mainland america a few years back coronado always seems to get in those top spots or best beaches due to the wideness of it the powdery sand and we'll be hitting up la jolla in just a moment okay so after sea world um we're gonna go to la jolla so let me show you where that is on the map all right so from mission bay right here we're gonna zoom out and this is pacific beach this is the residential area of pacific beach this is the interstate 5 freeway so like in san diego if you ask somebody where they live if they live near the beach then they have to live west of the 5 freeway the the 5 freeway is like the marker between the beach or not the beach so the communities west of the five or beach cities the communities east of the five are or not um which also contributes a little bit to the high rent district and the high but not quite as high rent district all right so there's this big land mass you probably can't i mean you can probably tell a little bit that comes up this is known as mount soledad it's a big kind of defining feature between pacific beach and la jolla um la jolla has a really upscale shopping neighborhood here known as prospect avenue there's uh this thing that's formerly called the children's pool um but many people call it seal rock because there's tons of seals uh ocean wild seals that have taken up residence here pretty neat if you want to see some seals and you're not going to sea world but then if we hang over this way to the north this beach right here is known as la jolla shores also one of the best beaches in san diego it has a pier the pier is known as scripps pier it is property of the university of california san diego so you cannot walk on it it's a research pier but la jolla shore it has great mellow ways flat and sandy i will say though if you're going to high tide there's not much beach so make sure you're going someplace when the tide is not too high a lot of people who are learning how to surf like to learn how to surf at la jolla shores though due to the um due to the waves not being big and the water being calm la jolla shores has some of the most amount of sting rays so make sure you're doing the stingray shuffle when you're in the water there okay let's uh go ahead now from la jolla we're going to continue north just a second but i want to talk about what's like to the east in san diego so this central freeway here in the center this is known as the interstate 8 freeway right along this spine is mission valley it's a big valley in the middle you will find some of the best most reasonably priced hotels in mission valley you'll find shopping centers there fashion valley shopping mall is one of san diego's most upscale shopping malls it is in mission valley the other big upscale shopping mall just east of la jolla known as westfield university town center that one's pretty good too but looking out east this way if we go further east along interstate 8 then we go this way so once you pass this place called el cajon which is really hot by the way something to know about san diego is that in the summer the temperature difference between the beach and el cajon can be maybe 30 degrees fahrenheit like it can be that might be an exaggeration but at least 20 degrees it can be 70 degrees here at the beach and it can be 90 degrees fahrenheit it can be 100 degrees fahrenheit and 70. that's actually not an exaggeration if we get a good cool marine layer day 70 of the beach 100 degrees in el cajon so think about that as you're planning where to stay and your activities in the summer now when we get out east of el cajon you end up in what's known as the mountain area in san diego so you notice a lot of the development drops off and then this area there's a lot of uh native american casinos my favorite is uh the viejas casino i like it because also has the big outlaw mall in it but there's verona sequan there's a ton of them that are out this way and then if you head kind of up north from the interstate 8 then you will end up in the mountain town of julian if you're looking for the snow close to san diego you'll find in julian and julian is famous for its apple pie that's the thing to go to for apple pie if you've got kids you can do like gold painting and all that sort of stuff in uh julian uh okay and uh yeah so vegas visual says east county which is the name of this part of san diego says it gets 100 every summer hotter than vegas it's pretty hot for sure uh rhonda says i love vegas more i yeah the native american casinos are not better than vegas i love vegas better than native american casinos um and uh then vegas visual points out about that children's pool in la jolla no longer being for children there's a whole debate in san diego about whether we should evict the seals and return it to the children and um i won't i won't get into that but danielle points out that in san diego you should bring a jacket if you're coming i totally agree one thing something that like people who are from more human climates don't appreciate it's just how cold it gets here at night uh it can be a hundred degrees a day time fahrenheit and the sun drops and at 8 pm it can be 60 degrees and windy and chilly so i definitely recommend any time of year that you come to san diego that you bring a jacket and that you bring pants because you're probably going to need it at night when as a as a kiddo when i would go to disneyland with my parents my dad would always bring a pair of pants in his backpack to change into at nighttime from his shorts because it would get so cold at night so there's your there's your pro tip my dad was also born and raised in san diego so i'm a second generation native san diegan there is not enough snow in julian to ski just enough to just enough to play around jenny fied says uh julian dutch apple crumb top pie the best get it hot get it with ice cream that's the best way to get it uh and rhonda says their apple pies are so nice and so is their bed and breakfast uh cool and guthrie wants to know if i'm covering city heights it's not much of a tourist destination at all but i live there and i love it i will not be covering city heights guthrie but since you brought it up i'll just point out where it is as we continue back west so um looking at this map we we're out here on the eight freeway uh if we kind of cruise our way back into san diego and these these neighborhoods like lemon grove spring valley la mesa these are all other cities in san diego and i talked to you about hillcrest which uh was over this way city heights is then kind of over yonder it's these hills above mission valley uh city heights uh really great mexican food really great vietnamese food north park is kind of a neat area up here as well it's like a developing uh area um and if you like to play frisbee golf then in balboa park there's really great frisbee golf courses too just some things i want to mention by the way bubble park's up here i'm pointing to another green cemetery over here so i'm i'm like completely in the wrong spot you're like chris can't you tell which freeway you're looking at there's two major east-west freeways there's the interstate 8 and then there's the interstate 94. as a tourist you'd probably never drive on the 94 but right above mission valley over here is city heights all right so we're going to go back to the coast and we're going to work our way north remember we left off at la jolla over here and as we go northwards we end up with this green area right here this is torrey pines uh torrey pines is a hiking golf course uh nude beach um so let's go ahead and take a look at that uh this is that green looking more from a closer aerial picture torry pine's famous golf course there's like big world golf tournaments there all the time the beach is like way down these cliffs these are really tall cliffs there's a portion of that that is a nude beach and there's people that hang glide around here so if you'd like to explore kind of remote beaches that's a pretty neat one to explore and there's also really neat hiking in torrey pines uh okay so then if we just head to the north of torrey pines we'll end up in the city of del mar so we're leaving like the city of san diego now and we're now in north county officially and so del mar is home to the del mar race track where they do horse racing it's also san diego's fairgrounds so every june and july is the san diego county fair it's really neat uh if you've been to disney's california adventure disney's california adventure is themed based upon california's fares there's this whole fair culture the fair like goes from san diego to orange county to los angeles it kind of like moves up the coast with ferris wheels roller coasters all sort of stuff and this is what the one in delmar looks like um if we go north a little bit from del mar then we end up in solana beach uh it's a pretty small city um but solana beach one of the things uh i think it's kind of cool there if you want to experience uh some zen uh there's this place called the self realization fellowship temple they've got some neat gardens you can walk around explore see some koi fish things like that heading to the north of solana beach we'll end up in encinitas another coastal community what's really cool in encinitas is the san diego botanical garden is there they have a neat bamboo grove so there's our traveling princess uh in the bamboo grove she really enjoyed her visit there that's a great place if you've got kiddos now also if we look back this way uh and so we go north we see del mar we see solana beach and then we see encinitas uh this is the five freeway but what i'd really encourage you to do if you have a rental car is drive along this road in san diego it's known as pacific highway the old highway 101 if you're in la it's known as pacific coast highway sometimes it's known as highway one but this coastal route just like take this uh basically from mission beach you head in take the eight freeway all the way to mission beach and then you can take this coastal road all the way up to oceanside it's a great way to spend a whole day plan the whole day visit all these beach communities along the way you won't be stopping in any of them very long uh but um traveling uh man ben from melbourne australia when he was here and i took him on a day trip from san diego that was the that was the route that we took also in encinitas there's a new hyatt hotel just on the north of it right uh here in what looks like this vacant lot it's the uh a lila hotel it's like a it's like a malaysian affiliate to hyatt but that looks like a really neat uh oceanfront hotel if i was if i was looking to stay in encinitas i would look to stay in that hotel that's now on this this plot of land okay going north from end to need us we get to carlsbad and there are definitely some questions about lego land lego land is in the city of carlsbad um it is on this map it's kind of over here on this side uh but let's go ahead and take a look at a picture this is the legoland hotel look at that it's a hotel made of legos that's a pretty pretty neat place in legoland the thumbnail picture of this video uh was us at the flower fields no i didn't use that one but a question uh i asked you guys for some input requested where there were all these flowers that was maybe like two weeks ago or something in preparation for the the vegas video i had all these flowers that was taken at the flower fields that are in carlsbad neat outlet mall and carlsbad there's also a really cool food hall in carlsbad in a windmill and probably my favorite hotel in san diego is the park hyatt aviara which is in carlsbad it's a really neat resort hotel that has golf courses swimming pools tennis courts uh if you're going to be staying and you just really want to relax i think that's a great place to go and actually for a park hyatt it has some of the cheapest rates of most park hyatts around and then if we go up north to the last uh beach community in san diego north of carlsbad we get to this beach community known as oceanside by the way just to the north of oceanside is then marine corps camp pendleton it's like this 15 mile marine corps base that acts as really a buffer between uh san diego and la orange county to the north oceanside is also home to a big pier which looks kind of like that i took this on a bit of a cloudy marine layer day out there uh and so that's a pretty neat pier to walk down some people say that oceanside also being by the marine corps base gets a little bit rowdy um so it is a little bit more exciting of an atmosphere in oceanside than encinitas or carlsbad or some of those places that are a little bit more relaxed uh greg wants to know what's the name of the windmill place well first of all greg i'd encourage you to check out my carlsbad travel guide i've got a whole video on carlsbad search yellow productions carlsbad it's called the windmill food hall that's the name of the place literally that's the name of the place um and uh points traveler really likes the four seasons carlsbad i think that's a nice one too and rhonda asks what are those uh big boob looking things off the freeway from camp pendleton yeah let's go take a look at those the um it's funny that you ask what are the big boob looking things uh and so if we if we zoom up here and we zoom in this way uh these are the boobs of california it is the san onofre nuclear power plant currently decommissioned not providing any power but that's what those are all right i wanted to talk to you guys about food uh so let's go ahead some of these rapid fire things my favorite mexican restaurant in san diego is called las cuatro melpas it is under the coronado bridge on the san diego side of it in a neighborhood called barrio logan right next to um chicano park if you go to los quatre melbourne's you have to go there early they're open from like 9 a.m to 2 p.m get there early they hand make their tortillas they fry the taco shells as you order them it is a legit place you'll see a long line out the door don't go on sundays because they're closed i also really like the tortas and a lot of places in san diego tour it's a mexican sandwich get the california burrito while you're here which is a burrito that has french fries and carne asada and pico de gallo in it it's a san diego specialty also try the fish tacos there's a great local chain called oscars that started in pacific beach now they have like five around san diego you can also find the oscars in downtown san diego for some of the best mexican food in downtown miguel's this is our favorite sit-down mexican restaurant i think their best location is in downtown right next to the um cruise ship terminal uh almost all of their seats have ocean views you get free chips salsa and the white sauce the jalapeno white sauce is to die for at miguel's there's a neat chain to san diego and orange county called the kebab shop christina mexican food why are you talking about this they have taken mexican tortillas and they basically wrap a gyro in a mexican tortilla they're really good they have this really great garlic sauce check out the kebab shop in little italy my favorite italian restaurant is called mona lisa if you like lasagna go to mona lisa get the lasagna it is delicious they also have an italian supermarket if you like pizza the best new york pizza in san diego is at bronx pizza in hillcrest pizza by the slice cash only delicious the people who work there like half of them are from new york uh people from new york say it's really good pizza if you're looking for asian food the best asian food in san diego is in this neighborhood known as kearny mesa or claremont there's a street called convoy street convoy street is essentially san diego's asia town and there's ton of great asian restaurants there my favorite it burned down but i hope they're rebuilding it is called china max they have really good peking duck at china max if you're watching this video a year after i publish it maybe they'll be reopening and they also do really good dim sum there and the last note about food is uh if you're staying in the gas line district or downtown most of the food in the gaslamp district is overpriced food for tourists you can find good food there's a kebab shop downtown there's an oscars downtown but most of it's going to be really expensive there's also an earl of sandwich in downtown san diego richard walker's pancake house was mentioned earlier but you have to hunt really hard in downtown san diego same for the beach areas touristy food in the beach areas so if you want to get generally better food it's usually on the east side of the five where the rents are a little cheaper fellow explorers it is now q a time if you've got a question i've got an answer [Music] all right it is now q a time and i swear i fixed that question mark earlier today uh but uh let's go ahead and make that go away since it didn't come back um points traveler wants to know if san diego airport is a hub for any airline probably not a major hub i would say it is kind of a hub for southwest southwest airlines there's a lot of transfers out of here um united has a lot of flights out of san diego american like almost all the major carriers have flights to san diego but i wouldn't call it a major hub there's also flights out of san diego japan airlines fly to san diego direct to tokyo lufthansa flies san diego to frankfurt and british airways fly san diego to london so it's a very well connected airport jennified agrees with me that los quatre melbourne is the best mexican food in san diego thank you jennified for that second vote guthrie says bronx pizza rocks bronx pizza does rock um moises wanted to mention in north county check out mr taco i've not been there but maybe i will have to do that uh and nera rhodes says if you're bi let's call your bill plus check out cafe moto all right thank you for that tip um eric asks where am i from originally i am from san diego california originally this is my hometown uh i was minted in this town just about 40 years ago so born and raised here vegas visual says chris what about the golden door one of the best spa resorts in the country la costa resort where the nfl had their rookie symposium uh i have not stated either of those as i'm kind of a chain guy because i'm cheap uh but yes great recommendations uh if you're looking for the the higher end places that chris has not had the chance to stay guthrie says chris what's your favorite neighborhood to walk through uh i'm gonna go ahead and say little italy during during the farmers market on saturday that would be my favorite neighborhood to walk through alex wants to know if i've ever been to the marine corps air station miramar air show for sure i have as a as a young and growing up in san diego there's like a thing you do they take on school field trips that are there i don't remember what time of year it is but if you're into military aircraft it's a great air show it's open to the public so thanks for that recommendation chicken marsala says uh what do you think of phil's barbecue i am not a fan of phil's barbecue phil's is san diego's like it's like this mega barbecue place it is like one of the most reviewed restaurants on yelp it has like a gazillion reviews like over 10 000 reviews on yo people wait in line hours for the barbecue it builds i don't like the sauce it's i like a i like kind of a sweet texas barbecue sauce and the the phil sauce i think it's a little bit more vinegary and so and everything is just like slathered in the sauce it fills so i am not personally a fan of phil's barbecue eric wants to know which high school did i go to i went to high school it's no longer there anymore it was right next to mesa college in kearny mesa well unfortunately it's uh they they bulldozed it to make room for more parking at mesa college are there any aquariums yes melissa there's a great aquarium that's uh owned by the university of california san diego it's called the scripps mary birch aquarium something like that if you just search for scripps aquarium you'll find that it's on the cliffs overlooking la jolla shores it is san diego's best aquarium ninos wants to say lucha libre taco shop which is just down the hill from hillcrest that's a super popular place if you like chips el indio e l indio indio um has really good chips they make them there as well heber says how easy is the parking in san diego in downtown san diego it's kind of rough because everything's paid parking in the other neighborhoods it's mostly street parking at the beaches it's free so um you know i think it's pretty good in san diego uh points trout last if there's a subway there is no subway but there is a trolley also known as a street car it's a red street car it runs all the way down to the mexican border through downtown it's going to run up to la jolla and then it runs east out to el cajon so as a traveler you if you're staying in downtown san diego you could take the trolley to get around it doesn't run all that frequently and going to transfer a few times so san diego is a pretty good car place or if you don't have a car then uber around um but trolley and bus probably isn't super great for tourists grant asked if i think the chargers should have stayed that was san diego's football team that moved up to los angeles i think they should have because i don't think they're going to get a lot of traction in los angeles vegas visual wants to know the first mission in california oh we got a lot of missions in san diego huh which ones which one's the first mission um it's a mission old town there's the mission in mission valley and hence the name mission there's a lot of missions i don't remember off the top of my head which one was the first one i think the best mission to visit though in southern california is the mission in san juan capistrano which is not in san diego it's in orange county but that one's been restored really well so i would recommend that mission if you're going up to uh orange county um narrow ride ass narrow road asked do i believe the san diego charlie safe to ride i think so i think it's pretty safe to ride i haven't heard of a lot of bad things going on i mean maybe you're going like super late at night might be kind of sketchy um but i think if you're riding it you know daytime those sorts of things i think it's all pretty good yes it's the time you've been waiting for it's time for the giveaway [Music] all right time for the giveaway as usual i give away a yellow productions crew shirt to a lucky viewer who answers my question my question is what is the name of my favorite hotel in san diego if you answer that question correctly then you will win this shirt shipped to you anywhere in the world if you don't get to win one then you can buy one on my etsy shop you'll find a link in the description below every purchase definitely helps support the channel if you haven't yet please give this video a thumbs up i know i made a call earlier and uh we have made it up to 124 likes but there's 187 of you on now maybe some new ones from before so if you haven't liked this video yet give it a thumbs up it really helps me out and if you're wondering hey chris when are your live streams i never know well head over to update.yellowdashproductions.com sign up for my email list so you get notified of all my videos i never spam you i will just send you emails when i have a new video or when i have a live stream coming out all right so um let's see looking at the chat for answers oh there's a lot of them and i gotta i gotta move this to this screen so i can see it doing this google earth thing i had a whole bunch of monitors here uh slightly different than my usual setup by the way as i'm looking for this i have a different lighting setup as well i'm curious uh what people think about the lighting a bit more bright on me a bit darker in the background so a bit more blue in the back a bit more light here big light over here on the side so let me know what you think about the lighting today all right so i see a few answers but i'm looking for the most correct answer uh and oh this this is this is a hard one okay here i'm gonna i have a little search box to search so i'm gonna click search and we're gonna do this okay the first person to give the full answer is jeremy qua and now we have a winner winner chicken dinner congratulations jeremy you are the winner of the yellow productions crew shirt you can send me an email uh at chris yellow dash productions.com you'll find that link in the description or you can send me a message on facebook let me know where you would like me to send you your shirt and what size you want and i will get that headed right out to you uh all right and uh just i see some answers to my lighting things the uniplex has cool lighting mike fitz says background lights look great uh and brandon says the lighting looks great chris too all right thank you for the feedback on lighting guthrie wants to know what's going to be the next city for planning i think the next city i'm going to do for planning like this a deep dive is going to be in los angeles because i get a lot of questions about los angeles i don't know that i'm going to do that next week because i also have a video planned about what's the best travel advice i've ever received so assuming i don't think of anything else between now and next week i might do that one though i also might do an update on las vegas because las vegas is going to be reopening quite a bit on may 1st a lot of the restrictions are being lifted so we may have a las vegas update next week as well as usual i really appreciate you all hanging out with me today who are on the live stream scottmann885 says thanks for this i think if i hadn't asked you on labor day weekend uh scott if you do uh hit me up let me know when you head out here um and uh let's see what am i what am i looking for i'm looking for i'm looking for this page and this uh all right we we we almost hit i think 200 200 viewers today on the live stream 204 208 was our peak and now we're up to 140 likes so thank you everybody who hit those additional likes thanks for watching this wouldn't be yellow productions without all of you by the way the other the other video i've got coming up chris this is a really long outro yeah i know but i've already busted my hour so you know i can i can kind of bust it a little bit too the other video that i'm planning to do is my thousandth video celebration and this this page doesn't tell me uh how many views how many videos i have but i i am near publishing 1 000 videos so let's see let's see what i'm at i gotta go i gotta like click into like a few different things to tell you the exact number which if you go to my channel and you click on the about page i don't know where i can't find this thing anyway i'll have to come back to it i know i know one other way to do it like chris you usually have the most you usually have the most prepared sort of things uh all right uh well i can't find it but i'm quite close to a thousand so when i have the thousand it'll be a big celebration and we'll do the uh thousandth celebration actually here we go 996. this is maybe the 997th upload so just three more videos to go before the 1 000th yellow productions video wouldn't be possible without all of you watching and so with that i hope you enjoy it and everybody keep on traveling [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Yellow Productions

Views: 14,479

Rating: 4.9361701 out of 5

Keywords: san diego, san diego travel, travel san diego, san diego vacation, vacation san diego, san diego planning, visiting san diego, san diego california

Id: PJ_VeGVlTaI

Length: 71min 29sec (4289 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 20 2021