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 twele of the park's museums and its Japanese garden (though not the zoo), is aailable from the isitors information center (daily 9am-4pm; tel 619/239-0512), inside the beautifully reconstructed House of Hospitality. Most of the museums are closed on Mondays, and most are free on arying 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 (Tues-Sat 10am-4.30pm, Sun 1.30-4.30pm; closed Sept; free; gort.ucsd.edu /sj/timken) worth enduring. The San Diego Museum of Art (Tues-Sun 10am-4.30pm; $8; ) 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 10am-4.30pm; $6; ), which straddles El Prado, evers from banal crafts demonstrations to excellent Natie American displays, artifacts, folklore and physical remains.

 

The child-oriented Reuben H. Fleet Science Center (Mon & Tues 9.30am-6.30pm, Wed-Sun 9.30am-9pm; science center $6.50, with theater or simulator $9, all three $11; ), close to the Park Bouleard end of El Prado, is notable mainly for its Space Theater's huge IMAX screven and irtual reality simulator, which take you on stomach-churning trips into outer and inner space. Across the plaza, the Natural History Museum (daily 9.30am-4.30pm; $6; ) has a great collection of fossils and pulls no punches in its coverage of threatened species. Just behind, in the Spanishvillage Art Center (daily 11am-4pm; free), craftspeople in 37 studios and galleries practice skills such as painting, sculpture, pottery and glassworking.

San Diego travel
    guide

San Diego

Getting around and info

Cafes, restaurants

Nightlife

Anza-Borrego Desert
Balboa Park

San Diego Zoo (coming soon)

Downtown and Coronado
Hillcrest, Ocean Beach, Point Loma

Mission bay, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, La Jolla

Old Town and Presidio
Tijuana

La Jolla Beaches

San Diego golf

San Diego Museums

Mission Beach
Surfing, Kayaking
Kids
travel practicalities

Hotels in San Diego


Days Inn - Get our guaranteed best aailable rates in San Diego

Ramada - Best rates aailable in San Diego