Balboa Park includes a number of gardens, reflecting different horticultural styles and environments, including Alcazar Garden, a formal, Spanish-style garden; Palm Canyon, with more than 50 species of palms; Japanese Friendship Garden; Australian Garden; Rose Garden; and Desert Garden (best in spring). Florida Canyon gives an idea of the San Diego landscape before Spanish settlement. Free tours depart the Balboa Park Visitors Center each week, covering various themes from botany to architecture. See www.balboapark.org/explore/tours for details.
Getty Images/Gallo Images
Balboa Park Gardens
San Diego
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
10.7 MILES
Built in the 1930s behind a wave-cutting seawall, La Jolla’s Children’s Pool was created as a family beach but has since been invaded by herds of seals…
10.79 MILES
This state-of-the-art aquarium is a wonderous underwater world home to 5000 fish. Visitors can watch sharks dart, kelp forests sway, and even meet a…
1.19 MILES
Next to the new Waterfront Park, this collection of 11 historic sailing ships, steam boats and submarines is easy to spot: just look for the 100ft-high…
1.46 MILES
This interactive children’s museum offers interactive art meant for kids. Installations are designed by artists, so tykes can learn principles of movement…
13.68 MILES
For a glimpse at what a wall between neighbors really looks like, find your way to binational Friendship Park. On the Mexico side of the wall in Playas de…
Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
2.89 MILES
On the site of San Diego's first European settlement, Old Town consists of a cluster of restored or rebuilt historic 19th-century buildings filled with…
1.52 MILES
A couple blocks east of Petco Park, the city's recent landmark is a beauty. Crowned by a steel-and-mesh dome, the futuristic, nine-story library features…
10.52 MILES
Waves have carved a series of caves into the sandstone cliffs east of La Jolla Cove. The one below the Cave Store, a shop selling vintage curios, is 200…
Nearby San Diego attractions
1. Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater
0.25 MILES
This theater in the Palisades Building puts on terrific hand and rod puppet and marionette shows for the little ones. There have been puppet shows here…
0.26 MILES
Housed in the iconic 1915 California Building, this anthropological museum is packed with exhibits hopscotching from ancient Egypt to local Kumeyaay…
0.29 MILES
Here are 15 cottages from the 1915 exposition, inside which you will find furnishings and displays from various countries, plus about 15 cottages built…
4. San Diego Automotive Museum
0.29 MILES
This museum has a permanent collection of dozens of cars and motorcycles, perfectly restored and well displayed, with classics including a 1981 De Lorean,…
5. San Diego Air & Space Museum
0.32 MILES
An ode to flight, the circular museum houses an extensive display of historical aircraft and spacecraft (originals, replicas and models), including a hot…
0.38 MILES
Pride of place in SDMA's permanent collection goes to its Spanish old masters (El Greco, Goya) and a respectable selection of works by other international…
0.38 MILES
Balboa Park is a 1200-acre space with 17 museums and cultural institutions, including key attractions San Diego History Center, San Diego Air & Space…
0.38 MILES
South of Plaza de Panama looms the tiered benches, curved colonnade and ornate pavilion housing a 5017-pipe organ, said to be the world’s largest of its…