Attractions
& Sightseeing in the San Diego Area
FOR
ACTIVISTS ENJOY THE 35 MILES OF CYCLING AND WALKING TRAILS
OF THE SAN DIEGUITO RIVER VALLEY PARK, ON LAKE HODGES WIND
SURF FISH OR KAYAK. REMARKABLE BIRD SPOTTING IN THIS NEWLY
DESIGNATED “GLOBALLY IMPORTANT BIRD AREA.” VISIT
THE WORLD FAMOUS WILD ANIMAL PARK JUST TWENTY MINUTES AWAY,
OR SAN DIEGO’S JEWELS INCLUDING THE SAN DIEGO ZOO.
PLUS: MANY NEARBY GOLF COURSES, AND SOME OF THE BEST BEACHES
AND SURFING SPOTS IN THE WORLD. GREAT RESTRAUNTS IN THE
AREA.
(Links
open to a separate window)
Conveniently
located in Southwest Escondido, nestled
within the San Dieguito River Park overlooking
Lake Hodges with its quiet beauty, water activities including
windsurfing,
kayaking,
canoeing and sailing at the Lake Hodges Aquatic Center
and fishing (the best bass fishing in southern
California - we're told), from Lake Hodges RomanticAdventure you are only 10 minutes
from the new California Center for the Arts,
San Diego's Wild Animal Park
(where
the animals enjoy almost natural freedom), more than
50
golf courses, five superb fishing
lakes including Lake Hodges, birdwatching,
excellent hiking
around the lake, or more vigorous hiking in the Elfin Forest
Recreational Reserve, great cycling and mountain biking
such as Elfin
Forest, Daley
ranch and Lake Hodges (photos from
a cycle tour of Lake Hodges), local wineries, quiet parks and
a pleasant outdoorHeritage Walk Museum.
These are just a few of the many attractions you'll find
only minutes from Lake Hodges RomanticAdventure.
(since
San Diego is famous for its zoo - we hope you'll find zoonet
an interesting website. Or ... if you're more interested
in flora than fauna, you can find out about the Rare
Plants of San Diego County, and see pictures of California's
wildflowers)
From Lake Hodges RomanticAdventure, you are only
30 minutes from downtown San Diego with its Seaport Village,
the Maritime Museum (where you can download a movie of the Star of India
under sail; The Source page also
provides detailed information and you can take Virtual Reality
tours of both the Star of India and of Seaport Village at
The
Source's page), Mission
Bay Park - home of Sea
World
and Belmont Park,
the Gas
Lamp
District with
it's fine dining
- like Croce's, Old Town
State Historic Park (where you'll find the Bazaar del Mundo),
many theaters - both indoor and open air, numerous museums like
the Firehouse
Museum & other attractions. Shoppers and non-shoppers
of either gender (trust me on that) and any age will delight
in the not-to-be-missed Horton Plaza - you'll
neither forget the experience nor ever adequately be able
to describe it.
Perhaps the main downtown attraction is the
best
urban park in all the Americas, Balboa
Park where you'll find the world famous San Diego Zoo,
theaters (such as the Old
Globe
Theatre) and
several museums
(such as the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater
and Science Center, Aerospace Museum,
Museum of Man, Model Railroad Museum
(or if you prefer the real thing - a bit more of a
drive takes you to the Museum Railroad, the San Diego
Natural History Museum,
Museum of Art, and many others)
all within easy
walking distance from each other. Among the many attractions
of the park, you'll find the Japanese Friendship Garden,
a wonderful variety of ferns. You might
also enjoy, as I do, old
postcards of the park as it was at the 1915 Panama-California
Exposition (which was the true origin of Balboa park as
we see it today) and a detailed
history of the Exposition by local historian Richard
Amero.
Before leaving downtown, we can't leave out the soul
of San Diego: its water. San Diego has always been a sailing town, as you
can tell from the number of Yacht Clubs
we have. You'll see plenty of Navy ships at home here,
and if you want to get out on the Bay yourself, consider
a cruise, a paddle
wheeler out of the Bahia Hotel on Mission Bay, or any of
several dinner cruise boats you
can find leaving from Coronado (you can take
a water taxi
over to the island). Or ... you might prefer to take a look
under the surface.
By now, you've
probably figured out that San Diego is definitely an outdoors
kind of place. You should really make some time to hike
or bike and take in some of our beautiful scenery up-close.
A relaxed way to do so is to take a horse drawn
historical tour. 
Since Lindbergh Field Airport
and the convention center
are both also located downtown, Lake Hodges RomanticAdventure is a convenient drive
from both.
In other directions, also within 30 minutes, are
San Diego's beaches
and ocean activities (where you might try your luck
catching a grunion run), the
world renown Del Mar Race Track and fairgrounds, La Jolla and
other beach communities, hot air balloon ports, the Wave
Water Park, Mount
Palomar Observatory, Temecula Wine
Country (with the fifteen different
wineries, the Quail Botanical Gardens, and
other parks, Scripps Aquarium (official
name is the Stephen Birch Aquarium - Museum), the California
Surfing Museum,
the Antique
Gas & Steam Engine Museum, old Spanish Missions such as Mission San
Luis Rey in nearby Oceanside, a Computer Museum where you
might figure out how we got into this condition and numerous
other attractions. If you're pressed for time, you might
even want to see San Diego from an open cockpit Biplane (or even
try your hand at dogfighting in military style aircraft).
In less than
an hour, you can be in the historic mountain mining town
of Julian - famous for
its apple pies. From there you can continue another 20 minutes
east and be in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and
take a jeep tour with "Borrego
Paul" (or at least a virtual photo tour), or south into
the Laguna Mountains (where you can tour the Mount Laguna Observatory) and
Cleveland
National
Forest
along the Sunrise Highway, ascending to over 6000' (peek
at a relief
map of the San Diego area to get an idea of this fascinating
region of the country). If you're a serious hiker, you'll
not want to miss the Pacific
Crest Trail in this area (check with the PCT Association for
hiking details). With our weather and beautiful terrain,
you've probably figured out that San Diego is an outdoors
kind of place full of places to hike, bike, and otherwise
enjoy the natural beauty of the area. But at night, you
might also want to visit one of the casinos (the Barona, Lake Elsinore,
Sycuan
and Viejas)
in the area. While here, you might want to take a side trip
down to Tijuana and Mexico's
Baja
California during your stay in San Diego. If you do
intend to head south - take a look at the California Baja Rent-a-Car site
- they provide both useful information about Baja and a
useful service since you probably won't be allowed to take
your US rental car down there. (Infolink also
provides a page of useful links to Mexico)
the
Thornton winery in Temecula
Getting around the
San Diego area is fun.
Even if you have a car, you might prefer getting around
by rail.
There is the Coaster
which operates between Oceanside and downtown, and the Trolley
within San Diego, east to El Cajon and south to the Mexican
border just above Tijuana.

If you want to
sample some of San Diego's Art during your stay, you might
take in
Lean
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