California
Southern California
San Diego County

San Diego

From balmy beaches with a laid-back attitude to a gleaming modern image, San Diego offers much for the tourist to enjoy. Situated on the seacoast, San Diego is the second largest city in the state, with 1.4 million residents, and has long attracted travelers for its ideal climate, miles of beaches, and location on the Mexican border right across from .
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Photo: Boatguy619, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo: William Toti, CC BY 2.0.

Essential Destinations

Top destinations include San Diego International Airport and Downtown San Diego.

Photo: Jmabel, CC BY 3.0.
is the primary airport of . is located in the south-eastern part of and is also very close to and San Diego…

Photo: Rufustelestrat, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is the thriving central business district of San Diego. A heavily gentrified area with plenty of tourist amenities, Downtown serves as a hub of business and entertainment, with plenty of restaurants, shops, and nightlife to take in, as well as a few attractions, including several museums and the home of the San Diego Padres baseball team.

Photo: f jean, CC BY 2.0.
is an upscale beach neighborhood of 48,000 people in San Diego that, while part of the city, is often viewed as its own distinct community. is home to the University of California, San Diego campus, beautiful beaches, and gorgeous scenery.

Destinations to Discover

Explore places such as Point Loma-Ocean Beach and Mission Beach-Pacific Beach.

Photo: Weedwhacker128, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Sitting at the mouth of San Diego Bay on a peninsula west of the city's airport, Point Loma offers a pleasant diversion from the city's busy tourist-filled neighborhoods and beaches, with lovely scenery and the historic attractions of Cabrillo National Monument overlooking the area's spectacular coastline.

Photo: dirkhansen, CC BY 2.0.
Mission Beach and Pacific Beach are the two most popular beach neighborhoods in San Diego. Nestled between the ocean and the man-made Mission Bay, this area is packed with tourists in the summer months who come to visit Sea World, the seaside amusements of Belmont Park, or just to hang out at the beach.

Photo: Antoinetav, CC BY-SA 3.0.
San Diego's most beloved green space, Balboa Park is a massive urban park in the heart of the city just north of . Within the park's canyons and hills lie beautiful open spaces, lush gardens and vegetation, the renowned San Diego Zoo, the historic Old Globe Theatre, and numerous museums.

Photo: Epukas, Public domain.
The birthplace of San Diego, Old Town is a popular tourist district of historic buildings and Mexican-themed shops and restaurants sitting at the foot of Mission Valley, a major commercial center lining the San Diego River that is home to several shopping centers, Snapdragon Stadium, and the Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the oldest of the California missions.

Photo: Takinzinnia, CC0.
is the northern region of San Diego, consisting mostly of hilly terrain and suburbs. For the purposes of this travel guide, "North San Diego" contains just about everything north of Mission Valley and east of I-5.

Photo: Jlantzy, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is the eastern part of the city of San Diego, bordered by I-8 and Mission Valley to the north, to the south, , Balboa Park and Hillcrest to the west, and to the east.

Photo: UpstateNYer, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a community of San Diego, . Although administratively part of the City of San Diego, is geographically separated from the rest of the city by the entities of and just to the north.

Places of Interest

Highlights include USS Midway and San Diego Zoo.

Museum
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
is an aircraft carrier, formerly of the United States Navy, the lead ship of her class. Commissioned eight days after the end of World War II, Midway was the largest aircraft carrier in the world until 1955, as well as the first U.S. aircraft carrier too big to transit the .

Zoo
Photo: Cburnett, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The is a zoo in San Diego, California, United States, located in Balboa Park. It began with a collection of animals left over from the 1915 Panama–California Exposition that were brought together by its founder, Dr.

Stadium
Photo: Mds08011, CC BY 4.0.
is a ballpark in San Diego, California. It is the home of the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball. The ballpark is located in the neighborhood of , adjacent to the .

Places in the Area

Nearby places include Coronado and Little Italy.

Photo: Hortont424, CC BY-SA 3.0.
is a picturesque resort town in in . It is on a peninsula just across the San Diego Bay from San Diego and offers quiet beaches, lovely bay scenery, and sights such as the historic Hotel del .

Quarter
Photo: Wikimedia, Public domain.
is a neighborhood in , California, that was originally a predominantly Italian and Portuguese fishing neighborhood. It now consists of Italian restaurants, grocery stores, home design stores, art galleries and residential units.

Quarter
Photo: Bgag, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The is a historic neighborhood in , California. It extends from Broadway to Harbor Drive and from 4th to 6th Avenue. The neighborhood is listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places as the Historic District.

San Diego

Latitude
32.7139° or 32° 42′ 50″ north
Longitude
-117.1623° or 117° 9′ 44″ west
Population
1,390,000
Elevation
66 feet (20 metres)
IATA airport code
SAN
United Nations Location Codes
US SAN and US SYL
Open location code
8544PR7Q+H3
Open­Street­Map ID
node 1824135555
Open­Street­Map feature
place=­city
Geo­Names ID
5391811
Wiki­data ID
Q16552
This page is based on OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
We’d love your help improving our open data sources. Thank you for contributing.

Satellite Map

Discover San Diego from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
© Stadia Maps, Airbus DS, CNES, PlanetObserver, and Copernicus

In Other Languages

From Afrikaans to Yue Chinese—“San Diego” goes by many names.
  • Afrikaans: “San Diego”
  • Albanian: “San Diego”
  • Amharic: “ሳንዲየጎ”
  • Arabic: “سان دييغو”
  • Aragonese: “San Diego”
  • Armenian: “Սան Դիեգո”
  • Asturian: “San Diego, California”
  • Asturian: “San Diego”
  • Azerbaijani: “San-Dieqo”
  • Balinese: “San Diégo”
  • Bambara: “San Diego”
  • Basque: “San Diego”
  • Belarusian: “Сан-Дыега”
  • Bengali: “সান ডিয়াগো”
  • Bengali: “সানদিয়াগো”
  • Bengali: “স্যান ডিয়েগো”
  • Bosnian: “San Diego”
  • Breton: “San Diego”
  • Bulgarian: “Сан Диего”
  • Catalan: “San Diego”
  • Cebuano: “San Diego (kapital sa kondado sa Estados Unidos, California)”
  • Cebuano: “San Diego”
  • Central Kurdish: “سان دییگۆ”
  • Chechen: “Сан-Диего”
  • Chinese: “San Diego”
  • Chinese: “圣地亚哥”
  • Chinese: “圣迭戈”
  • Chinese: “聖地牙哥”
  • Chinese: “聖迭戈”
  • Chuvash: “Сан-Диего”
  • Cornish: “San Diego, Kaliforni”
  • Cornish: “San Diego”
  • Croatian: “San Diego, Kalifornija”
  • Croatian: “San Diego”
  • Czech: “San Diego”
  • Dagbani: “San Diego”
  • Danish: “San Diego”
  • Dutch: “San Diego”
  • Egyptian Arabic: “سان دييجو”
  • Esperanto: “San-Diego”
  • Estonian: “San Diego”
  • Ewe: “San Diego”
  • Faroese: “San Diego”
  • Finnish: “San Diego”
  • French: “San Diego”
  • Galician: “San Diego”
  • Gan Chinese: “聖地牙哥”
  • Georgian: “სან-დიეგო”
  • German: “San Diego CA”
  • German: “San Diego”
  • Gilaki: “سن ديگؤ”
  • Greek: “Σαν Ντιέγκο”
  • Guarani: “San Diego”
  • Gujarati: “સેન ડિયાગો”
  • Haitian: “San Diego, Kalifòni”
  • Haitian: “San Diego”
  • Hausa: “San Diego”
  • Hawaiian: “San Diego”
  • Hebrew: “סן דייגו”
  • Hindi: “सैन डिएगो”
  • Hungarian: “San Diego”
  • Icelandic: “San Diego”
  • Ido: “San Diego”
  • Indonesian: “Kota Terbaik Amerika”
  • Indonesian: “San Diego, CA”
  • Indonesian: “San Diego, California”
  • Indonesian: “San Diego”
  • Indonesian: “SD”
  • Indonesian: “tempat kelahiran California”
  • Interlingua: “San Diego”
  • Irish: “San Diego, California”
  • Irish: “San Diego”
  • Italian: “San Diego”
  • Japanese: “サン・ディエゴ”
  • Japanese: “サンディエガン”
  • Japanese: “サンディエゴ”
  • Kannada: “ಸ್ಯಾನ್ ಡಿಯಾಗೋ”
  • Kazakh: “Сан-Диего қаласы”
  • Kazakh: “Сан-Диего, Калифорния”
  • Kazakh: “Сан-Диего”
  • Kikuyu: “San Diego”
  • Korean: “샌디에고”
  • Korean: “샌디에이고”
  • Kurdish: “San Diego”
  • Ladin: “San Diego”
  • Ladino: “San Diego”
  • Latin: “Didacopolis”
  • Latin: “Sanctus Didacus”
  • Latvian: “Sandjego”
  • Limburgan: “San Diego”
  • Lingala: “San Diego”
  • Lithuanian: “San Diegas”
  • Lombard: “San Diego”
  • Luxembourgish: “San Diego”
  • Macedo-Romanian: “San Diego”
  • Macedonian: “Сан Диего”
  • Malagasy: “San Diego”
  • Malay: “San Diego”
  • Malayalam: “സാൻ ഡിയേഗോ”
  • Maltese: “San Diego”
  • Maori: “San Diego, Karapōnia”
  • Maori: “San Diego”
  • Marathi: “सॅन डियेगो”
  • Mazanderani: “سن دیگو”
  • Min Nan Chinese: “San Diego”
  • Mingrelian: “სან-დიეგო”
  • Moksha: “Сан Диега”
  • Moksha: “Сан-Диего”
  • Mongolian: “Сан-Диего”
  • Nauru: “San Diego”
  • Navajo: “Tóbiníhííyíní”
  • Newari: “स्यान डिएगो (क्यालिफोर्निया)”
  • Newari: “स्यान डिएगो, क्यालिफोर्निया”
  • Newari: “स्यान डिएगो”
  • Northern Frisian: “San Diego”
  • Northern Luri: “سان دیگو”
  • Northern Luri: “سانی ویل”
  • Norwegian Bokmål: “San Diego”
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: “San Diego”
  • Norwegian: “San Diego”
  • Occitan (post 1500): “San Diego”
  • Old English (ca. 450-1100): “Sanct Didacusburg”
  • Ossetian: “Сан-Диего”
  • Pampanga: “San Diego, California”
  • Pampanga: “San Diego”
  • Panjabi: “ਸਾਨ ਦੀਏਗੋ”
  • Papiamento: “San Diego, California”
  • Papiamento: “San Diego”
  • Persian: “سان دیگو”
  • Persian: “سن دیگو”
  • Piemontese: “San Diego”
  • Polish: “San Diego”
  • Portuguese: “San Diego”
  • Portuguese: “São Diego”
  • Quechua: “San Diego”
  • Romanian: “San Diego”
  • Russian: “Сан Диего”
  • Russian: “Сан-Диего, город”
  • Russian: “Сан-Диего, Калифорния”
  • Russian: “Сан-Диего”
  • Sardinian: “San Diego”
  • Saterfriesisch: “San Diego”
  • Scots: “San Diego”
  • Scottish Gaelic: “San Diego, Calafòrnia”
  • Scottish Gaelic: “San Diego”
  • Serbian: “San Dijego”
  • Serbian: “Сан Дијего”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “San Diego, California”
  • Serbo-Croatian: “San Diego”
  • Sicilian: “San Diegu”
  • Silesian: “San Diego”
  • Sindhi: “سان ڊياگو”
  • Sinhala: “සැන් දියාගෝ”
  • Slovak: “San Diego”
  • Slovenian: “San Diego”
  • Somali: “San Diego”
  • South Azerbaijani: “سان دیقو”
  • Spanish: “El Lugar de Nacimiento de California”
  • Spanish: “La Mejor Ciudad de Estados Unidos”
  • Spanish: “San Diego (California)”
  • Spanish: “San Diego CA”
  • Spanish: “San Diego”
  • Spanish: “SD”
  • Swahili: “San Diego, California”
  • Swahili: “San Diego”
  • Swedish: “San Diego”
  • Tagalog: “Lungsod ng San Diego”
  • Tagalog: “San Diego, California”
  • Tagalog: “San Diego”
  • Tajik: “Сан Диего”
  • Tamil: “சான் டியாகோ”
  • Tamil: “சான் டியேகோ”
  • Tamil: “ஸேன் டியேகோ”
  • Tatar: “Сан-Диего”
  • Telugu: “శాన్ డియాగో”
  • Telugu: “సాన్ డియాగో”
  • Thai: “แซนดีเอโก”
  • Turkish: “San Diego, Kaliforniya”
  • Turkish: “San Diego”
  • Turkmen: “San-Diýego”
  • Twi: “San Diego”
  • Uighur: “San Diyégo”
  • Uighur: “سان دىيېگۆ”
  • Ukrainian: “Сан-Дієго”
  • Urdu: “سان ڈیاگو”
  • Urdu: “سان ڈیگو”
  • Uzbek: “San Diego”
  • Venetian: “San Diego”
  • Veps: “San Diego”
  • Vietnamese: “San Diego, California”
  • Vietnamese: “San Diego”
  • Vietnamese: “Sandi”
  • Vietnamese: “SD”
  • Vietnamese: “Xan Điêgô”
  • Vlax Romani: “San Diego”
  • Volapük: “San Diego”
  • Waray (Philippines): “San Diego, California”
  • Waray (Philippines): “San Diego”
  • Welsh: “San Diego”
  • Western Frisian: “San Diego”
  • Western Mari: “Сан-Диего”
  • Western Panjabi: “سان ڈیاگو”
  • Wu Chinese: “圣迭戈 (加利福尼亚州)”
  • Wu Chinese: “圣迭戈（加利福尼亚州）”
  • Yakut: “Сан Диего”
  • Yiddish: “סאן דיעגא”
  • Yiddish: “סאַן דיעגא”
  • Yoruba: “San Diego”
  • Yue Chinese: “聖地牙哥”
  • “San Diego”

San Diego County: Must-Visit Destinations

Delve into Chula Vista, Oceanside, Carlsbad, and Escondido.

Explore These Curated Destinations

Discover places selected for their distinct character and enduring appeal.
About Mapcarta. Data © OpenStreetMap contributors and available under the Open Database License". Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, except for photos, directions, and the map. Description text is based on the Wikivoyage page “San Diego”. Photo: William Toti, CC BY 2.0.