With over 70 miles of golden sand, some of the best free things to complete in San Diego require nothing more than a towel and bathers. But this vast, multicultural city also teems with compelling museums, eye-popping architecture, great public art and lots of gorgeous parks – all of which is free of charge to visit.
Through its historic Old Town, along the ritzy Embarcadero waterfront as well as in the more vibrant pockets of Downtown, you can enjoy the greatest of the city without spending a dime. From hipster photo opportunities at Scripps Pier to family tourist attractions that kids will actually enjoy, listed here are the 21 best free things to do in San Diego.
Worship the sand and sun on La Jolla's beaches
The 70-mile stretch of California coastline that rumbles past North park has more than 30 different beaches. Several private stretches aside, all are free to visit. In the wide expanses of golden sand at Oceanside – where wavy-haired surfers leave frothy white rollers – to secluded spots with blue topaz tides like La Jolla Cove Beach, North park includes a beach for everyone.
Coronado Municipal Beach – a sparkling multi-lane motorway of bunker-white sand – may be the city's most widely used. Many times, it ranks among the best beaches in america. For the same experience but fewer folk, head 4.5 miles south to Silver Strand State Beach. Surfers love the Torrey Pines State Beach swells, a rugged stretch of ochre that's overlooked by 300ft sandstone cliffs and circling paragliders. Its southern stretch marks Blacks Beach, San Diego's only nudist spot.
Wander and wonder your way through Balboa Park
Named after the Spanish conquistador Vasco Nú~nez de Balboa, the 18 landscaped gardens and 17 museums that make up this magnificent 1200-acre green space are sewn together with a number of marked and unmarked paths. It is a great location for merely wandering, but Explore Tours offers free volunteer-led walks on different themes, including architecture and history, should you want some guidance.
Arrive through the landmark Cabrillo Bridge, the large white-arched overpass that Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first one to cross by car in 1914. Then head for the Alcazar Garden, an unabashed homage to Seville's famous Moorish castle. To appreciate the remarkable transformation of the park, go to the Florida Canyon Native Plant Preserve, a 150-acre area that retains the area's original flora. At lunch, join the families that sprawl out on the Sculpture Garden grass.
The park also offers several architectural delights, such as the Old Globe Theater – modeled on Shakespeare's playhouse working in london – and the Museum people, whose statues on its intricate facade depict nine European colonizers, including King Philip III (top left) and King Charles V of Spain (top right).
Go underwater forest bathing at La Jolla Underwater Park
Some of California's best and most accessible diving is in this reserve, accessible from La Jolla Cove and La Jolla Shores. By having an average depth of 20ft, the 6000 acres of look-but-don't-touch underwater real estate are ideal for snorkeling too. Ever-present would be the spectacular bright-orange garibaldi fish – California's official state fish and a protected species.
Further out you'll see forests of giant California kelp (which can increase its length by up to 3ft each day) and also the 100ft-deep La Jolla Canyon. It's liberated to swim in the Underwater Park park, but snorkeling is a budget-friendly alternative as well.
Opine on San Diego's public art
Free public art is exactly what binds each Downtown neighborhood. The city's most famous piece is Embracing Peace – a 3D sculpture of Alfred Eisenstaedt's iconic 1945 photograph of the sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on V-J Day – that stands with an old aircraft carrier without anyone's knowledge.
Other works worth seeking out range from the multicolored, Medusa-like Arbre de Serpents (Serpent Tree) at Waterfront Park; Fault Whisper in East Village, where two stainless steel spheres take a seat on opposing sides of the Rose Canyon Fault System; and Fallen Star, a blue house by Korean artist Do Ho Suh that's been impaled around the seventh floor of Jacob's House in the University of California.
Celebrate North park heritage at Chicano Park murals
Located beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge in Barrio Logan, Chicano Park was founded in 1970 following a number of Chicano (Mexican American) activists and native residents protested against a Highway Patrol station being set up here.
To celebrate the victory, local artists turned the concrete freeway pillars into giant canvases which depict the political, social and cultural struggles of the Chicano community. Nowadays there are more than 70 murals. Two of the best range from the pop art of Los Grandes by Victor Ochoa and Kiosco's wonderful, fresco-like ceiling.
Commune with a colony of sea lions at the Children's Pool
The seawall that was erected here in the 1930s was meant to create La Jolla's Children's Pool, a family-friendly beach. It has since been taken over by herds of seals and sea lions. Now tourists are available in droves to determine them larking around, swimming, fighting and mating. The free plaza over the cove is the best spot to begin to see the new residents, but there's strictly no touching, feeding or selfies allowed.
Meander with the historic Gaslamp Quarter
Running through Downtown San Diego for sixteen-and-a-half blocks, the Gaslamp Quarter has several historic buildings of great interest, all accessible on foot. The William Heath Davis House, a prefab from 1850 on Island Ave, is the area's oldest. It had been shipped in from Maine by Heath Davis, the initial (but ultimately unsuccessful) founding father of New Town, because this area was then known.
Other intriguing buildings range from the Old City Hall, a Florentine Italianate property around the corner of Fifth Ave and G St that was built-in 1874 (it is a cafe or restaurant), and also the Yuma Building on Fifth Ave. This early Victorian brick house had the dubious honor to be the first place law enforcement stopped throughout the Great Raid of 1912 – a dawn sting that turfed the area's sex workers.
Despite the eye from tourists, the Gaslamp Quarter Archway Sign is not as old because it seems. It only increased in 1990. For the best photos, visit the beautiful Ghirardelli Ice Cream Parlor and Chocolate Shop, housed in a former art deco cinema.
Gawk in the impressive ships on the Embarcadero
The ritzy, well-manicured waterfront promenades of the Embarcadero welcome the colossal cruise ships that dock in San Diego, but there are several more impressive boats to behold in these waters. The Maritime Museum includes a assortment of 11 historic sailing ships, steamboats and submarines. Visitors pay to visit aboard each, but it is free to gawk from the jetty.
Among the boats may be the Star asia, the iron-hulled square-rigger launched in 1863 to ply the England-India trade route. Also moored here is a replica from the San Salvador that brought explorer and slaver Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo to San Diego in 1542. Nearby, the USS Midway Museum – actually an imposing decommissioned aircraft carrier – is as enthralling from the outside because it is inside.
If it's hot, water jet fountains at Waterfront Park are ideal for kids, and the Seaport Village, a 14-acre collection of shops and restaurants having a faux New England theme, often has free entertainment.
Hike the coastline at Torrey Pines State Reserve
Eight miles of trails await walkers and hikers in this well-trodden, 2000-acre coastal state park. Routes vary by difficulty, however the 0.7-mile Guy Fleming Trail offers panoramic sea views and paths through wildflowers, ferns and cacti, and the 1.4-mile Razor Point Trail is good for whale-spotting during the winter.
Fawn within the Hotel Del Coronado
San Diego has some fantastic architecture to fawn over, including one of the world's most iconic hotels, 'The Del'. This all-timber whitewashed architectural fantasy – which featured in the movie Some Like It Hot with Lana turner – wows using its conical towers, cupolas, turrets, balconies and dormer windows.
Other architecture to gawp at include the North park Public Library, using its three-story crystalline reading room and latticework dome; the travertine-marble plaza and mirror-glass laboratory of the Salk Institute; the all-white San Diego California Temple which sparkles like an ice palace; and the ornate Museum of Us in Balboa Park.
Marvel at Harper's Topiary Garden
In the peaceful, unassuming neighborhood of Mission Hills, Edna Harper – or Edna Scissorhands as she's known locally – continues to be busy snipping away at the bushes in her own front garden for more than Fifteen years. With a little help from her husband, there are now scores of shrubs clipped in to the shapes of whales and birds that you could see free of charge.
Cruise the strip at Mission Beach Boardwalk
Central San Diego's best beach scene is targeted inside a narrow strip of land between your ocean and Mission Bay. There's great people-watching across the Ocean Front Walk, the boardwalk running from South Mission Beach Jetty to the Pacific Beach pier. It's crowded with joggers, in-line skaters and cyclists any time of the year.
Stargaze in the spectacular Palomar Observatory
High on Palomar Mountain, at an elevation of 5500ft to minimize light pollution, the free-to-visit Palomar Observatory is simply spectacular – as large as Rome's Pantheon, having a classic design dating from the 1930s. It houses five telescopes such as the 200-inch Hale Telescope, when the world's largest. Download the disposable audio tour from the website before you decide to arrive.
Saunter across the Los Penasquitos Canyon Trail
A 20-minute drive inland from Del Mar are a number of wonderful, mostly flat, shady and sunny paths snaking through a lush valley and past a cascading waterfall encompassed by volcanic rock. The primary seven-mile pathway is moderately trafficked with runners, walkers and mountain bikers. Consider butterflies, mule deer and bobcats. The free Easy2Hike app has maps and trail info.
Get a perfect photo in the Botanical Building
The Botanical Building looks lovely from El Prado, where one can view it reflected in the large lily pond which was employed for hydrotherapy in WWII when the navy took control of Balboa Park. The building's central dome and 2 wings are covered with redwood lattice panels, which let filtered sunlight in to the collection of tropical plants and ferns.
Learn your history at Old Town San Diego State Historic Park
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 quaint exhibits, souvenir stores and cafes. A good starting point is at the visitor center in 1853 Robinson-Rose House; see the neat model of the pueblo in 1872 and get a self-guided tour pamphlet. Staff run free walking tours daily at 11am and 2pm.
Expand your art knowledge at Timken Museum of Art
Timken Museum of Art is home to a small but impressive collection of American and European paintings, including works by Rembrandt, and Rubens. Download the disposable app on arrival and you can do a self-guided tour of every painting displayed.
Go birding within the San Elijo Lagoon
One of Cardiff-by-the-Sea's main draws is that this 979-acre ecological preserve well-liked by bird-watchers for its herons, coots, terns, ducks, egrets and most 250 other species. A seven-mile network of trails leads through the area and also the main path is pushchair-friendly.
Test your mettle around the Spruce Street Suspension Bridge
Consider a detour towards the Bankers Hill neighborhood to cross the 375ft Spruce St Footbridge. This treetop suspension bridge, built-in 1912 on the deep canyon between Front St and Brant St, wriggles below your feet. Try not to worry; it had been designed this way.
Get your insta-worthy pic at Ellen Browning Scripps Memorial Pier
Built in 1915, this 1084ft-long research pier at La Jolla can be used for oceanographic observations. However, it is inadvertently become an Instagram spot. To find the best photos, shoot directly between the legs of the pier and aim out towards the horizon. If you are lucky, there will be a tangerine-and-peach-colored sunset in the background. To have an alternative, go to the historic Crystal Pier along Pacific Beach.
Find the best views at Mt Soledad
If it's a clear day, the views from the surface of Mt Soledad are the most useful in North park. They stretch from Mexico in the south and Los Angeles within the north – and right out across the sparkling Pacific Ocean.
At the top you'll find the nation's Veterans Memorial, which features 11 curved walls with black granite plaques etched using the stories of over 5000 US war veterans. Its centerpiece is the 27ft-high Mt Soledad Cross, which offers echoes of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro – a prominent presence within the entire city.
