San Diego Scenic Drive

We will be in port at San Diego from 7am-4pm. We are thinking about renting a car and doing all or some of this scenic drive, ending with lunch in Coronado. We would like to see sights, take photos, maybe learn some history of the area at the different way points.

https://www.sandiego.org/articles/tours-sightseeing/san-diegos-59-mile-scenic-drive.aspx

Any advice? We haven't been to SD before. Is it difficult to drive and park a car in these areas? We are from NYC where the idea of doing something like this would be ridiculous, so any guidance is helpful.

Overall, it is not difficult to drive in San Diego, especially on the scenic route described in the link. Parking depends - like in any city - some areas are easy, others more of a challenge, but if you can't find street spaces, there generally are parking lots in the areas on the described route.

My advice is decide which places you want to get out of the car and explore - e.g. do you want to go into the Zoo? That will take a few hours. Stopping at Mount Soledad will take about 5-15 minutes to take in the view.

San Diego is a beautiful city, and the 59 mile drive is a great way to see the highlights. Read about the various stops and decide what are your priority stops. Enjoy your day in our beautiful city!

Thank you so much for your excellent advice! Much appreciated.

Keep in mind many car rental agencies do not open until 9:00 (some earlier). They are also not all close by (the Hertz is about a mile away for example). Just something to keep in mind as your day ends pretty early.

We were planning to walk to the Avis downtown on Kettner and be waiting at the door when they open. If we can be rolling by 9:30 that gives us about four hours not including lunch.

Just a quick follow-up on our scenic drive experience. We walked from the ship to Avis, which took about 10 minutes (up to the USS Iowa and then right). They opened at 8am, we got there about 8:20, and we were on the road by 8:30.

We stopped at Shelter Island where DH enjoyed taking photos of the different ships coming in and out of port. Then we drove to Cabrillo Monument, which takes a bit of time to get to but has spectacular views and a very nice exhibit on the history of early San Diego. There is also a good gift shop, clean bathrooms, and snacks and water. From there we went to Ocean Beach, wandered around a bit, and stopped for coffee. Then came a drive through Mission Bay to La Jolla, which is beautiful -- those homes! -- and a stop at the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial, which is very moving.

At that point we could see how far we had driven from downtown, so we got on the highway, drove through Balboa Park (no time to stop at any of the museums), and headed to Coronado. The Del was very busy with a convention, and parking was difficult, but we had a delicious lunch and explored a bit. We wanted to be back at Avis by 3pm, so at 2:30 we headed back. After dropping off the car, they gave us a lift back to port, and we were back in our cabin by 3:30 with sail-away scheduled for 4pm.

As people who were completely unfamiliar with the area, this was a really nice way for us to wander and explore, and get a feel for San Diego and the beautiful California coast.