Week 2 of 4: San Diego, The Review

The story of my time in San Diego has been released so that means only one thing: the follow up review! Due to the nature of the trip, which I highlighted in the story blog, I am limited in what I can review thoroughly so I won’t try and force one from a place I didn’t experience to the max, hence a shorter blog post compared to the last review.

San Diego

A place that has a lot to offer, San Diego is a more laidback city compared to that of Los Angeles. With its mixture of districts, San Diego has something for everyone! Want to head to the beach to catch some rays? You’ve got it! Head downtown for some night time action in the bars and clubs? That’s available! See some of the world’s coolest and cutest animals? You must be living under a rock if you didn’t know you could that here… Head out and explore the great outdoors? Easy! Even alongside all of that, the city has plenty to offer and that is why it tends to be a mainstay on many traveller’s itineraries when heading to the California.

Recommended? – I would recommend heading to San Diego, even if my story didn’t give off the best of vibes. I feel since I have developed the way that I’ve travelled, I’ve noticed that there is so much more I could have done with my time there to make the most of it. It’s a place that can give you a variety of experiences (even the opportunity to visit another country!) and should be on your list of places to go to!

ITH Zoo Hostel

As mentioned in the story, the hostel of choice for us was the International Traveler’s House (ITH) Zoo Hostel, hosted in the Hillcrest area of San Diego. Booked though Hostelworld, the reason we went for this hostel was again based on value for money. In my personal opinion, you can’t go wrong with a 9/10 rating, based on reviews by previous people who have stayed there, when it’s prices start at $28 per night! ITH are another chain of hostels, with three being in San Diego and one in Big Bear Lake. They also offer a range of vacation rentals and residences in the same locations, whatever it is that will suit your travelling needs.

Location – As the name of the hostel will probably tell you, the location of it is prime for an easy visit to the San Diego Zoo. The neighbourhood that it’s based in, Hillcrest, is one that’s full of bars, restaurants and coffee shops, giving a wide variety of places to eat and drink alongside your adventures, all at a reasonable price too. Aside from that, it is close to the San Diego International Airport, whilst being a 20-30 minute drive from the sea front and downtown. A key thing to note, due to the the amount of activities conducted with the sister hostel, it’s a 20-25 minute drive to the ITH Adventure Hostel, which is based closer to the downtown area of San Diego.

Facilities – This place has got everything you need! Bed? Yep. Showers and baths? You got it. Kitchen covering your food needs? Of course! Pool table to show who’s boss? Fo’ sho’! Guitar to serenade your new hostel mates? Definitely. As you can tell, this place has all the hostel needs covered, along with plenty of extras to make your stay comfortable. Additional to this, the hostel staff offer free breakfast and dinners during your stay to aid your budget and bring all those staying at the hostel together.

Atmosphere – The feel of this hostel was a friendly and relaxed one, with the staff being on hand and always accommodating, plenty of fun activities laid on to take part in and a large common room area to meet, greet and relax. With it not being a party hostel, there’s a large emphasis on enjoying both nights in the hostel with a variety of games, both with and without alcohol, and nights away from it, offering evenings out for food in the local area and teaming up with the other hostel to bring more people together for things, such as evenings at the beach.

Activities – One thing this hostel was great for, was offering a variety of fun things to do in both the day and at night. From snorkelling to bar crawls, from trips to Mexico to farmer’s markets and beach sunsets, from Taco Tuesdays to walking tours through the city. This place has a lot to offer at a very reasonable price when it comes to activities so if you’re stuck as to what to do, they’ve got you covered.

Staff – Always trying to get people talking and for those to enjoy themselves, the staff at the hostel (and ITH Adventure hostel) were always friendly and ready to get people out and about to enjoy the city and their time in it, whilst back at the hostel they were always ready for a game or two to really break down the barriers.

Price – These start at $28 per night for a 8 bed mixed doom, with 4 bed mixed and female only dorms also available from $30 per night.

Recommended? – This is a hostel I would full recommend staying at due to the reasonable price and everything they have to offer. The only thing I would be wary of is knowing what sort of activities you wish you do in San Diego. Yes, it’s well placed for going to the zoo but for anything else such as going downtown or heading to the beach, then you may want to consider one of the other hostels by this chain.

San Diego Zoo

As I’ve mentioned before, this is one of the main attractions of the San Diego so I’m sure you’ll want to know whether it’s worth the time and money going to, whilst I give a few details of what’s on offer at the zoo.

Animals – San Diego Zoo boasts over 3,700 animals across 650 species so there’s plenty to see at the zoo, with these coming from all over the world; from Africa to Asia, America to the Poles and back again. Within this, there are all categories of animals ensuring that there’s something for everyone, whether it be reptiles, big cats or everything in-between.

Facilities – As you would expect from a zoo of such popularity and scale, this one has plenty to offer when it comes to the facilities available for us humans too. The zoo has a lot to offer to ensure that you have the best experience possible. They offer free buses around the zoo, with and without a guide to talk you through what you’re going past, the animal enclosures are large and well kept to ensure that the animals are under the best care, they offer a variety of exhibitions away from the animals themselves and plenty of good quality places for food to satisfy your appetite.

Price – The zoo has many different prices and offers depending on what experience you’re wanting so I’ll list the basic prices and let you look at the other options. 1 Day Pass – Adult (12+) $54, Child (3-11) $44. Here are the rest of the prices.

Recommended? – Definitely! I mean, there’s a reason why it was voted best zoo in the world! If you’re a fan of animals, this is a great day out to go and see them in a scenic and well conserved park whilst also learning about the efforts the zoo make to look after animals both inside and outside of it.

USS Midway

If you head down to the water front of San Diego’s harbour, this is something that’s hard to miss! Stretching out 305m into the harbour and laden with aircraft from across the years, the ship alone is a sight to behold! This museum is dedicated both to the history of the ship and the battle that inspired the name of it.

Facilities – The ship embodies the original state that it was built in and gives you a thorough insight into life onboard one of these ships, the conditions the men (the ship was decommissioned in 1992, a year before women were allowed on ships for the US Navy) had to live in. Along with that, you are able to see certain parts of the ships huge engineering to see what it took to move a ship of this side.

Away from the ship and it’s own facilities, there are two additions to give you an insight in to the past of the US Navy and what has shaped them. The first of these two is the Battle of Midway experience which details the full extent of the battle that shaped part of World War Two for the Americans and inspired the name of the ship. The second experience is having the wide array of aircraft that served on the ship across its 47 years of service to walk around and see, reading about action they saw and what they could do.

Finally, the ship has a cafe on board to allow you to refuel before heading back out to attack the rest of the museum. They did miss a trick by not hosting this in the original mess halls though in my opinion.

Price – Tickets for this are as follows: Adults (21+) $21, Seniors (62+) $18, Retired military (with ID) $8, Student (13-17 or with college ID) $15, Youth (6-12) $8, Children 5 and under, active military and emergency services personnel (with ID) can enter for free.

Recommended? – Maybe. I feel something like this is definitely down to what your interests are. If you have any interest in the military and/or history during the World War eras, then I feel this would definitely be something for you. If not, there’s not much on offer here and your time would be spent elsewhere.

Tijuana

Once known for its partying antics for young Americans, Tijuana has moved away from that and provides a tourist attraction for those in the area, such as San Diego, to be able to experience things the Mexican way. A city that’s moving towards other kinds of tourism, Tijuana has a lot to offer when it comes to authentic Mexican food, Mexican coffee, learning about the culture and history or strolling the streets to see the street art, along with much, much more! I unfortunately didn’t get the time to experience it all but a quick insight into this city showed me that there was a lot to offer. Don’t panic though, if you’re wanting to go and party, there’s definitely plenty of places to go still!

There seems to have been some bad press about the place which could put you off venturing across the border however, whilst I was there, I saw nothing to suggest that it was as bad as the media had made it out to be. To me, it was like any other city that I’ve been to that was only unfamiliar but once I’d settled into things, the apprehension went and I enjoyed my time there.

Recommended? – 100%! It brings something different and unexpected to your trip and gives you an insight into a completely different culture that’s only a few miles away from the centre of San Diego.

Ocean Beach Neighbourhood
On a couple of separate occasions, I managed to experience the areas in and around the Ocean Beach so got given a slight insight into the atmosphere there and the things that they have on offer.

Like any beach area, the first and obvious things that it offers is the ability to get onto the sand and into the sea, especially with year round weather with highs of 20 degrees celsius (68F). Sunbathing, surfing, swimming and any other beach sport you can think of are all available here for everyone to enjoy. Plus, if you go on the right day, you may catch a spot of hula hooping, as mentioned in the story blog.

With it being such a vibrant area of San Diego, Ocean Beach puts on a lot of events throughout the year. The event that I experienced was the Farmer’s Market, held every Wednesday, hosting a mixture of food stalls that can help you stock up on food for the hostel or grab some street food that they offer. To see what else they have on offer, you can follow this link to see what else they have to offer!

Facing to the west, there are plenty of prime spots to sit back, relax and take in the sunset. There are a variety of places that you can do this from, ranging from the beach itself, on or around the pier (making for a great Instagram shot), from one of the places neary for food and drinks or from the cliff tops that are nearby.

Recommended? – Who wouldn’t recommend the beach when it’s available? With a variety of sports, bars and places to eat on offer as well as the opportunity for some picturesque sunsets, the Ocean Beach neighbourhood is a place to check out in San Diego.