California

Glitzy LA may capture all the attention, but if you want to wet your feet and soak up the SoCal beach scene in serious style, catch a wave to affluent, conservative, golf-coursed, blessed-by-nature, merging-with-Mexico San Diego.

Before the 20th century

Although human occupation of San Diego County goes a long way back, very few sites are genuinely older than a century. The area's long period of Native American habitation left very few tangible remains, and despite an abundance of Spanish place names and Mission-style architecture, only a handful of structures actually date from the periods of Spanish and Mexican rule.

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo's was the first European to sail into San Diego Bay, in 1542; his ships were forced to sit out a storm in the bay. The next European to lay eyes on San Diego was Sebastián Vizcaíno, who entered the bay in 1602 on the feast day of San Diego de Alcalà and named the place accordingly. In the late eighteenth century the Spanish finally decided to occupy Alta California. Father Junípo Serra, accompanied by military commander Gaspar de Portola, arrived in 1769 and promptly founded the first of the California missions on the hill now known as the Presidio. Soon a small village sprang up. Soon a small pueblo (village) sprang up below the hill in the area of today's Old Town State Historic Park. Still, San Diego remained a ramshackle village with only a few hundred residents until 1867 when San Francisco speculator and businessman Alonzo E Horton entered the scene. Horton recognised the city's potential as a port and, through some creative real estate wrangling, acquired 960 acres (385ha) of waterfront land and promoted it as the 'New Town'. His was not the first such attempt, but this time the new subdivision really took off, especially after an 1872 fire devastated much of the original Old Town settlement.

The discovery of gold in 1869 in the hills east of San Diego certainly helped as well, and even brought the railroad to town. But the frenetic mining boom soon played out, plunging the fledgling town into depression and reducing its population by half, to about 2000. Despite the efforts of the city's boosters, San Diego never did acquire an industrial base during the 19th century. The main economic activity was in real estate speculation, which went through several cycles of boom and bust.

Modern history

After San Francisco hosted the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1914, San Diego held its own Pacific-California Exposition in 1915-16 in the hopes of attracting people and investment. In an effort to foster a distinctive image, the exposition buildings were deliberately designed with a romantic Spanish-Mexican style. Developers, architects and the public took to this fashion with enthusiasm, and today the town's Mediterranean style, Mission architecture and Spanish street names derive more from this than from its actual heritage as a small and remote colonial outpost.

With the arrival in the 1920s and 1930s of the aviation and maritime industries, San Diego's economy finally got its jumpstart. Steady revenue from naval and military bases helped San Diego weather the Great Depression, along with WPA projects like San Diego State University and the race track at Del Mar. And in 1935, as the Depression waned, San Diego staged its second big event, the California-Pacific Exposition, which saw even more Spanish-style architecture appear in Balboa Park.

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet was moved to San Diego. The boom in wartime activity transformed the city - vast tracts of instant housing appeared; public spaces were turned into training camps, storage depots and hospitals; and the population doubled in a few years. The city's wartime role and the associated publicity more than anything else put San Diego on the American map. Post-war, the naval and military presence provided an expanding core of activity, employing up to a quarter of the San Diego workforce.

Recent history

Climate and the seafront location have also been major factors in the city's growth. A revitalised downtown area and recreation facilities like Mission Bay have helped attract visitors who now contribute a major chunk to the county's income. Education and research (especially in biotechnology) are also sources of the city's pride, while the San Diego Padres baseball team and the San Diego Chargers football team have both had brushes with championships in recent years.

But it's the military that still powers this town. San Diego is the home of the world's largest military complex, with 165,000 active personnel.

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Mild, dry desert air mixes with a coastal breeze to deliver San Diego a daily average temperature of 21°C (70°F). Between May and October temperatures of 30°C (85°F) or higher are not uncommon, particularly in the inland areas. The city averages a mere 10 inches of rain and even during the coldest months of December and January, the mercury still climbs to a very civil 20°C (68°F).

Average weather

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Transport

Getting around

The city bus system covers most of the metropolitan area and is the most convenient way of getting around if you're not staying out late at night. Two trolley lines run from the terminal near the railway station at the western edge of the downtown grid. One heads south to the Mexican border at San Ysidro, the other heads east through the downtown area to El Cajon.

A commuter rail service operates from the Santa Fe depot along the coast north of the city in the morning and evening rush hours. A ferry shuttles between Coronado and the Broadway Pier, on the extreme western edge of the downtown area. There are great cycle routes in Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Mission Bay and Coronado. Some routes on MTS buses have a bike rack, and bikes can be transported without extra charge.

Getting there and away

There are some direct international flights to San Diego's Lindbergh Field (SAN) airport, but it's not a major gateway. If you're flying in from abroad, you will most likely come via Los Angeles or another big US city. A connecting flight from LA to San Diego takes about 35 minutes, or you could rent a car for the 2.5-hour drive south.

San Diego's Lindbergh Field airport is 5km (3mi) northwest of the downtown area. Municipal buses, shuttle buses and taxis make the short trip downtown an easy one. The major car rental agencies have desks at the airport. If you plan on driving to Mexico, make sure your rental agreement allows this.

The Greyhound bus station in the heart of downtown has luggage lockers and phones and is generally user friendly. Buses run north to Los Angeles (2.5 hours), south to the Mexican border (half an hour) and east to Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso and other US cities.

The colonnaded Santa Fe train depot - one of the Spanish Colonial-style structures built at the time of the 1915 exposition - is the locus of Amtrak's only services to and from the city, all of which run along the coast. The San Diegan goes to LA (three hours) several times daily, with some LA trains continuing to Santa Barbara.