Exploring San Diego may be an endless adventure, but there are limitations, especially if you don't have a car. San Diego is more a chain of separate communities than a cohesive city, and many of the major attractions are separated by some distance. Walking is good for getting an up-close look at how San Diegans live, but true southern Californians use the freeways that crisscross the county. I-5 runs a direct north-south route through the coastal communities from Orange County in the north to the Mexican border. Interstates 805 and 15 do much the same inland, with I-8 as the main east-west route. Routes 163, 52, and 94 serve as connectors.
If you are going to drive around San Diego, study your maps before you hit the road. The freeways are convenient and fast most of the time, but if you miss your turnoff or get caught in commuter traffic, you'll experience a none-too-pleasurable hallmark of southern California living -- freeway madness. Drivers rush around on a complex freeway system with the same fervor they use for jogging scores of marathons each year. They particularly enjoy speeding up at interchanges and entrance and exit ramps. Be sure you know where you're going before you join the chase.
Public transportation has improved a great deal in the past decade: the San Diego Trolley has expanded from Old Town to beyond Mission Valley; a commuter line called the Coaster runs from Oceanside into downtown; and the bus system covers almost all of the county. However, it's time-consuming to make the connections necessary to see the various sights. Fashion Valley Shopping Center in Mission Valley is one of the three major bus transfer points -- downtown and Old Town are the others -- but because many of the city's major attractions are along the coast, and because the coast is in itself a major attraction, you'll be best off staying there if you're carless. The bike-path system is extensive and well marked, the weather is almost always bicycle-friendly, and lots of buses have bike racks, so two-wheeling is a good option for the athletic. The large distances between sights render taxis prohibitively expensive for general transportation, although cabs are useful for getting around once you're in a given area. Old Town Trolley Historic Tours has a hop-on, hop-off route of eight popular spots around the city, but it takes so long to cover the route that you're unlikely to see more than two areas before having to catch the last trolley.
San Diego County's warm climate nurtures some amazing flora. Golden stalks of pampas grass grow in wild patches near SeaWorld. Bougainvilleas cover roofs and hillsides in La Jolla, spreading magenta blankets over whitewashed adobe walls. Towering palms and twisted junipers are far more common than maples or oaks, and fields of wild daisies and chamomile cover dry, dusty lots. Red and white poinsettias proliferate at Christmas, and candy-color pink- and yellow-flower ice plants edge the roads year-round. Jasmine blooms on bushes and vines in front yards and parking lots; birds-of-paradise poke up straight and tall, tropical testimonials to San Diego's temperate ways. Citrus groves pop up in unlikely places, along the freeways and back roads. When the orange, lemon, and lime trees bloom in spring, the fragrance of their tiny white blossoms is nearly overpowering. Be sure to drive with your windows down -- you'll be amazed at the sweet, hypnotic scent.
Unless you're on the freeway, it's hard not to find a scenic drive in San Diego, but an officially designated 52-mi Scenic Drive over much of central San Diego begins at the foot of Broadway. Road signs with a white sea gull on a yellow-and-blue background direct the way through the Embarcadero to Harbor and Shelter islands, Point Loma and Cabrillo Monument, Mission Bay, Old Town, Balboa Park, Mount Soledad, and La Jolla. It's best to take this three-hour drive, outlined on some local maps, on the weekend, when the commuters are off the road.
