Balboa Park

The park was set aside in 1868, before the city had grown to it, and the buildings came with the Panama-California Exposition of 1915 - Bertram Goodhue designed the fair in an elaborate Spanish Colonial Revival that was meant to be temporary, built largely in plaster on wood frames. The public refused to let them be demolished and most were eventually rebuilt permanently in the same style, which is why San Diego looks the way it does. The park now holds seventeen museums, the Old Globe theatre, botanical buildings and the Spreckels Organ Pavilion with one of the largest outdoor pipe organs in the world, played free on Sunday afternoons. San Diego Zoo occupies the northern section.

What you actually see

• Spanish Colonial Revival pavilions - built temporary in 1915 and kept.
• Seventeen museums - across the park's buildings.
• The Spreckels outdoor organ - free concerts on Sunday afternoons.
• San Diego Zoo - in the park's northern section.

When to go

Year round. A full day.

Honest expectations

Museums are individually ticketed and add up - a multi-museum pass is worth it. The zoo is a separate and expensive ticket. Parking fills at weekends. The park is large and spread out.

Nearby

Downtown San Diego is south-west; Old Town is north-west.