Downtown

Understand

History

Downtown San Diego began in 1867, when Alonzo Erastus Horton bought 960 acres of land by the San Diego Bay after he decided that this should be the center of the city rather than Old Town, the site chosen by the Spanish for security reasons. Soon Horton found himself in the midst of an economic boom, resulting in the development of the southern Downtown neighborhoods, site of the present-day Gaslamp Quarter. However, in the late 1880s Horton's fortunes ran out and the Gaslamp Quarter began to deteriorate. At the same time, John D. Spreckels, a wealthy entrepreneur who had created a transportation and real estate empire in San Diego, began to develop land north of present-day Broadway, further contributing to the Gaslamp Quarter's decline.

Over the decades, Downtown fell into a state of disrepair as investment in the suburbs took its toll on the central city. In the 1970s, redevelopment efforts began taking off, and in the 1980s the area began to rebound with the completion of Horton Plaza, the San Diego Convention Center, and the start of revitalization efforts in the Gaslamp Quarter.

Neighborhoods

Downtown is divided into a number of individual neighborhoods, each with its own attractions and personality.

At the heart is Columbia, which runs along Broadway as it approaches the harbor. Columbia is mostly a commercial district and contains most of the city's tallest buildings, the train depot, and a sizable chunk of the waterfront which includes the USS Midway Museum, the Maritime Museum, the cruise ship terminal and the ferry landing. To the east of this lies the commercial and governmental center of Core as well as the shopping district of Horton Plaza, with its namesake mall that now sits abandoned, as of 2026.

To the north of the main business district are a couple of quieter neighborhoods - Cortez Hill, on the hill at the north side of downtown, is a mostly residential neighborhood bumping up against Interstate 5, named for the historic El Cortez Hotel, the tallest building on the hill. Closer to the waterfront at the northwest end of downtown is Little Italy, originally a home to Italian fishermen, now a very active district of shops, restaurants, and parks, with an Italian theme, and is one of the hippest bar and restaurant areas in the city, with a large young professional crowd.

On the southern side of Downtown, Marina is a highly gentrified waterfront district, containing marinas, high-rise condos, hotels, the Convention Center, and the Seaport Village shopping mall. To the north of this is Gaslamp Quarter, a historic district which was not only the birthplace of downtown but also the focal point of the first revitalization efforts in downtown during the 1970s. Today the neighborhood is the center of Downtown's nightlife scene; a thriving district of historic buildings, shops, theaters and restaurants. Capitalizing on Gaslamp's success, the East Village on the southeastern side of Downtown is undergoing a construction and redevelopment boom, spurred in part by the ballpark of the San Diego Padres in the neighborhood.

Visitor information

Get in

If you're arriving in San Diego by bus, train, or cruise ship you're likely to be getting off in Downtown. Even arriving by plane basically puts you in Downtown, given how close the airport is to the city center. Detailed info on arriving via those modes can be found in the Get in section of the San Diego article.

By car

Downtown is served by three freeways. Be warned though, Southern California is notorious for its confusing interchanges and freeway systems. You may exit off the freeway thinking you're going one direction, when it fact you'll find yourself heading in a completely different direction. So careful examination of a street map is recommended.

• Interstate 5 wraps around downtown to the north and west, providing access from the north and the south. From the north, the Ketner Blvd. exit will provide you with the most direct access into Little Italy, while the Front St. exit will be your best bet for getting right into the thick of downtown. From the south, exiting onto 19th St., which acts as a frontage road to I-5, will get you to a number of east-west streets, including Market St., that upon turning left onto will take you right into downtown.
• SR-163 enters downtown from the north, turning into 10th Avenue/11th Avenue in downtown. SR-163 connects downtown to the northcentral and northeastern areas of San Diego.
• SR-94 connects to areas east, and turns into F Street/G Street upon entering downtown.

Downtown is easily accessible and traversed by automobile, but it is one of the very few areas of San Diego where it makes sense to get around by other means. Parking is expensive and can be very hard to find during special events (like Padres games at Petco Park). You can park at the garage at Westfield Horton Plaza for free for up to 3 hours as long as you validate the ticket at the small validation machines inside of the mall.

By public transit

The hub for rail services in San Diego is the Santa Fe Depot at Broadway and Kettner, which serves as the southern terminus of the COASTER commuter rail service, which runs north along the coast of San Diego County to Oceanside, and the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner to Los Angeles. The Mission-style Santa Fe depot is an architectural gem and worth having a look at even if you don't need to catch a train. The name "Santa Fe" is a reference to the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railroad, now part of BNSF corp., which built the station.

Downtown is served by all three lines of the San Diego Trolley light rail system, operated by the Metropolitan Transit System (MTS). The Blue Line comes up from the US-Mexico border at San Ysidro to the south and travels up Park Blvd. in the East Village neighborhood before turning west onto C Street, where it runs through the Core to Santa Fe Depot, then continues north to La Jolla. The Orange Line connects the eastern cities of El Cajon and La Mesa with Downtown and follows the same route as the Blue Line (Park Blvd and C Street). The Green Line comes south from Mission Valley and Old Town, passing through Little Italy and stopping at Santa Fe Depot; then it runs along Harbor Drive, stopping at the convention center and Petco Park.

The MTS also operates bus service throughout the city and in southern portions of the county, and downtown is the hub of the system, so bus service is pretty good in these parts. Nearly all bus routes that serve Downtown intersect with Broadway Street at some point. You can purchase passes, find schedules, and get information about the bus system at the 12th & Imperial Transit Center in southeast Downtown, which also serves as the Greyhound station and is served by all three trolley lines.

Get around

Downtown is dense enough that it can usually be easily walked. Certain intersections (basically anything along Harbor Drive) can feel a little risky with the high volume of cars, but for the most part walking is quite safe, even at night. Downtown is fairly large: it's a long walk from Little Italy to Petco Park.

Taxis are readily available just about anywhere in downtown at night until very late; just flag one down. If you're more adventurous, you might be able to hire a Water Taxi to get to and from waterfront hotels, shopping centers, and restaurants along the bay in Downtown and Coronado. They run Fridays through Sundays from noon-10PM and cost $8 each way.

A vintage trolley service, the Silver Line runs in a clockwise direction around the San Diego Trolley loop within Downtown every hour from 9:07am to 5:07pm on selected holidays. The fare is $2.50 ($1.25 seniors/disabled; MTS/trolley passes accepted). This is really only worthwhile if you're interested in riding the old streetcar; otherwise just use the regular San Diego Trolley service.

Avoid the pedicabs (bike taxis) as a form of regular transportation, as they are one of the most expensive options available. Each of the 250 licensed pedicabs in the city can set its own prices, so you won't know the price unless you ask the driver (who may be reluctant to tell you until it's too late) or can spot the small sign on the cab (which some drivers have claimed don't apply, if they think they can trick you into paying more at the end of the ride). If you decide to take a tour this way, expect to pay a minimum of $20 per person for even a one-minute trip, and at least $1 per minute per person for a longer trip. All pedicabs must have a permit from the San Diego police department, so complaints about price gouging, fraud, unsafe driving, an aggressive insistence upon a tip in addition to the agreed-upon price, and other problems should be reported to the city's police department compliance team at +1 619-615-1539 as soon as possible.

Go next

• Drive northeast on Park Boulevard to get to the beautiful Balboa Park, one of San Diego's greatest attractions and home to lovely gardens, numerous museums, and the world-famous San Diego Zoo.
• Head due north on 5th or 6th Avenue to get to the western entrance to Balboa Park, or continue to the hip urban neighborhood of Hillcrest.
• To the northwest of Downtown and easily accessed via I-5 or the San Diego Trolley is Old Town, the original site of the center of San Diego.
• Coronado is a lovely little city that lies on a peninsula just across the bay, accessible from downtown by a ferry ride (departs from the Broadway Pier and the Convention Center) or by driving just a bit south of Downtown to get to the Bay Bridge.