Tucked into the sunny and parched southwest corner of the United States, San Diego is situated in one of the country's most naturally beautiful metropolitan settings. Learning the lay of the land is neither confusing nor daunting, but it helps to understand a few geographical features. Two major characteristics give San Diego its topographical personality: a superb and varied coastline; and a series of mesas bisected by inland finger canyons and inhabited by coyotes, skunks, and raccoons.
San Diego's downtown -- 16 miles north of the Mexico border -- sits at the edge of a large natural harbor, the San Diego Bay. The harbor is almost enclosed by two fingers of land: flat Coronado "Island" on one side, and peninsular Point Loma on the other. Both of these areas hold important military bases, bordered by classic neighborhoods dating to the 1890s and 1920s, respectively. Coronado isn't really an island -- a ribbon of sand called the Silver Strand connects it to Imperial Beach, just north of the border.
Heading north from Point Loma is Mission Bay, a lagoon that was carved out of a tidal estuary in the 1940s and is now a watersports playground. A series of communities are found along the beach-lined coast: Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla, and, just outside San Diego's city limits, Del Mar. To the south of downtown, you'll find National City, which is distinguished by shipyards on its bay side, then Chula Vista, and San Ysidro, which ends abruptly at the border (and where the huge city of Tijuana begins, equally abruptly). In the last decade, there's been intense housing development in the area from Chula Vista south.
That sums up the coast. Inland areas are perhaps best defined by Mission Valley, a mile-wide canyon that runs east-west, 2 miles north of downtown. Half a century ago, the valley held little beyond a few dairy farms, California's first mission, and the San Diego River (which is more like a creek for about 51 weeks a year). Then Interstate 8 was built through the valley, followed by a shopping center, a sports stadium, another shopping center, and lots of condos; today, Mission Valley is perhaps the most congested part of the city (and one of the least charming). In spite of this, residents all use the valley, and many live along its perimeter: On the southern rim are desirable older neighborhoods like Mission Hills, Hillcrest, Normal Heights, and Kensington; to the north are Linda Vista and Kearny Mesa -- bedroom communities that emerged in the 1950s -- and Miramar Naval Air Station. Just outside and to the north of the city limits is Rancho Bernardo, a quiet, clubby suburb.
The city of San Diego possesses one other vital (if man-made) ingredient: Balboa Park. Nestled in a 1,400-acre square between downtown and Mission Valley, the park contains the San Diego Zoo, many of its best museums, theaters (including the Tony Award-winning Old Globe), wonderful gardens, recreational facilities, and splendid architecture.
