Orientation

Visitor Information

There are staffed information booths at the airport and the train station, plus the following.

In downtown San Diego, the Convention & Visitors Bureau (ConVis; tel. 619/236-1212; www.sandiego.org) has an International Visitor Information Center located on the Embarcadero at 1040 1/3 W. Broadway, at Harbor Drive. Daily summer hours are from 9am to 5pm; for the remainder of the year it's open daily from 9am to 4pm. ConVis offers great info and deals on its website, www.sandiego.org, but you can also get your hands on the glossy Official Visitors Planning Guide from the Information Center. The guide includes information on member accommodations, dining, activities, attractions, tours, and transportation. ConVis also publishes San Diego Travel Values, featuring discounts on hotels, restaurants, and attractions (it's available online, too). ConVis operates a walk-up-only facility at the La Jolla Visitor Center, 7966 Herschel Ave., near the corner of Prospect Street. This office is open daily in summer, from 10am to 7pm (until 6pm Sun); from September to May the center is open daily but with more limited hours.

If you're driving into town, the Mission Bay Visitor Information Center, 2688 E. Mission Bay Dr. (tel. 866/746-8440 or 619/276-8200; www.infosandiego.com), is between Mission Bay and I-5, at the Clairemont Drive exit. This private facility books hotels and sells discounted admission tickets to a variety of attractions -- discounts work out to about $2 to $3 off per adult for the big-ticket items such as SeaWorld. There's plenty of parking; stop in between 9am and dusk.

The Coronado Visitors Center, 1100 Orange Ave. (tel. 619/437-8788; www.coronadovisitorcenter.com), dispenses maps, newsletters, and information-packed brochures. Inside the Coronado Museum, they're open Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm, Saturday from 10am to 5pm, and Sunday from 11am to 4pm.

San Diego has two major print publications: The daily San Diego Union-Tribune and the alternative (and free) San Diego Weekly Reader. The U-T has woefully thin international and national coverage -- mostly wire-service pickups -- but does a decent job covering local news, and has an archly conservative editorial board. "Night & Day," the U-T's weekly entertainment supplement, which comes out on Thursdays, will give you the nuts and bolts of what's going on in town that week. For a more complete list of happenings, check the Reader, which also comes out on Thursdays, and can be found all over the city at bookstores, cafes, liquor stores, and other outlets; a condensed version called The Weekly is found in hotels and tourist areas. Except for a couple of segments, the full version of the Reader is a bore. (Fun conversation starter: Ask any local if they've ever gotten through an entire Reader cover story.) Check the free San Diego CityBeat for a truly alternative take on San Diego. It's distributed throughout the city on Wednesdays.

The Best of San Diego Online

You can find lots of information on San Diego on the Internet; here are a few of my favorite helpful planning and general information sites.

www.sandiego.org is maintained by the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau and includes up-to-date weather data, a calendar of events, and a hotel booking engine.

www.sandiegoartandsol.com is the link for cultural tourism. You'll find a list of art shows and music events, plus intriguing touring itineraries that delve into the city's culture.

www.sandiego-online.com, the San Diego magazine website, offers abbreviated stories and dining and events listings.

www.sdreader.com, the site of the free weekly San Diego Reader, is a great resource for club and show listings. It has printable dining and other coupons you can really use, plus opinionated arts, eats, and entertainment critiques.

www.signonsandiego.com is where CitySearch teams up with the San Diego Union-Tribune, catering as much to locals as to visitors. It offers plenty of helpful links, plus reviews of restaurants, music, movies, performing arts, museums, outdoor recreation, beaches, and sports.

www.digitalcity.com/sandiego is a lifestyle guide targeted at locals, and therefore it yields occasional off-the-beaten-tourist-path recommendations. You'll find everything from personal ads to constantly changing restaurant spotlights and daily top picks.

www.wheresd.com provides information on arts, culture, special events, shopping, and dining for San Diego, Orange County, and Los Angeles. You can also make hotel reservations through the site.

www.voiceofsandiego.org is an excellent online news source that offers information on what's happening in the city politically and culturally.

www.blogsandiego.com is a hip spot for local music reviews and previews, and other musings from the cultural underground.