IMAGES: GETTYRENT AN E-SCOOTER
They’re everywhere in
Downtown. Sign up to an app like
Lime or Bird, which will show you
where the nearest scooter is.HIT THE ROAD
To see all of San Diego’s famous
beaches, you’ll need a car. Four
miles north of Paciic Beach is
upmarket La Jolla, with its seals
and sea lions. Above that is Torrey
Pines State Park, its beach backed
by clif trails. With the kids? Try
Mission Beach, between Ocean
Beach and Paciic Beach; its
funfair has a vintage roller coaster.MEXICAN GRUB
Traditional Las Cuatro Milpas in
Barrio Logan is a local favourite,
while the Gaslamp outpost of
Californian chain Puesto ofers
more modern fare.ON TAP
Beer is king in this city of over
150 breweries. Stone Brewing Co,
40 minutes north of town, has
one of the best guided tours (and
includes a sample at the end).QUIRKY MUSEUMS
Highlights include the tiny but
brilliant Women’s Museum of
California plus Balboa Park’s San
Diego Museum of Man.6
GETTING ABOUT
Hotel parking is costly and spaces
are scarce on the beaches, so it’s
best to use ridesharing apps likes
Lyt if you’re staying in town. If
you’re sticking to the shore, many
beach hotels have bikes for guests.When in San Diego...
North & South Park
‘You are radiant!’ shouts the mural on the wall
outside Artelexia. At its centre is Our Lady of
Guadalupe, her face covered by an electric-
blue Sacred Heart.
If La Fachada represents San Diego’s
Mexican heritage, Artelexia is the future.
Inside the Mexican git shop, an enormous
portrait of Frida Kahlo sprawls across one
wall; the others are crammed with textiles,
jewellery, blankets and ceramics. Almost
everything is made by artisans in Oaxaca.
I’m in hipster North Park, and it’s very
Californian. Frou-frou Pigment sells, among
other things, turbans, cannabis-infused
perfumes and plants; there’s also a healthfood
shop for cats and dogs.
There’s nightlife, too. “People call this the
beer boulevard of America,” says Steve Devlin,
tasting room manager at Mike Hess Brewing,
one of San Diego’s many microbreweries.
In 2009, it was even smaller — the city’s
irst nanobrewery. Today, it makes and sells
Claritas (a German kölsch-style beer that won
gold at the 2016 World Beer Cup) in what used
to be an evangelical bookstore.
Directly above Balboa Park, the
neighbourhood of North Park is home to a
handful of museums set in frothy Spanish
revival buildings. Below it is South Park, a
residential district dotted with bookshops
and vintage stores. Between the smart bars on
Grape Street, though, is something diferent.
The sign outside Big Kitchen Cafe reads,
‘Small world, big kitchen. Think globally, eat
locally’. Inside, a woman strides towards me.
“Are you open?” I ask. “No,” she grins. “But do
you want to see my cafe?”
She’s Judy Forman — the self-proclaimed
‘beauty on duty’, as I’ll later ind out — and
I’ve stumbled on a San Diego landmark.
There’s a horseshoe-shaped counter in a room
plastered with stickers (‘Thelma and Louise
live!’), banquettes backed by photos of The
Beatles and Martin Luther King, and a peace
lag in the lush conservatory. A sign saying
‘Hippies use back door’ has been changed so it
ends with ‘front door’.
“Judy,” I say, “are you a hippy?”
“If by a hippy you mean someone who puts
their money where their mouth is, then yeah,”
she replies, handing me a palm tree-etched
goblet of lemonade.
The cafe has been a centre for activism for
40 years, it turns out. The next day, on Judy’s
orders, I return for breakfast. “I want to show
you my city,” she tells me over burritos. So we
get in her car — manual, ancient by American
standards — and she hits the gas. “Let’s go to
the beach.”NEIGHBOURHOOD58 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel