Things to do in San Diego, CA: Old Town Trolley Tours

There are so many awesome things to do in San Diego that you need a way to get around and see them all. And unless you know someone who lives there, you need some help.

Old Town Trolley Tours might just be your answer. It was ours. These tours are San Diego's only regularly scheduled on-and-off, fully narrated tour of San Diego and Coronado. Colorful anecdotes, humorous stories and historical information are combined into a fast paced, two hour narrative that will both entertain and educate.

The trolley tours through San Diego and Coronado on a continuous loop. Start the tour at any one of the stops throughout the day. Stay on board the trolley and get a fascinating narrative and a great overview of "America's Finest City" until you return to your starting point in about two hours. Or hop off the trolley at a few of your favorite sites then reboard and continue on with the tour until you return to the starting point. The earlier you start the more time you will have for visiting San Diego's attractions, shopping, and dining.

You only get one go around, so if you plan your stops beforehand you can make a day of it. In fact you can see all the best places and things to do in San Diego on the tour in one day.

There are ten stops around the city:
Old Town State Park
Cruise Ship Terminal
Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum
Seaport Village
Marriot Hotel and Marina
Horton Plaza
William Heath Davis House
Coronado
San Diego Zoo
El Prado

You can spend hours or even a full day in any of these stops, especially if you like to shop. Restaurants and dining facilities are all over and at every stop as well.

If you love the beach you will want to stop at the island of Coronado. They have a beautiful beach and a historic hotel that has been made famous in several movies. The trip across the bridge to the island is also a must do just for the view.

We skipped the stop at the Aircraft Carrier but we did enjoy the stop at Seaport Village. And we went back there after the tour was over for dinner and a wonderful evening stroll.
Balboa Park, which is the El Prado stop, was also a great place to stop and stroll. There are so many museums to visit it can take you several days. If you go on a weekend, there are also street performers and vendors as well. An added bonus is the free trolley tour of the park which is provided for all park guests and not connected to the Old Town Trolleys. The San Diego Zoo is also in the park and you can visit here as well, but I recommend you send a whole day there.

Horton Plaza is the place for shopping. They have all the large stores and smaller boutiques as well. Old Town State Park is the stop for experiencing San Diego's Mexican heritage. Great Mexican restaurants, shops, and cantinas abound.

We started our tour at the Cruise Ship Terminal. There was free parking there on weekends. Plus, we got to tour the waterfront before the tour began. That saved us another stop. After the tour we also decided to take a sunset bay cruise so ending the tour at the waterfront helped us in that regard as well. All we did was step off the trolley and straight onto the boat. Some of the better seafood restaurants are in the area as well. We could not have chosen a better spot to start our tour.

Normally tour guides are fountains of information. But these tour guides not only knew their stuff, but they had audio clips that served as jokes as well. Sitting on a trolley was a bit more fun than sitting on a coach bus.

If you have only one day to send in San Diego, this is the tour you want to take. It's cheap and it covers everything worth seeing. Plus you get to decide where you want to spend the most time.