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California

Signature City San Diego

Program No. 16955RJ

Walk Torrey Pines State Reserve, explore the San Diego Zoo, savor the cuisine of Little Italy and sail San Diego’s harbor as you explore the best this seaside city has to offer.

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6 days

5 nights

10 meals

5B 2L 3D

Check-in, Registration, Orientation

San Diego

History Lecture, Flagship Cruises, Little Italy Walk

San Diego

Hotel Del Coronado, Balboa Park, Chicano History Lecture

San Diego

USS Midway, San Diego Zoo

San Diego

Torrey Pines State Reserve, La Jolla, Cabrillo Nat. Monument

San Diego

Program Concludes

San Diego

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At a Glance

From the world-renowned San Diego Zoo to sparkling beaches, bustling boardwalks and a picturesque harbor, San Diego is a city where life is lived outdoors. Experience the best of this sun-kissed California jewel, as you sample San Diego’s rich Genoese and Sicilian culture on an exclusive expert-led walk through Little Italy, marvel at the architectural masterpieces and manicured landscapes of Balboa Park and discover one of the wildest stretches of land on the Southern California coast — Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.

Activity Level

Keep the Pace

Walking up to 2-3 miles each day, stairs, some hills, standing indoors and outside for up to 1-2 hours at a time, getting on and off a motor coach without assistance.

Best of all, you’ll…

Explore San Diego’s harbor on a study cruise and learn about the city’s fascinating maritime heritage and how it came to be home to the largest Navy and Marine Corps complex in the U.S.
See San Diego’s natural side with a walk at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve and a visit to Cabrillo National Monument.
Experience the historic Hotel del Coronado and explore Balboa Park with a local.

Featured Expert

All trip experts

Anthony Davi

Anthony Davi is a New Yorker of Sicilian descent who has lived in San Diego for several decades. In 1997, he formed Little Italy Tours to share his love of his ancestor’s for visitors to experience Italy in San Diego. As a documentary producer, Davi created a mini-documentary for the San Diego Symphony about the music of Italy and stories of Little Italy. Davi speaks a bit of the old Sicilian dialect and his passion for all things Italian resonates throughout his programs.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Anthony Davi View biography

Jackie Mlekoday View biography

Jackie Mlekoday grew up in Bloomington, Minnesota and later lived and worked in downtown Minneapolis. After taking several trips to San Diego and falling in love with the city, she and her husband moved there in 2000. They currently live in Mission Valley. Jackie has been a nurse for more than three decades with leadership positions in emergency and critical care. She currently volunteers as a member of the Rose Corp in Balboa Park. Her interests include hiking, golfing, and travel.

Jennifer Hudson View biography

Jennifer Hudson is a native San Diegan working as a local expert here since 2002, after working for the National Park Service in Massachusetts, and managing motorcoach trips in Ireland and the western U.S. She owns a walking travel company that crafts small group experiences in four San Diego neighborhoods. She has a bachelor’s in history and a master’s in hospitality and tourism management. She loves to travel and has visited three continents, and walked 185 miles of the Camino de Santiago.

Roger Nys View biography

Roger Nys is a native New Englander who has lived in cities across the country including Boston, Washington, Detroit, and San Francisco. His career included administrative posts in government, universities, and biomedical research. His first group leading experience began in San Francisco where he led through Golden Gate Park. Relocated to Southern California, he volunteers at Balboa Park, providing walking expeditions on history and architecture. Outside of Road Scholar, he leads city bus trips for cruise ship visitors.

Joe Kane View biography

Joe Kane is an artist living in Coronado, California. He retired from the U.S. Navy in 2020 after nearly 27 years as a photojournalist and mass communication specialist. Joe is a painter, teacher, and musician who is most well known for his painted rocks, which have been spotted in most U.S. states as he leaves them for others to find. Joe’s inspiration comes from observing colors and patterns in nature, and from the artistic techniques found in stained glass, mosaics, and primitive art traditions.

Suggested Reading List (14 books)

Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop

You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.

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Signature City San Diego

Program Number: 16955

West with Giraffes

by Lynda Rutledge

At 105 years old, Woodrow Wilson Nickel feels his life is passing him by. However, he finds himself thinking back on the life-changing encounter he will never be able to forget when he finds out that giraffes are becoming extinct. The meaning of being transformed by the grace of animals, the generosity of strangers, the passage of time, and a tale told before it's too late is explored in West with Giraffes. It is part adventure, part historical saga, and part coming-of-age love story.

San Diego: An Introduction to the Region

by Pryde, Philip R.

This accessible, comprehensive history covers the geology, agriculture and natural features as well as the social and urban development of San Diego and surrounding areas. Includes maps and illustrations.

San Diego - Another HarborTown History

by Gayle Baker, Ph.D.

This 112-page book offers a clear, concise, and comprehensive look into the history of San Diego. From the the site of California's first mission, to the impact of entrepreneurs and beauty of the harbor, to the iconic Hotel del Coronado, and to San Diego's role as a military center, and much more. Enjoy the story of this historically fascinating city.

San Diego Then and Now

by Nancy Hendrickson

Charting San Diego’s growth from a small village to a gorgeous beach city, this heavily illustrated regional portrait pairs 100 archival photographs with full-color shots of the same scene today.

San Diego Legends: Events, People and Places that Made History

by Innis, Jack Scheffler

As the title suggests, this is a compendium of the history makers of San Diego and the places and events that have contributed greatly to making San Diego what it is today. This book gives a nice nice background of the city for curious visitors.

San Diego's Navy: An Illustrated History

by Bruce R. Linder

The generously illustrated book tells the intriguing story of how a reluctant Navy department slowly realized San Diego's attributes and then took bold action to consolidate its position. This discerning history provides a sweeping and long overdue view of the city and base that has influenced the lives of countless thousands of American Navy men and women and their families.

San Diego Milestones - A Coming of Age Celebration

by San Diego Air & Space Museum

This book features a selection of 100 significant turning points in the history of San Diego, in honor of the 100th anniversary of San Diego's Panama-California Expositions.

A Natural History of California

by Allan A. Schoenherr

Abundantly illustrated, this natural history takes California apart, region by region, telling about its variety of landforms, habitats and wildlife. This updated second edition features new species, park details, information on the impacts of a changing climate on the state and new stories about people's interactions with the wild.

I Cover the Waterfront: Stories from the San Diego Shore

by Max Miller

Special reporter for the San Diego Sun Max Miller set down his impressions of the San Diego waterfront -- from the departure of the Sardine Fleet to the hunt for elephant seals for the zoo to the sailing of the California fruit liners -- capturing the romantic spirit of the harbor and deep-sea life.

Moon San Diego

by Ian Anderson

A practical guide in the Moon series, packed not only with travel necessities (hotels, restaurants, sights), but also with a good overview of history and destinations throughout San Diego.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to California

by Peter Alden

A compact, easy-to-use guide to 1,000 California trees, wildflowers, mammals, insects, birds and other flora and fauna.

The Romance of Balboa Park

by Florence Christman

The history of Balboa Park is a story of people, both male and female, who cared about San Diego's aesthetics and development. It is particularly a story of how their leadership and, frequently, their substantial financial contributions helped to create one of the best parks in the country.

Empire Builder: John D. Spreckels and the Making of San Diego

by Dr. Sandra E. Bonura

John D. Spreckels transformed San Diego from a bankrupt village to a flourishing city. He built empires in sugar, shipping, transportation, gas and electricity, real estate, newspapers, banks, breweries, and building development up and down the coast of California and across the Pacific. He acquired control of Coronado Beach Company, the Hotel Del Coronado and Coronado Tent City. He purchased the San Diego street railway system converting it from horse power to electricity, the newspapers: San Francisco Call, San Diego Union and the Tribune. He owned all of North Island, the San Diego-Coronado Ferry System, Union-Tribune Publishing Co., San Diego Electric Railway, San Diego & Arizona Railway, and Belmont Park in Mission Beach. Deep dive into the history and impact that John D. Spreckles had on creating the thriving city of San Diego.

California: A History (Modern Library Chronicles)

by Kevin Starr

Arguing that America’s most populous state has always been blessed with both spectacular natural beauty and astonishing human diversity, Starr unfolds a rapid-fire epic of discovery, innovation, catastrophe, and triumph. For generations, California’s native peoples basked in the abundance of a climate and topography eminently suited to human habitation. By the time the Spanish arrived in the early sixteenth century, there were scores of autonomous tribes were thriving in the region. Though conquest was rapid, nearly two centuries passed before Spain exerted control over upper California through the chain of missions that stand to this day. The discovery of gold in January 1848 changed everything. With population increasing exponentially as get-rich-quick dreamers converged from all over the world, California reinvented itself overnight. Starr deftly traces the successive waves of innovation and calamity that have broken over the state since then–the incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons and the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the heroic irrigation and transportation projects that have altered the face of the region; the role of labor, both organized and migrant, in key industries from agriculture to aerospace.

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Signature City San Diego

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At a Glance

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