Visitors often go to Old Town San Diego to shop; Some of the stores sell pretty handicrafts. They can also go eat a large platter of tacos and enchiladas with a margarita.
While you’re there, try looking past all of that for at least a few minutes. Look inside the historic buildings, imagining life in early California.
Why is it “old”?
Old Town San Diego was the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1769, the Catholic priest Father Junipero Serra founded a Spanish mission here. In the 1820s, settlers approached the water in the Gaslamp Quarter, leaving “Old Town” behind.
Old San Diego Historic Park
Today’s Old Town San Diego focuses on the oldest area of the first settlement. Includes a State Historic Park and related historic sites outside of the park.
The State Historic Park occupies nine square blocks and preserves many historic structures. Five of them are built with adobe bricks. They include California’s first school, the state’s first newspaper office, a blacksmith shop, and a stable. These preserved buildings, each a small museum unto itself, give a glimpse of San Diego life from 1821 to 1872.
The stores sell a lot of Mexican-style pottery, tin work, and the like. If you just want to wander and shop, it will be easy, and you can extend your route outside of the park and down San Diego Avenue.
Even if you are a history buff, it takes a concerted effort to stay focused on the historic buildings in Old Town San Diego. Free tours of Old Town San Diego that depart daily from the visitor center are a great way to learn more about California’s early history.
Living life demonstrations of life in the 19th century are another fun way to connect with the past.
The park celebrates many festivals and historical events. During December, Holiday in the Park offers performance tours and re-enactments of the holidays in the 1860s.
Hunting ghosts
If you enjoy a good ghost story, try one of the night tours that start in front of the Casa de Reyes.
If you are looking for something more serious or if you are a history buff, try Old Towns Most Haunted. A local ghost hunter takes you on a walking tour of paranormal hot spots, using real ghost hunting equipment. This tour is the only one that takes you inside the historic Cosmopolitan Hotel after hours, where you will try to spot ghostly encounters. If that’s not spooky enough, you can also check out a 3D video that your guide has compiled during his ghost hunting forays. After this tour, you will not be able to stop looking in the windows for the woman in black or listening to the footsteps of that lonely cowboy.
And you won’t forget what it feels like to be in a vortex.
If humor and simple fun are more your type of ghost tour, then Haunted San Diego is for you. Their tours use a bus service to tour the enchanted places of the old town. The guides dress up in costumes and deliver information in a fun and theatrical way. This tour is considered a “storytelling adventure” and a joyous, fun and fun time.
Food
The restaurants in the old town area are directed towards the tourist side. Servers often wear frilly Mexican dresses, taking orders while dodging mariachi musicians. Portions are huge, so order conservatively, even if you think you’re hungry enough to eat the entire menu.
In the northwest corner of the historic town square, you will find more restaurants and shops at Fiesta de Reyes. Eating on the patio here is pleasant at any time of the day. Mexican food never seems to change even though the name of the place does it with some regularity.
Bazar del Mundo, once located here, is now on Taylor and Juan streets.
Old Town Market
The Old Town Market sits on the edge of the State Historic Park and offers more shopping opportunities. You can tour an adobe house rebuilt in 1853, a restored convent built downtown in 1908, and a new theater. There is also a museum of archaeological artifacts.
More places of interest
More historic sites are in the area, but outside the state park boundaries:
- Whaley House – One of only two certified haunted houses in California, just two blocks from San Diego Avenue.
- Junipero Serra Museum : Built on the site of California’s first Spanish mission, it honors the Father of the Missions. Exhibits include artifacts from the early settlement. Two blocks up Mason Street from Calhoun.
- Mormon Battalion : Tells the story of a 2,000-mile march to aid United States troops during the Mexican-American War. Near the intersection of Juan and Harney.
- Sheriff’s Museum : Celebrating the History of Law Enforcement. On Calle San Diego, just after Arista, next to the El Campo cemetery.
- Heritage Park : Seven Victorian style houses built between 1887 and 1910, preserved in a park setting. Juan Street in Harney.
Old Town offers a charming and romantic mix of whitewashed mud brick buildings and Spanish tile roofs. The wooden storefronts resemble many old western towns. However, in many ways, it’s more of a theme park-style mix than a slice of real history.
Don’t get that wrong. The state park does a good job of preserving the historic setting. It is the strange complement of the manufactured Mexican that seems manufactured. And it has little to do with what Old California was or what San Diego is.
We rate Old Town San Diego 3 stars out of 5. Its historic buildings attract those who love history, but otherwise, the stores cater to occasional souvenir shoppers. And you can find much of the merchandise sold here at lower prices elsewhere.
We asked our readers to rate Old Town and more than 1,400 responded. 57% rated it as good or impressive, and 29% gave it the lowest possible rating.
Get there
Head to San Diego Avenue at Twiggs Street.
By car, take the I-5 exit north of downtown on Old Town Avenue and follow the signs. Parking is free.
The San Diego Trolley (the train-style trolley that also goes to Tijuana) stops in the old town. So does Old Town San Diego Trolley Tours (a motorized coach).
