Neighborhood Guides in San Diego

A 6,512-foot peak, a weekend train through Campo, mineral pools, Laguna forest trails, old-school candy, and a backcountry day worth an early start.

French dinner on Adams, 15 neighborhood gates, Central Vietnamese specialties, tiny-library charm, and a streetlamp walk with 1920s San Diego history.

Ten Liberty Station, Midway, and Harbor Island stops for market counters, working studios, bayfront parks, mini golf, and waterfront dinner.

Nine Miramar stops for a brilliant San Diego day: brewery rituals, distillery classes, quiet spa time, Indian groceries, coffee, and jets overhead.

Six Poway adventures for the day you want lake air, a weekend train, a canyon walk, a sunrise trail or breakfast with cinnamon bacon pancakes.

Ten Rancho Santa Fe stops that open the gates a little: citrus-grove casitas, Chino Farm produce, a Sunday market, village lunches, and trails.

A summit above the city, a lake road for long walks, Mission Trails history, and San Carlos food-and-drink stops that turn trail time into a full day.

Scripps Ranch has a reservoir loop, 26-beer draft list, weekend French breads, Italian sandwiches, Sunday concerts, and late-night boba.

Mission Trails at the end of the road, a City canyon path, and Tierrasanta and Serra Mesa kitchens that turn scattered plazas into a food crawl.

A whiskey tasting built around four kinds of wood, refuge trails for hikers, bikes, and horses, a 360-degree hilltop, smoked meat, and 27 bagel flavors.

Estuary boardwalks, a landmark pier, a surf-history art route, a flat ride toward Silver Strand, and a park above the sand — plus the shoreline closure you need to know about first.

A sandstone slot canyon at the lagoon, a bluff-top park with the sunset on it, a club that books above its size, and a design street you can walk to from the train.

A morning birrieria, San Diego's surviving drive-in, a real river-valley trail system, border shopping, and the exact rules that keep CBX useful.

Syrian charcoal cooking on East Main, a climate-smart garden, Iraqi and Chaldean plates on Jamacha Road, a renovated theater, working aircraft, and two small museums.

A free wild river, a wedding estate that opens its gardens, a hundred-year-old nut farm, Argentine fire on a hilltop of vines, a gallery on South Main, appointment-only wildlife, and 27 acres of oaks.

A rescue sanctuary, a hawk that returns to your glove, camels on ticketed dates, two early-start outdoor anchors, a winery patio and an Alpine taproom.

A summit you can drive to, an easy one-mile lake loop, a marina that will rent you a pontoon, a Friday market and a Saturday plaza, and a free botanical garden hiding inside a community college.

Seven lakes with paths all the way around, a reservoir open past dark, a river trail with a mister on it, a chaparral loop, a $4 disc-golf round, and a free lake loop with a skatepark on it.

A walk from the train to the seawall, a theme park sized for small kids, a studio that puts hot glass in your hands, two museums worth the drive, both lagoons, and a ranch full of peafowl.

Coronado's widest sand, the free museum inside the Hotel del, the $9 ferry, a flat bike loop, Dog Beach, Sunday concerts, and a resident theater.

La Jolla's ten best things to do, ranked across the coast, wildlife, sea caves, the summit view, Birch Aquarium, MCASD, surf culture, live performance, and the closures that change the plan.

A street market that takes over six blocks, a fire station still full of engines, a piazza walk with the neighborhood's history in it, a gallery circuit, and a bocce block.

Free adobe museums, a 2.5-acre Kumeyaay exhibit, the 1857 Whaley House, a cemetery under the sidewalk, and a hill with a tower on it.

Pacific Beach's six best things to do, from the oceanfront boardwalk and Crystal Pier to the Kate Sessions sunset lawn, Tourmaline's longboarders, the Tuesday market, and one hidden tiki room.

A county-scale wildlife park, two serious trail systems, monumental mosaic art, a real arts campus, San Pasqual wine country, and a brewery garden built for a crowd.

A tiny outdoor cinema, a former-cemetery park, a 1910 nursery, one very serious wine room, and live-fire dinner — the five Mission Hills stops that justify leaving the car.

An aircraft carrier you can walk onto, a flat waterfront route, a Padres night, a climb-aboard fleet, an outdoor stage on the bay, and three stops that cost nothing.

The Giant Dipper, the boardwalk south to the jetty, a bay launch you can paddle straight out of, Fiesta Island, one complete family cove, the Plunge, and South Mission volleyball.

An open-air roller rink, a free public-art walk on Imperial Avenue, serious barbecue on Market Street, a wellness coffee bar, a landmark library, and Jamaican cooking in Encanto.

Theater under the stars, working machinery, a volunteer-built garden, a preserved adobe, and the Saturday market that makes the city feel agricultural again.

A day at the races, a park that falls onto the sand, a low-tide walk south, Dog Beach, a sunset lawn, parrots, and a public deck over the ocean.

Bonita's six strongest stops — destination strudel, two genuinely different parks, the original TJ Oyster counter, local history, and a Baja-Med dinner.

A 1928 giant lemon and a 65-foot history mural, weekend barbecue, dinner in the historic Sonka building, a rescued-church museum, and a library with a 3D printer.

The valley's best park, a seafood truck at Hazard Center, a vertical wind tunnel, a new river loop, a climbing gym, and a Hotel Circle steakhouse.