I am a bit leary of the traffic situation in San diego- is it possibel to site see in a rental car avoiding the super highways.? Also coming from FL. what airport should one fly into? What is the shuttle situation from the airports. Thanks

the traffic in that area is no worse than driving on I-95. Exits are well marked in advance. Just spent a week there and only problem was finding the zoo from the old town area.

We stayed at the La Quinta which was near an exit, and it was walkable to Old Town, about 1/2 mile.

Neverland2, you will probably need to drive on the freeway to site-see in San diego. (I live here.) Freeways aren't that bad as long as you avoid the work traffic times (avoid morning and after work commuters.)

What are you interested in seeing? If you are planning to see Sea World you can probably choose a hotel at Mission Bay and avoid getting on the freeway.

Freeways aren't that hard to drive on. You need to know your exit. It helps to have someone riding with you to help direct you. The main thing is when you are getting on the freeway, you have to merge at traffic speed...

Neverland2,

I had similar worries as you about driving in San Diego (and L.A.!) I visited the area in September. It was the best new-city-driving experience I have ever had. Even L.A. was pretty easy. I had some good navigation assistance from friends riding along, though.

I stayed at the Courtyard Marriott at Old Town and they did offer a free airport shuttle, although I didn't need it. I felt that staying in Old Town was a good choice for my visit. Went to the downtown area alot (for baseball), to Coronado, to the Zoo, to the Cabrillo Monument, and to Shelter Island for a sailboat trip. All very easy to find and get to.

Have fun and don't worry. You will make it!

If you can drive in Florida, you can certainly drive in San Diego. Both major highways are regular streets are well marked far enough in advance to allow even a visitor time to make decision. My husband gets lost everywhere, and he did not get lost in San Diego.

I think that freeway horror stories you may have heard are more indicative of Los Angeles area than San Diego.

Neverland2,
I think many flights from FL connect at DFW to SAN (Lindberg field) which is really conveniently "downtown".
In May we got a Ford Focus rental just up Laurel W. of Rt 5 for $13. per day (3 days were $44.+ incl taxes, etc.).
We stayed on Shelter Island, but other than airport traffic, we had no problems driving.
Getting lost in San Diego is not very stressful as it's a nice place to visit and fully prepared to deal with all tourists' needs.
M

I have travelled to San Diego quite a few times for business in and around the city.Since I am always alone on business, I will generally request the Neverlost GPS from Hertz when in a city that I don't know well.While the system is not perfect, it helps me to avoid bad spots and find my way quite well, particularly at nite, when I don't want to get lost in bad areas.
Driving in San Diego is not bad as long as you avoid the peak times - think about getting the GPS, for me it makes all the difference in the world.

driving the freeways in san diego is not stressful. get a good map, avoid coming into san diego between 7-9 a.m. or leaving between 4:00-6:00 p.m. i found the only confusing part was exiting and getting around downtown.