San Diego Public Transportation
 

Hello - Traveling to San Diego with the family - 4 of us total. Trying to avoid renting a car. Is that possible if we want side trips to La Jolla and Mission Beach? Is public transportation safe and reliable? What makes the most sense? Thanks in advance.

Explore this site, then if you have questions, come back to this forum.

http://www.sdmts.com/

While you can get to both Mission Beach and La Jolla from downtown, I don't think public transit is a realistic option for most people. It would be a very long trip, especially with kids. Driving would be so much easier. You could certainly limit your car to a couple of days rental and still see a lot.

Where are you staying? It's hard to give directions w/o knowing that.

Driving would be easiest to go to Mission Beach & La Jolla.
The bus is the least expensive option from Downtown or Old Town and would take about an hour one way. The #8 will take you to MB and then connect to the #30 to go on to La Jolla
http://goo.gl/maps/LkN41

http://goo.gl/maps/tb5Kk

You could also pay for a tour from the Old Town Trolley Tour Company
http://www.trolleytours.com/san-diego/beach-tours.asp

Sorry neglected to mentioned we are staying in San Diego near Little Italy. Seems like it makes sense to rent a car for a few days. Concerned about finding parking in La Jolla but will just have to get an early start.

Is there a local cab company that anyone can recommend for airport pick up or just to have as an option for different locations in San Diego....seems like 4 people taking a bus may be more expensive than a shared cab ride.

Thanks all the Fodor community really improves trip planning.

The train is pretty user friendly I think. You can take it from San Diego to other beach towns- just not LaJolla or MB. You can go to Carlsbad- which is a cute beach town and the station is just a block or two from the beach and easy access to shops, restaurants.

It also stops at other beach towns along the way.
When my daughter lived in Carlsbad, I would take the train to SD and then hop a bus to the airport- easy and inexpensive.

I love Carlsbad!

<<Is there a local cab company that anyone can recommend for airport pick up or just to have as an option for different locations in San Diego>>

No. The only cabs at the airport are the authorized airport taxis. So, you just go outside and follow the signs that say Taxis.

Once you are in Little Italy or Downtown you can hail a cab on the street pretty easily. If you want a couple of numbers for once you are here
SD Taxi Co 619.566.6666

Yellow 619.444.4444

There are parking structures in LaJolla in addition to [albeit limited] street parking.

Thanks everyone. Sunburn we are committed to La Jolla as we are doing a Kyak Cave Tour there so can't switch that. Don't mind renting a car for a couple of days will just allow lots of extra time to park.

When I went to La Jolla last fall, I found free street parking pretty easily and immediately in the mid-morning on one of the little side streets near the park.

Just to update anyone that may be following....we just returned from an excellent 6 days in San Diego. We used Uber for local rides and rented a car for 3 days to tour La Jolla, Mission Beach and Torry Pines. I have posted a trip report. Thanks for your help.

Great - thanks !