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Medical Services

Mission Bay Hospital (Map; 858-274-7721; 3030 Bunker Hill St, Mission Bay)

Rite-Aid pharmacies ( 800-748-3243) Call for the branch nearest you.

Scripps Mercy Hospital (Map; 619-294-8111; 4077 5th Ave, Hillcrest; 24hr emergency room)

Money

You’ll find ATMs throughout San Diego.

Travelex (Map; 619-235-0901; 177 Horton Plaza; 10am-6pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm Sat, 11am-4pm Sun) For foreign-currency exchange.

Post

For post-office locations, call 800-275-8777 or log on to www.usps.com.

Downtown Post Office (Map; 815 E St; 8:30am-5pm Mon-Fri)

Tourist Information

International Visitors Information Center (Map; 619-236-1212; 1040-1/3 W Broadway at Harbor Dr; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat, 10am-5pm Sun) The on-site official visitors center for the city is located across from Broadway Pier, along the Embarcadero.

Old Town State Historic Park Visitor Center (Map; 619-220-5422; www.parks.ca.gov; Old Town Plaza; 10am-5pm) For in-person information about state parks in San Diego County, head to the Robinson-Rose House at the end of the plaza in Old Town.

SIGHTS

Downtown

San Diego’s downtown is adjacent to the waterfront in the area first acquired, subdivided and promoted by Alonzo Horton in 1867. Most of the land on the waterside of the trolley line is landfill. Until the mid-1920s the southern end of Fifth Ave was the main dock for unloading cargo ships; and junkets and fishing boats were once moored where the San Diego Convention Center now rises like sails over the bay.

Even if downtown generally lacks intense urban energy, you wouldn’t know it in the Gaslamp Quarter, the primary hub for shopping, dining and entertainment. The addition of PETCO Park baseball stadium has only enhanced this atmosphere. The Embarcadero is good for a harborside stroll.

In the northwestern corner of Downtown, Little Italy is a vibrant neighborhood close to the freeway, within walking distance of the harbor, and full of good eats.

GASLAMP QUARTER

When Horton first established New Town San Diego in 1867, Fifth Ave was its main street and home to its principal industries – saloons, gambling joints, bordellos and opium dens. While more respectable businesses grew up along Broadway, the Fifth Ave area became known as the Stingaree, a notorious red-light district. By the 1960s it had declined to a skid row of flophouses and bars, but the seedy atmosphere made it so unattractive to developers that many of its older buildings survived when others around town were being razed. In the early 1980s, when developers started thinking about demolition and rebuilding, local protests saved the area.

Wrought-iron street lamps, in the style of 19th-century gas lamps, were installed, along with trees and brick sidewalks. Restored buildings (built between the 1870s and the 1920s) now house restaurants, bars, galleries and theaters. The 16-block area south of Broadway between Fourth and Sixth Aves is designated a National Historic District, and development is strictly controlled. There’s still a bit of sleaze though, with a few ‘adult entertainment’ shops, but we’ll say they lend texture.

William Heath Davis House (Map; 619-233-4692; www.gaslampquarter.org; 410 Island Ave, cnr 4th Ave; admission $3; 11am-6pm Tue-Sat, 11am-3pm Sun) is one of nine prefabricated houses that Davis brought from Maine in 1850. This one contains a small museum with 19th-century furnishings. From here, the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation leads a weekly, two-hour walking tour (adult/senior & student $10/8, 11am Sat), but the tour’s risqué topics and stop-and-go walking aren’t appropriate for children.

Third Ave is the historic heart of San Diego’s Chinese community. Immigrants were once taught English and religion in the Chinese Mission Building, built in the 1920s and designed by Louis J Gill (minimalist San Diego architect Irving Gill’s nephew). Today it houses the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum (Map; 619-338-9888; 404 3rd Ave; admission free; 10:30am-4pm Tue-Sun). The small, white stucco structure has red tiles decorating the roofline, hardwood floors,