Balboa Park Guide: Museums, Concerts & Special Events in one of San Diego’s Most Popular Spots

Balboa Park, formally known as El Prado, is the premier spot in Southern California for museums. Built to bring awareness to the city of San Diego, Balboa Park includes 1,200 acres of land that houses everything from a small international town to some of the state’s best museums. Visiting this area is a full day activity, and even then, you probably won’t see everything. You can read more about the history of the park below or just explore some of my favorite museums through the many posts I have written on Balboa Park below as well.

Museums

These are just a few of the museums that I have visited and written about in the park. This section will expand as I visit more.

Other Attractions

Balboa Park also has many other spots to explore such as the Spreckels Organ Pavilion that has concerts and the San Diego Zoo, which the park is connected to. Plus, every year at Christmas they have a fun event that lasts for two nights and is called December Nights. You can read more about all of these below.

Additional Information

Getting There

You can get to Balboa Park from the 5 Freeway or from Highway 163. You can also use public transportation on a few different routes to get to the park. Once there, there are multiple parking lots around the area as well as street parking if you are OK to walk. During busy summer months, there can be shuttles to take you from different sections to the parking lot.

Cost

You can buy tickets to each individual museum you want to visit separately or you can buy a day or year long park pass to visit all of the 17 museums and the zoo. The park pass is a much better option if you plan on spending a full day there as it will save you money, but if time is limited then you might just want to buy a ticket to whichever museums you choose to explore. You can find pass info here.

History

Balboa Park was initially called “City Park” and it was set aside by city leaders in 1868. The park was expanded from 1903 to 1910 when the city installed water lines and roads through the park. In 1915 the park became the central location for the Panama – California Exhibition which was San Diego’s way of capitalizing on the building of the Panama Canal and the famous exhibitions held throughout the world during that time period. Around the same time the park was also named “Balboa Park” in honor of famous Spanish explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. The oldest museum in the park is the Natural History Museum which was founded in 1874. The park continued to expand over the 1900’s culminating in its hosting of San Diego’s millennial celebration “Expo 2000.” It now sits on 1,2000 acres and houses a full zoo and 17 museums, among gardens and other exhibits.

As you can see Balboa Park is full of things to explore, many of which I haven’t even got to see for myself yet. I would love to hear what your favorite spot is in the comments of this post, and be sure to check back as it is sure to expand as I visit more.