Re: Transportation from LaJolla to SanDiego

My husband and I will be visiting San Diego in about 3 weeks, staying at the Torrey Pines Lodge for the duration. We have not been in this area before and want to visit the popular tourist sites; zoo, Coronado Beach, etc. We will not have a rental car. What are our options for getting to and from the hotel? Costs? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Transportation from LaJolla to SanDiego

The Torrey Pines Lodge is a lovely hotel however it would be much more pleasant for you to get around WITH a rental car. La Jolla is a neighborhood of the city of SanDiego but it is served only by busses not our small lightrail trolley(electric train) system. I believe your hotel offers a car/limo service within a certain mileage radius but I don%26#39;t think it will go very far.

Here is a link to our public transportation system. You can use its ';trip planner'; feature to get and idea of how and how much time it will take to get around.

www.sdcommute.com

From the airport you can take a taxi or a shared ride van. I do not think the car service from the hotel does airport pickups but you should ask.

I would think that the hotel is about 15 miles so taxi would cost about

$35and shared ride I amnot sure.

I believe that it would be more time /cost efficient to rent a car.

Re: Transportation from LaJolla to SanDiego

Thanks, Riffsmom, I%26#39;m glad to have that info before we arrive there. You are correct, the hotel does provide transportation within a 5 or 6 mile area. If we do rent a car, what will the traffic be like driving back and forth from Torry Pines to downtown S.D.? What are better times to make the trek to avoid the worst of the traffic? We are from quite a small town, not used to big city traffic, and when we travel we%26#39;ve usually had good luck with public transport or cabs, but we may have to break down and rent this trip, much as we both dislike driving! Any additional input would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I live quite close to your hotel. One of the reasons we ended up here is because we could ';outwit'; the traffic(work around it). I fyou go out sightseeing in the morning let%26#39;s say after 9AM(when the students at the local univ are inclass and folks have reached work at the nearby bio-tech firms)you will not have any traffic going south to the tourist areas you wish to see. We like to tell people that we live ';20min from everywhere';.

There is free parking inBalboa Park and a t OldTown.

Downtown if you park at the Horton Plaza Mall or the SEaport Village mall you get 2hrs.free with any small purchase.

Anyother mall will have free parking all day.

Coronado you can find street parking.

I fyou wish to minimize driving you COULD get the free car from your hotel to the Univ Town Center Mall where many busses there will take you to the Oldtown Transit center where you can access our lightrail trolley system. also at the Oldtown StatePark youwill find the hop on hop off tour which can then take you around to many sites. Some of the hotels can arrange a pick up for this tour so you should ask about that as well. See:www.trolleytours.com I donot usually go on tours but this one allows you to stay as long as you like in each place and is a very good way to get around .

Valuable information, Riffsmom, again my thanks. The public transportation would be a great way to see the city, but from reading other posts, as you said before, it may eat up some valuable time. If we drive into S.D. after 9:00 am as you suggest (which is probably what our routine would be) what would be a good return time in the late afternoon/evening to avoid commuters? You%26#39;ve been extremely helpful and I truly appreciate your input.

Strangely enough,it is the local streets that get more congested in this area than the actual freeway. There are many students going to and from the university and people going to and from work on Torrey Pines Road.

I have come home from work driving north(when I was working-retired now)at 4 or 5 in the afternoon with no prob on the freeway(I-5)

I drove downtown to meet people for dinner before the theater onFri at about 5:30 and was parked in my usual 20min.

My husband really did a lot of research on traffic before we moved here and so we deal with much less than in other areas of town. Of course what is ';no traffic'; to us might seem traficky to you .