{"id":348128,"date":"2026-06-05T15:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348128\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T15:40:08","slug":"26-bucket-list-adventures-around-socal-for-your-summer-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/348128\/","title":{"rendered":"26 bucket list adventures around SoCal for your summer of 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is San Diego\u2019s backyard, a condensed, flatter version of Griffith Park, but with more historic buildings, more museums and a zoo with a global following. If you\u2019re a Balboa Park rookie, start with the San Diego Zoo<\/a>, which may take your entire day. (Admission: $68-$74 per adult, $58-$64 per child age 3-11.) If you\u2019ve already done that, well, it\u2019s lucky for you that the zoo is less than 10% of Balboa Park<\/a>\u2019s 1,200 acres, and the park\u2019s other institutions have been growing and changing.<\/p>\n

The park\u2019s emblematic 1914 Botanical Building is open again after major reconstruction that ended in late 2024. The Mingei International Museum,<\/a> which focuses on global folk art, won Michelin praise<\/a> in 2023 for its eclectic restaurant, Artifact at Mingei<\/a> (which serves lunch Tuesday through Sunday, dinner Thursday and Friday).<\/p>\n

The park\u2019s museums and other institutions cover art (fine, folk, contemporary and photographic), natural history, anthropology, flight, model railroading and all the imagined worlds that come with Comic-Con (which opened its museum here in 2021). <\/p>\n

The Old Globe<\/a> theater complex includes three stages. The big lily pond between the promenade and the Botanical Building may be the most wholesome over-the-counter tranquilizer in town. The Centro Cultural de la Raza, housed in an enormous former water tank, covers Chicano, Latin and Indigenous culture. The park\u2019s Japanese Friendship Garden & Museum fills 12 acres with greenery, koi ponds and bonsai displays.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re planning to hit several museums over a couple of days, look into a park Explorer Pass<\/a>, which might save you money.<\/p>\n

About parking: In January, after years of free parking, the city imposed a fee system charging non-residents $10-$16 per day<\/a> and residents slightly less. San Diegans rose in outrage, and in late May city officials announced a plan<\/a> to end the parking fees by Jan. 1, 2027. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is San Diego\u2019s backyard, a condensed, flatter version of Griffith Park, but with more historic buildings, more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2640,142614,2308,131217,142616,142615,142617,1458,8122,6199,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,24024,5931,315,72],"class_list":["post-348128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-a-m","tag-adamson-house","tag-art","tag-baby-grand","tag-bar-wall","tag-breakfast-and-lunch-restaurant","tag-docent-led-tour","tag-guest-room","tag-hollywood-bowl","tag-hotel","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-more-show","tag-summer","tag-time","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}