San Diego · SELF-GUIDED TOURS
Good self-guided tours fill up weeks ahead and the great ones go first. Below: the 9 to book early, what each includes and how they differ.
Drive San Diego at your own pace, from Mission Bay and La Jolla to Balboa Park and Mt. Soledad, with GPS audio guidance.
“There are a limited number of times you can stop and start the app. We stopped to look around and the app said I had used it all up by the first few places.”
Drive from Escondido to Julian through mountain overlooks, Palomar Observatory, desert sculptures, Anza-Borrego, and apple-pie country.
“After grabbing some coffee my husband and I started the tour with our children. We really enjoyed this tour because it was at our own pace and we got to do it in the comfort of our own car. I loved the areas this tour covered because the views were so beautiful. We would have never chose to go out of our way to do this otherwise. And the fact that we were learning about the history and finding other gems to travel back to, like the observatory. I highly recommend this tour to adults and families alike. You will be so glad you treated yourself. The set up is…”
Explore Old Town San Diego with a flexible phone-based trivia hunt featuring historic sites, puzzles, teamwork, and live support.
“What a great way to explore and learn about Old Town San Diego! There were a variety of puzzles. It was well-thought out and a lot of fun! I highly recommend it!”
Explore Balboa Park through a private puzzle game with gardens, art, theater, 12 clues, and a flexible 4.2-mile walking route.
“Loved that the game pauses to allow time at each place the game takes you. Loved the artist village, the gardens”
Zip through San Diego on a GPS scooter tour covering Little Italy, the harbor, Gaslamp, Balboa Park, and more in one fast hour.
“Best experience ever!! I was super scared at first. Especially because this was my first time drive anything that fast, but after a bit practice, I had the time of my life. It had me excited the whole time, not once was I bored.”
Solve clues through San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter on this $7.22 self-guided phone game, with ten historic stops and flexible timing.
“There was nothing memorable about this game. The directions to the 2nd sight didn’t work. Game over. Very disappointed.”
See Little Italy, Balboa Park, Old Town, and the harbor on a GPS-guided electric scooter tour from $81.56 per person.
“Great way to tour the city. We were in the two person electrical car and we could stop and go as we like. The narration was interesting and easy to understand. The only problem we had was that the GPS had to be reset by phone midway through the tour.”
Review of San Diego’s two-hour nighttime GoCar tour through Gaslamp, Seaport Village, Balboa Park, and waterfront sights.
“Excellent customer service had a really great time riding the car most fun I had in a while will definitely recommend this to everyone”
Explore San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter at your own pace with a low-cost audio walk covering Chinatown, Balboa Theatre, and the U.S. Grant.
“I didn’t do the tour. I paid and received instructions by email on how to download the app Welcome Walks. You must create an account and sign up to use the app and this is where I encountered problem. The app wouldn’t let me register an account, it kept displaying an error. I deleted and downloaded the app again multiple times, tried using different emails, it just wouldn’t work. I sent a message to the tour operator and they gave me a phone number for their tech guy immediately. He even called me himself but couldn’t fix the problem, he said he would escalate it to a different team and…”
Pick a stretch of coast, a park or a taproom.
