Where to stay in San Diego without a car Reddit

If you stay in Ocean Beach/Mission Beach/Pacific Beach you won’t be too far from the rest of the touristy things, and there would be enough nearby if you want to spend a few days just relaxing on the beach. They are all about a 30-40min bus ride from the Old Town Transit Center. From there you could take the trolley downtown or connect to any of the other beach cities. If buses aren’t your style and you can afford to Uber/Lyft around that would get you places faster. Public transit here is good in some places and worse in others.

Depending on what you like to do on vacation I might actually recommend just renting a car. To be honest, Southern California is built for cars. So it will remove the stress of having to figure out transit every time you want to do something. A lot of the stuff in SD is connected via bus routes but you could get somewhere in a quarter of the time driving than trying to rely on the transit. So if you plan to spend most of your time on the beach, then you could probably get by. If you want to get out and see a bunch then a car might serve you better.

r/sandiego

I'm heading to San Diego for business and am thinking of staying a few extra days to see the city. I'm not very familiar with the west coast but know from experience that it is very car-centric.

I don't mind taking Uber here and there, but would like to spend a day surfing or hiking in nature. Are any of these activities possible within or near the city itself?

Or should I just rent a car?

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Where are you staying? An Uber can easily get you to any of the beaches where you can rent surfing equipment. Hiking, depends on where you want to hike. You probably won't need a car for all of the days.

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It really does depend on where your staying

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If you're downtown, you're golden. Ferry across the bay to Coronado, bus or hike to Balboa Park (tons of hiking), bus to Ocean Beach, Sunset Cliffs, Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument. Or just hike Harbor drive.

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My family just spent a week here for my wedding. The only ones that rented a car was a family of 6 with a toddler. And a group that was driving up to San Fran after the wedding, the other 30 or so people ubered everywhere. And rode scooters. But mostly uber and Lyft. They were really happy to be able to go places and drink and not have to worry about driving

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Agreed with above on it being dependable on where you’re staying. But most likely, rent a car. Use the Turo app for the cheapest rates. Covers insurance too, and comes out to be wayyyy more affordable than anything you’d get with a rental company (esp. renting from airport), you can use debit or credit, and it’s easy to get the car/return it.

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Rent a car uber can get expensive especially if your staying down town. Most places rent boards near the beach so you won’t need to travel with it.

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I are apartment hunting for a few days in San Diego and are debating whether or not to rent a car. We'll mostly be traveling around Little Italy, Downtown, Core-Columbia, East Village, and maybe Gaslamp and Marina depending on the number of apartment showings we schedule. I guess I should mention that our hotel is in Little Italy.

Coming from Boston, we're used to walking/taking public transit/cab to pretty much every location in the city, but don't want to make the same assumption for SD.

Do you think it's possible to get around on the cheap using the aforementioned transportation modes, or should I just suck it up and rent a car? Also, how easy is it to hail a cab out there? Would I have to call one over the phone or can I walk up to the curb and expect to hail one within a few minutes? Any info is greatly appreciated!

Hello guys,

I have gotten an offer to do a semester at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla and I was wondering if I would have to get myself a car for half a year or if I can survive without one. I am used to driving on farily desolate Swedish roads and big city traffic is a little scary to me so if I can survive without it that would be great!

Thanks in advance, Alexandra

level 1

Although I wouldn't say you need a car, it would be much easier to get around San Diego with one. La Jolla is kind of spread out and full of steep hills and narrow roads. If you had a decent bicycle you could get around ok. If you wanted to visit the downtown, (Scripps La Jolla is about 10-12 minutes in a car) you could take the various trains or buses which is doable but most San Diegans drive to their destinations. Another really good option is using Uber/Lyft if you want to visit specific areas of SD and having a bike for the La Jolla area.

It really depends on what you want to see/do in San Diego. If you plan on remaining in the La Jolla area then you won't need a car. If you want to explore (Downtown, Balboa Park, Pacific Beach, North Park, Hillcrest, Coronado, Del Mar, Encinitas) then you will definitely need a car or at least an Uber (relatively inexpensive to use in the day). The good thing about San Diego is we have big wide freeways and decent roads (for the most part). As long as you don't drive during rush hour on either the 15, 805, 5 freeways then you will be fine!

Hope this helped.

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Thank you for a detailed response. I might just lease a car for however long I end up staying there. If it turns into a longer stay I guess I'll bite the financial bullet and buy a used car.

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Doesn't UCSD have a free shuttle between the main campus and Hillcrest?

Also, there's the 150 bus that takes you from UCSD to downtown in 30~35 minutes.

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there is a bus that goes from Scripps Hillcrest to Scripps La Jolla for students and personel.

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It's easier to live here with a car, but for one semester, of course you can live without one. Look up bus routes that go your lab building, and find a place to live that is on that route. Because the weather is nearly never bad here, you can walk 10-15 mins to a bus stop, assuming you are able bodied. You can walk, bike, or uber/lyft for random errands and social outings. The major thing you'll miss out on is fun weekend road trips around California... but if you dislike driving, those aren't so fun, I suppose.

I work at UCSD and I commute by bus. It's totally doable.

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I think I might go for a used car and try to sell it after I am finished. If I get my way I'll be staying for more than six months and possibly up to three-four years and at that point not having the autonomy of a car would suck. Maybe in that time I'll get used to the big city traffic and then just be an awesome driver when I get back to Sweden!

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Yes. I'm on year 4 car free in san diego. I bike to work most days and use lyft to go out places. It's easy if you live a reasonable distance from your workplace.

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I did for half a year.. That being said, public transportation here is str8 ass and if your school is to far away to bike to you'll have to either find someone to carpool with, uber/lyft, or spend like an hour and a half on busses.

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· 6 yr. ago · edited 6 yr. ago

Rolando

Especially in La Jolla since all the rich old people block any attempts to expand the trolley routes up there.

Edit: Not sure why I was downvoted. Read the La Jolla Light letters to the editor. They literally think that expanding the trolley line will bring in homeless people and college partiers. I worked in La Jolla for years and it was a frequent topic of conversation in the paper. They also complain about helicopters flying over them. They're very territorial.

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The 30 bus goes pass by Scripps so if you live near along that bus route it should be okay, but then again the bus is so slow.

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Probably. When I first moved here, I went about nine months before buying a car. The important thing is that you pick your place with your commute in mind. Do you mean Scripps Institution of Oceanography or Scripps Research Institute? SIO would be easier than SRI because it has a bus route (30) that connects to areas with affordable housing and a shuttle running between it and USCD. SRI also has a bus route (101), but it runs less frequently and connects to more expensive coastal suburbs.

Once you have your commute worked out, you might be able to get by using services like Uber/Lyft/Zipcar.

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The area around UCSD has one of the biggest bus hubs. Also, UCSD is pretty good about getting people around their campus on buses. You should try to see if there is a bus that drops you off where you work. Then check where you might live and whether you can avoid switching buses. If you're only here a semester, you can take ubers and lyfts to anywhere you want to check out in your free time.

As far as grocery stores go, around UCSD there are quite a few but if you're on on-campus housing you might be pretty far from them.

It's so much easier to have a car here. Though it's doable to live without one if you live, work, and stay in a specific area most of the time.

Also, biking is possible but hard in that area because most of the area is hills.

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Live near Scripps and a grocery store. That's most of your average daily life, right? Check apartments you're considering on sites like Walkscore.com to get an idea of what's around them. Consider maybe getting a cheap bike. Then just plan sight-seeing vacation-y stuff in advance with the help of bus routes or scheduled taxis, and voila, you're car-less.

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I have been living in San Diego for pretty much my entire life. I never learned how to drive (would LOVE to learn by the way) but have been using public transportation for the better part of the last 31 years.

I would like to say, Yes, you can survive San Diego without a car. Is it annoying sometimes? YES. There are places I need to definitely plan out a day trip for by working with the bus/trolley schedules and some places that are just simply out of reach if I just wanted to go (Alpine, Temecula, Legoland, Disneyland, those types of places). For trips to the store, I generally have a large backpack and for the larger trips, a small cart. Even a trip from Downtown SD to La Jolla can a good amount of time. It just takes a lot of planning and patience.

While you can survive San Diego without a car, I for one would love to own a car.

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It has been 7 years of car free in SD for me. I use the bike and bus/trolley everywhere. I will be happy to help you here online, as well in person give you a detailed overview of how to go anywhere.

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Get an apartment in La Jolla Village or UTC, get a bus pass. The 30 bus goes right by SIO, so that is probably your best bet - look up its route and find something walking distance to one of its stops. The village of La Jolla is really walkable, and UTC has buses that run pretty regularly from 7am-10pm. Find out if SIO's ID will get you on UCSD buses, because I'm not sure. It is doable, especially with Uber/Lyft these days. There will be inconveniences, but buying a car is also a big hassle.

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I've lived in San Diego for 20 years with no car. It can totally be done, but as others have said, our public transit system is kind of patchy. I work at UCSD and live in North Park. I'm not sure if you clarified in a comment which "Scripps Institute" you mean - there are a bunch of similar-sounding things. But all of them have some public transit that goes by. Your challenge will be to find housing along the bus route that goes to your Scripps because transfering adds a lot of time as our bus route schedules never seem to line up neatly. So if you can only have one bus to take you'll have a better time.

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I lived in SD (near UTC) for 2 years without a car and worked near Scripps Research Institute in Torrey Pines. Not sure if that is what you're referring to, or if it's the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. But in any case, I took the 101 bus from UTC, which is a 30 min bus ride. Depending on how far the stops are, it can be 30-60 mins door to door.

If you want to minimize your commute time, I would recommend you live south of UCSD (La Jolla Village). There are several grocery stores in the area, and it is fairly walkable.

If you want to visit downtown or other parts of the city often, I would live closer to UTC (La Jolla Crossroads or the other side of Genesee Ave between Regents Rd and Genesee Ave). Your commute would be slightly longer but there are several buses that depart from UTC. There's also a lot of shops and restaurants in the area.

Having said that, when I lived there, Uber Pool and Lyft Line weren't available yet, so living near a transit hub may not be a major factor anymore.

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What are your thoughts on getting a lease for six months to a year? It looks like the pricing plans are rather hefty if you opt for shorter lease times... :(

level 1

You can get along without a car depending on where you live. Check the transit routes and pick housing that is served by one of them. La Jolla has done a good job of limiting public transit and some areas are hard to get to/from without a car. Most of the public transit allows bicycles, so you could get a bike and ride to the nearest bus stop.

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· 6 yr. ago · edited 6 yr. ago

University Heights

Short answer: Yes, as long as you live close to where you work. But going places will be kind of a hassle w/o a car. Public transport leaves something to be desired here in comparison to other major cities.

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