Balboa Park is much more than a simple urban park, which I’ve made a point about in my post about Prado in Balboa Park. Balboa Park is a cultural oasis that includes 18 museums, numerous beautiful gardens and the world-famous San Diego Zoo. At 1,200 acres, Balboa Park is one of North America’s most renowned urban parks and a must-see on any visit to San Diego. – SanDiego.org
With that many museums, it’s definitely not possible to see them all in a day. I myself saw only two: The San Diego Museum of Art and the Japanese Friendship Garden and Museum. The Art Museum definitely isn’t as huge as San Francisco’s own, but it’s got enough to keep you in for an hour or two. Students and those that can pass as under 18 get free entry, with ticket prices $20 or under. It has 2 stories, and each floor contains several large rooms.
The first floor is bit of a maze, with multiple entrances to a room that can lead to another and another… The second floor is much easier to navigate, which each perspective room having just one entrance/exit. Even the bathrooms, which are on the first floor, have art installations (when available). There’s also a view from when you climb the stairs to the second floor of the San Diego Zoo.
After that tour, I walked on over to the Japanese Friendship Garden and Museum. Tickets are standard $16, with a slight discount to $14 if you’re a student. The majority of this place is the garden, and it’s a decent size that’ll make exploration of it much like a hike. The few buildings you can enter are temperature controlled if one needs a break from the outside. There’s a cute gift store somewhere in the garden (that also doubles as another museum building that features historic KitKat and Cup Noodle flavors) where you can Japanese stuff like candy (Hi-Chew) that isn’t overpriced for a quick snack.
