Avoya Travel Group

While the San Diego Zoo resides within the confines of Balboa Park, the park itself is worthy of a visit in its own right, as it offers an impressive set of attractions. As well as featuring the zoo, Balboa Park is also home to Mingei International Museum, the Natural History Museum and Aerospace Museum as well. The park is expansive, with its lush grass and scenery perfect for laying out on a blanket or just sitting on a bench and people watching as the afternoon unfolds. If you need to take a breather, there's no better place than Balboa Park!

Romance, music and a dash of history all prove to be the ingredients of the perfect romantic evening when you visit Gaslamp Quarter. Aside from being an obviously hip, lively collection of restaurants, clubs and bars that are part of the district's top-drawer nightlife, it's also a great vantage point to do some fun people-watching.

The Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in historic Balboa Park is a 234-seat indoor theater that produces shows for people of all ages, from pre-school to grade school to adults. The large stage is the perfect setting for several productions of various sizes. Marie Hitchcock was a puppeteer who used to conduct shows in Balboa Park and this theater was created in her memory after she passed away in 1994. So come and enjoy some great plays featuring several types of puppets that will appeal to the kid in all of us.