San Diego Conventions, Trade Shows, Conferences and Meetings
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Locating Convention Centers and Trade Shows in San Diego
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San Diego is the country's seventh-largest city, but it has managed to preserve a village-like atmosphere. With its Mediterranean climate, it is a city bathed in sunlight that glows over 320 square miles of hills, canyons, and an unsullied coastline with 30 glistening beaches. The city's cultural appeal certainly matches its visceral beauty. You can catch a downtown trolley and miraculously end up a few minutes later in a foreign country: Mexico.
San Diego's cultural and pastoral epicenter is Balboa Park, with its shaggy eucalyptus trees, looming redwoods, water lilies, and lush green lawns. This dreamlike park is also home to the world's preeminent zoo, where visitors find everything from koalas to giant pandas among more than 4,000 animals living in natural habitats.

Near the entrance to the park is the Old Globe Theatre. Fashioned after Shakespeare's, it is the oldest professional theater in California. The park's main street, the long and charming El Prado, is home to the largest concentration of museums west of the Mississippi, many of them housed within the grandeur of Spanish colonial-style buildings created for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.

Roam the area south of the Plaza de Panama and discover the lofty Spreckels Organ Pavilion. This 2,000-seat pavilion holds the wondrous 4,445-pipe Spreckels Organ--believed to be the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world. Year-round concerts attract big crowds, and at Christmastime, the pavilion looks magical with a splendid tree and life-size nativity display.

The blue San Diego-Coronado Bridge runs from the waterfront to Coronado. This posh city sits in the middle of the harbor on the tip of a peninsula and is home to North Island U.S. Naval Air Station and the mythic Hotel del Coronado, one of America's largest wooden buildings. Coronado's main thoroughfare is lined with flowers--its restaurants and shops maintain the look of a bygone era.
The colorful Horton Plaza, a glittering multilevel shopping marvel located downtown, stands in delightful contrast to the historic Gas lamp Quarter. This national historic district contains most of San Diego's Victorian commercial buildings. Keep an eye out for the charming mom-and-pop Cuban cigar factory, where lines of men hand roll fragrant stogies.

La Jolla, just north of the city, is California's Monte Carlo. La Jolla is home to a state university, the prestigious Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Salk Institute, and the La Jolla Playhouse--winner of the 1993 Tony Award for outstanding American regional theater. A little closer to San Diego glistens Mission Bay where Sea World, home to dolphins, killer whales, seals, and marine birds, is the main attraction.

Northwest of downtown, Old Town was designated a state historic park in 1968 and consists mostly of a spacious town square surrounded by restored buildings. The true beginnings of San Diego took place overlooking Old Town from atop Presidio Park, where Father Junipero Serra built the Basilica San Diego de Alcala (1769), the first church in what is now the state of California and also the first of his 21 missions. A ruin for years, the basilica was meticulously rebuilt in the 1920s.

Semi-tropical San Diego, with its mean temperature of 70 degrees F, Mediterranean-like white-washed stucco buildings and strong cultural influences from sunny Mexico, is as close to visiting a foreign country as visitors could get and yet, is as American as apple pie.

The heart of this clean city lies at the foot of the harbor just minutes by car from Lindbergh Field, where most travelers debark. Yet, modern San Diego has become much more than just a harborside city. Spanning from the North County beach areas to the South Bay cities along the Mexican border, San Diego is one of the top ten largest cities in the United States. While all these areas fall under the San Diego umbrella, each individual community maintains its own personality, geography and identity. Truly, in San Diego's case, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Downtown
Less than three miles from the airport is downtown proper. This thriving commercial area with its active waterfront is a bustling, colorful combination of major hotels, convention facilities, restaurants, nightclubs and shopping venues. Its focal point is Horton Plaza, an architectural masterpiece that holds trendy shops, lively restaurants, a theatre and even an ice rink during the holiday season. Just east of Horton Plaza is the Gaslamp District, a 16-block source of civic pride. Once slated for destruction, this area has been reclaimed by the people of San Diego thanks to the 1970s Redevelopment Plan. Where once dilapidated warehouses and run-down Victorian houses stood, and where no one dared to enter after dark, the Gaslamp District has now become the pulse of the city.

Due west of the city proper is the Embarcadero, a fun daytime location where visitors can take in leisurely views of the bay, hop aboard a harbor cruise or enjoy seafood at its finest. For shopping, visit Seaport Village, a 14-acre shopping and dining complex designed to emulate early California-style architecture.

Balboa Park
No visit to San Diego would be complete without a trip to Balboa Park. Home to the world-famous San Diego Zoo, the park is much more than a beautiful place to see exotic animals. Gardens and grounds in Balboa Park were established as a city park for the people in 1868. In preparation for hosting the Panama-California Exposition of 1915, a celebration of the opening of the Panama Canal, founding fathers, architects and master gardeners collaborated to create the fine Spanish Colonial Revival-style buildings and gardens that still grace the grounds today. Additional buildings were raised on the site in the early 1930s, this time incorporating the look and feel of the Mayan civilization and California's early indigenous peoples. Within the confines of the park, visitors can enjoy scores of museums and art galleries including the Museum of Man, San Diego Museum of Art, Timken Museum of Art and Spreckel's Organ Pavilion.

Old Town
For a taste of what San Diego was like in its earliest years, take in the sights and sounds of this colorful settlement, now preserved as a state historic park. Famous as the first European settlement in California, this area is also well known for its glorious year-round gardens, mouth-watering Mexican dishes, lilting Mariachi music and free-flowing margaritas. Be sure to spend a little time browsing through Bazaar del Mundo, truly a marketplace of the world.

Within easy walking distance from the center of Old Town is the Presidio, a must-see while in San Diego. This structure, now a historic landmark, is where Junipero Serra established the first of the Spanish missions in California.

La Jolla
A short drive up the coast takes visitors to La Jolla ("the jewel" in Spanish), and truly a jewel it is. Despite its dense population, the people of this affluent city have somehow managed to maintain its beautiful natural setting. Cliffs along the main streets overlook the beaches and coves along the Pacific Ocean; tropical vegetation creeps and climbs across red-tiled roofs and verandas; and sunsets at La Jolla Shores are simply spectacular. Beyond breathtaking oceanfront scenery, this seaside community is home to the Birch Aquarium, which features the largest oceanographic display in the United States.

North County
Travel a few miles further north along the coastal drive to reach Del Mar, another fine beach community. Famous for its racetrack, founded by Bing Crosby and fellow Hollywood cronies during the 1940s, this seaside town offers as much to families as it does to racing aficionados. Beaches here are clean and family friendly. Boutiques and open-air restaurants line the main street, giving it a Riviera-like quality. Just north of this city, visitors can find the renown Carlsbad Flower Fields and LEGOLAND California, great for those with young children in tow.

Moving inland, the city of Escondido is a quieter, more rural version of San Diego, replete with avocado and livestock ranches, vineyards and granite-strewn hillsides. The community hosts the San Diego Zoo's 2,200-acre Wild Animal Park, an extension of the city's world-famous zoo providing visitors a look at animals in the wild.

South Bay
Visitors would be remiss if they never traveled south from the city proper into the area referred to as the South Bay. The main city in this area is Chula Vista, home to one of San Diego's greatest music and entertainment venues, the Coors Amphitheatre. This entertainment complex provides state-of-the-art acoustics, VIP tables complete with cocktail table service, stadium seating and picnic seating on grassy knolls. Adjacent to the amphitheater, visitors (and especially their children) can cool off in the watery fun at Knott's Soak City U.S.A..

While each district of San Diego has an original flair, the various sections blend seamlessly into a thriving, cosmopolitan city. From the North County beaches to the downtown shopping districts, San Diego's first-class attractions consistently please tourists and locals alike.