After a crazy Contiki, these two mlungus were back on their own four feet and hit the road heading south for San Diego. Although the Contiki ended, and left us in LA, we have both recently been to LA and decided to push on to places we hadn't been - especially given the size of LA and difficulty of getting around (we did, however, pop into The Standard Hotel where they shot a scene from Get Him to the Greek for a drink…had to do something Hollywood on our only night there).

All it took to get from LA to San Diego was a short 2.5 hour bus ride and it dropped us off in the middle of downtown, around the corner from our hostel. Bussing definitely has its advantages over flying especially when its short bus rides: much cheaper, equally comfortable, as long as it's less than about four hours it will be quicker than flying, and in the US you don't have to take your shoes off to get through bus security. If its longer than four hours then take an overnight bus and save a night's accommodation : )

So back to San Diego then. We never knew much about San Diego before we got there and really just took a shot in the dark for going there. But it turned out to be a winning choice. We stayed downtown in the Gaslamp district which is full of restaurants, bars, activity and nightlife. The hostel we stayed at was also great as they organized pub crawls and other night events that helped the foreigners to the city settle in much quicker and get a feel for the city. The city offers more than justdowntown though.

During our short stay, we managed to get to both of the main beaches. Ocean Beach is laid back with a hippyish, surfer feel and vibe. We started our day with the world's best $4 burritos from a hole-in-the-wall called Roberto's and we were also pointed in the direction of an awesome farmer's market on Newport Avenue which happens once a week, on Wednesday afternoons, where we managed to get some fresh fruit and fresh food - which by this stage had become quite a novelty for us. The other main beach is Pacific Beach. On our way to Pacific, we stopped in La Jolla, a beautiful up market area where you can get lost in the seaside parks and paths or walking through the streets of incredible houses. We also stumbled upon a weird seal beach that had hundreds of seals on it. Pacific Beachhas a cool board walk that runs the length of the beach and a long pier to get offers excellent views of the city. Unfortunately, the day we were there was quite overcast so we couldn't get the full experience, but I'm sure that when the sun comes out, this would be a place that we would hang around as its also filled with beachy restaurants and bars. It also inspired us to come back and see what happens there when the sun goes down and we weren't disappointed. It was a good change from downtown and offered a more laid back but still fun night out. The only problem with going out at night in San Diego (and as we would discover, most places in the US) is that drinks stop getting served, music stops and lights come on at 2am. I suppose it gives you time to stop off for a quick Big Mac before heading to bed…

In our opinion, San Diego was a great surprise. We arrived with no expectations and landed up staying a night longer than planned…and probably would've stayed more if we could.

Trek on…Brett and Darren

PS our full "where we stayed and how we got there" blog post is up to date for our entire America trip. We've also updated our plans blog post. Check them both out under the Johannesburg blog post link.