San Diego in November...just my husband and I. Never been before. Any recommendations of what to do and see?

The desert around there is amazing. Joshua Tree NP makes a fantastic day trip. If you have a car, make sure to go for a cruise down the coastline too, it's amazing.

Zoo, aquarium, red line train to mexico, old town. Board walk...

Thoughts also on public transit versus car rental?

Candace if you ook in advance, you can get a car rental from the airport for under $11/day. Cheaper than paying for transit and easier to get around. Bring your gps as roads are kind of confusing when you first start

Pacifica car rental was fairly priced and parking DT overnight or day can be pricey. But all along the streets are some bike rentals and scooters you can jump on and rent cheap..and easy to get around.

Following

When in November?? If you are there the last weekend the Trolley does a christmas light tour and carolling, as well there is a huge festical on the first saturday after thanksgiving at Balbao park. Lots of Food booths from around the world, and christmas progrmas on the big open stage.

No matter what Balboa Park is great. Lots to see and Do. you can get a pass for the zoo as well as the gardens and museums. Old town is worth a visit

USS Midway. Old Town Trolley tour to LaJolla. Muir Woods

Lots to see and do. No need for a car. Public transportation is excellent. Harbor tours, hop on hop off tours, Old Town, go to Mexico on the train (cheap and easy), Balboa, Sea World, Zoo, take the train up the coast.

Take the trolley tour for an inexpensive way to get a look at most of the interesting areas of the city then use the rest if your stay to explore further the ones you liked best! Pick up athotel and lasts all day. Hop on hop off at numerous sites.

Thanks for all the great comments! Your ideas are super and I'm really looking forward to going.

Balboa Park

USS Midway

Accommodations… Looking for recommendations???

Cheryll we've already booked those, but thanks. Nothing fancy....don't plan to spend much time at the hotel. Not sure of the hotel address - don't have it on me.

Candace
That’s what were interested in… If you have time to check it out for me

Cheryll ah...
. I'll try to remember to let you know how it turns out - both in terms of nice place to stay and location.

holiday inn bayside

USS Midway Museum

Del Coronado Hotel and beach...must see.

Pacific Beach!

La Jolla is really great - cool seal beach there where the seals have taken over the place.

If you stay downtown everything is close to these attractions. San Diego Zoo or Safari Park. The USS Midway aircraft carrier museum, Drive over the bridge to Coronado Island, very pretty..stroll the main drag and see Hotel Del Coronado.
DT lots of great restaurants in Little Italy or Gaslight area by Petco Park. Balboa Park near the zoo and Legoland. A short drive to Old Town is the old San Diego with a Mexican market. About a 35 minute drive up the coast is La Jolla, beautiful place and a sea lion colony and neat shops/food - Crabcatcher restaurant had excellent seafood snd wonderful views and we found a Groupon which was 60% off.
You can also check out online a GO pass for GoSanDiego as you can get discounted tickets to most attractions and some DT hotels offer those for guests depending on how many nights stay.
We just got back from SD two weeks ago and loved it, stayed at Westin DT, great price for a lovely hotel and they have valet parking for 49p/night with another parkade behind for $25 from 6pm to 11am next day, cheapest we found other than a few hours of street parking.
So much fun and so much to do. Hope you have a a great trip.

If you rent a car you can head north to Torrey Pines, head over to Coronado, up to La Jolla.
San Juan Capistrano and Dana Point are about an hour north and you can take a ferry over to Catalina Island.
If you want you can drive or walk across the border and visit Tijuana which has the most enormous flag over ever seen

Go on expedia and buy a San Diego go card, depending on how many days you will be sight seeing. We went last July bought it before we left in Canadian dollars, we got the 3 day pass only but they offer longer. We had a choice of over 40 different attractions to see, could go as many as you want in those 3 days. Really good saving and you don’t have to worry about extra US money to take for attractions. Considering this was a kids trip, Lego land was $103US to get in each! Zoo, and sea world equally expensive. We were quite please we had the go card, saved a lot of money( exchange rates etc)

Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in LaJolla. Amazing place! https://aquarium.ucsd.edu/

Phil's BBQ

I have families there , i ll ask my cuz if she know of a good abnb there. Hotels are not cheap. If we spend overnight i take Holinn bayside. If it’s ur first time n no kids, there’s endless choices. What do u feel like doing?
Haunted houses? Mission bay, ?
Transit will eat much of ur time, San Diego’s traffic is horrible.

Min we have a hotel already, but thank you. It's nothing fancy but will do. Is public transit any good?

I guess when u have lots of time but if you want comfort, rental cars are good, and it comes with toll fees already. Pls pass by Gaslamp and Save the kiss
by the base.

We stay Holiday in express. They drop you off at the airport, zoo, and balboa park. They don’t drop you off at Sea world but will drop you off at bus station which is not a far ride.

Phil’s BBQ! Fabulous food and fun atmosphere

Coronado beach area is a lovely area... same with La Jolla! Be sure to visit Seal Beach too!

Just to close the loop…
We are back from San Diego and, thanks to all your posts here, had lots to choose from. With only 6 days to work with, this is what we chose (and what we thought of the experience):
1) Our hotel was an excellent location but a poor-quality establishment. This was our own choice – not suggested here – but for anyone following this thread, I do not recommend the Best Western Seven Seas. However, the “Hotel Circle” location was perfect. No more than 15-minute drive from most of our activities, and maximum 25 minutes from the longest.
2) Shopping at Fashion Valley and Mission Valley (?). Lots to choose from and some Christmas shopping completed.
3) The Zoo…OMG, I was surprised how big it was. I’d been to the Calgary Zoo and thought it was huge but this offered even more. It took a full day (10 AM to 5 PM) to see almost the whole thing. A great choice.
4) Phil’s BBQ – a great choice especially for my meat-lover husband who couldn’t decide between the beef ribs, the pork ribs and the sausage….so, he didn’t.
5) Probably my favourite was Coronado Island. We spent a whole day there, walking orange Avenue and both beaches. What a beautiful, relaxing place. And a gorgeous sunset sitting on the sand looking out over the Pacific Ocean. When I win the lottery, I plan to stay at the Hotel Del Coronado.
6) My close second favourite were the seals / seal lions on the beaches of La Jolla. Amazing – so close. Interesting fishy smells too
.
7) Thank you to those who mentioned the Crab Catcher restaurant (La Jolla). It was absolutely delicious and my favorite eatery of the trip. I had the stuffed mahi mahi, and my husband had the tuna. Yum!
We spent one evening in Old Town – a brief walk around followed by a Ghost Bus Tour. It was good fun!
9) A food tour (BITE) took us through Little Italy and Gaslamp. The guide did a good job and I tasted my first margarita. I think I liked it.
10) We toured the USS Midway and the Maritime Museum. This was my husband’s choice but I found that I quite enjoyed it as well. If you go, be prepared for lots of stairs. And make sure you take time to listen to the various volunteers (docents) on the Midway – retired military men and women. Some great presentations.
11) We chose to rent a car and I think it was a good idea. As someone here mentioned, the GPS was essential. San Diego roadways are very “creative” to say the least. What a web of highways – and we drove most of it after dark. Another adventure all on its own.
Thank you again to everyone for your help in preparing for our trip.