I love urban parks, and I love great museums. Put a bunch of museums in one of the most beautifully landscaped urban parks in America, and you've got San Diego's Balboa Park -- a 1000 acre park in the heart of the city. Most of the buildings date from the 1910s and are built in a Spanish baroque architecture. Elaborate embellishments adorn the buildings, which feature interior courtyards, domes, steeples, archways, and all the other hallmarks of classic Spanish design.

I really recommend allowing at least a day or more to visit the park, depending on how many of the museums you want to visit. Most of the museums are fairly small, and you can easily do two or three of them in one day. The zoo is also in the park, but I don't recommend trying to pack a museum into a day already filled by a zoo visit. This review describes a few highlights of Balboa Park...

San Diego Natural History Museum: Lots of exhibits about the natural sciences, including biology, anthropology, geography and botany. The current exhibit features a special Jurassic Park exhibition (in case the big dinosaur outside the front doors didn't clue you in). Admission will run about $7 per person.

San Diego Aerospace Museum: Fair-sized museum in the round. Nice collection of aviation exhibits spanning the 20th century. The center gallery features a replica of the Spirit of St. Louis and an exhibit about Charles Lindbergh (the plane was built in San Diego). Some of the other exhibits show manned space flight, and a mock up of a carrier deck. There is an extensive portrait gallery honoring various aviators and aerospace engineers for their contributions to the field of aviation. Admission fee is kind of steep (about $8), but the museum is quite nice and is sure to be a hit with the kids!

Reuben Fleet Space Theatre and Science Center: Small but modern science-oriented museum, mostly for kids. Has an Omnimax theatre (basically an IMAX on its side).

San Diego Museum of Art: I've heard that this museum has some excellent renaissance and old masters works, but unfortunately, all of the permanent exhibitions were closed when I visited last week. They had only one small gallery downstairs open, showing a special Eastman Johnson exhibition. For some bizarre and inexplicable reason, the museum actually tries to charge regular admission prices ($8) to see just one lame gallery!!! What gall! This has to be the museum rip-off scam of all times. I'd like to go back sometime when the museum is open, but I just refused to be robbed, so I left and walked on to another museum...

San Diego Museum of Man: I thought this was one of the more unique museums in the park. It's focus on humanity seems like a strange concept to base a whole museum around, but it actually works fairly well, despite the somewhat schizophrenic marriage of anthropology, sociology, art, and biology that team up in this museum. Many of the exhibits focus on culture, especially in the Americas, and cover indiginous art forms, as well as 20th century folk art techniques -- for example, there was an extensive exhibit about a very talented wood carver and another about an indian woman in the southwest who made pottery much like the famous black pottery of Oaxaca. Fascinating! There are also some exhibits showing the science behind DNA and the birth process, and an interesting exhibit about mummies. See my seperate epinion about this museum. See my detailed epinion on this fine museum.

Mingei International Museum: Great little museum that features temporary exhibits about the art and culture of various foreign countries. They currently have an exhibit on the art of Mexico and show several faces of that country's fascinating artistic history, from the carvings and codices of Mayan, Olmec, and Aztec cultures dating back centuries, to modern folk arts and crafts, to works by the country's great masters -- people like Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Frida Kahlo, and Jose Orozco. A nice introduction to a complex topic.

Automotive Museum: I don't know kid or any self-respecting guy who doesn't like looking at cars, and there's no better place in San Diego to do just that than at the Auto Museum. Lots of classics, including tons of old motorcycles and several race cars. Hudsons, Packards, Indians, Cadillacs, and lots more. This is not a huge car museum, but there are some interesting vehicles, and it's good for a couple hours of fun. Admission is about $7 per person.

Timken Museum of Art: This place was a surprise gem! The museum is fairly small, only two galleries, but it houses some outstanding iconographic pieces from old catholic and orthodox churches (some from the 13th century). You really can't look at these wonderous works without marvelling at the attention to detail and intricate workmanship that goes into every square inch. There are also some tapestries in the main hall, and several paintings from the 15th through 19th centuries, including three Rembrandts. Best surprise? Admission is free.

There's more to Balboa Park than just museums. There is a very nice open amphitheatre with a pipe organ that is played Sundays at 2pm (rain or shine). Adjacent to the organ is a japanese garden and a small tea room. There are also several small cottages arranged in a circle, each dedicated to the culture of a particular nation. Most of these are open only on Sunday afternoons, but when they're open, you can walk around and visit the cottages, sampling bits of different cultures and their foods.

One thing that I noticed about many of the buildings is that they may be difficult to navigate for handicapped people or families with strollers. There are lots of stairs and steps. While there is a free trolley that goes around the park, it too will be difficult for handicapped people to deal with.

Balboa Park is one of the most thoroughly enjoyable urban parks anywhere. Its beautifully landscaped rolling hills are a joy to walk through -- I can't think of many parks that are as nice. The park's wide range of museums provide plenty of diversions to keep any family busy for an afternoon or three. The only downside to Balboa Park is the steep admission fees charged by most of the museums (usually $8). If the fees were a little lower or less frequent, I'd have given the park my top rating (this really is a 5-star quality park), but the gouge wounds in my wallet really call for dropping the rating just a bit. Still a great park -- just bring a huge wad of cash if you really want to experience it.



Recommended: Yes