Los Angeles to San Diego: USS Midway & Old Town Tour

Free cancellation

1/6

Duration10h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Three hours south: what you'll find at the USS Midway and why it matters

You travel from Los Angeles to San Diego with a driver who knows the route and handles all the timing. You spend time at Old Town's historic district and walk through the USS Midway Museum at your own pace, then pass through Balboa Park's 1,200-acre grounds. The three-hour drive each way is built into the day, and you return to Los Angeles in the evening without arranging transport yourself.

10h

Step-by-step itinerary

Los Angeles to San Diego tour

Drive from Los Angeles to San Diego
Visit Old Town San Diego
Tour USS Midway Museum
Explore Balboa Park
Return to drop off location

The Experience

What if you could stand inside a decommissioned aircraft carrier that served through Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, all in the same day you walk through the oldest European settlement in California? The drive from Los Angeles to San Diego takes three hours each way, but the route splits into three stops that don't feel rushed. Your guide handles the navigation and timing, which means you're free to actually look at things instead of checking a map.

Old Town San Diego comes first. It's the centuries-old neighborhood where the first European settlement took root in present-day California, and it still looks the part — adobe buildings, narrow streets, the kind of place where you can feel the layers of history without a lot of explanation needed. The area includes Old Town San Diego State Historic Park and Presidio Park, both on the National Register of Historic Places. You'll have time to walk around, grab lunch if you want, or just stand in a plaza and let the architecture sink in.

Then there's the USS Midway Museum itself. The ship was commissioned eight days after World War II ended and held the title of world's largest ship until 1955 — it was also the first U.S. aircraft carrier too big to fit through the Panama Canal. You walk the decks where crews lived and worked for 47 years, through Vietnam, through Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The museum is self-guided, so you move at your own pace through the hangar bay, the flight deck, the captain's quarters. It's the kind of place where time moves differently.

Balboa Park sits just blocks from downtown, 1,200 acres with 17 museums, gardens, and the San Diego Zoo if you want to add that on your own. Most tours give you a pass-through — enough to see the Spanish Colonial architecture and get a sense of the scale — but it's also the kind of place you could spend a full day in if you came back. The air-conditioned vehicle waits between stops, and bottled water is included, so you're not managing logistics while you're trying to absorb things. You get dropped back to your Los Angeles location once the day wraps.

What’s included

Hotel or location pickup in Los Angeles.
air-conditioned vehicle with experienced driver.
entry to USS Midway Museum.
stops at Old Town San Diego Historic Park and Balboa Park.
bottled water.
all fees and taxes.
return drop-off to your Los Angeles location.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyInfant seats availablePublic transport nearby

Operated by BARBIL TOURS

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see San Diego's major landmarks in one day without renting a car or planning the three-hour drive yourself — the fixed itinerary and included transport mean you show up and move through the day without logistics getting in the way.

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