Anyone been to San Diego?

The Failed God

Im heading off on J1 this summer and haven't decided where to yet, im thinking west coast and san diego sounds pretty good to me. Anyone have ny opinions?? Another plus is that im only 19 and san d is only a stones throw from Tijuana and just mexico in general if theres a problem with drink..

LegacyUser

Tijuana is an absolute kip. It is the dodgiest place ever. It is only worth going to once for the experience of a complete dive and to pay a visit to the Mexican "Annabells".

BrayHead

I used to live in Orange County which is in between LA county and San Diego County. San Diego is pretty cool, lots of summer jobs there at Sea World, down town in the Irish bars etc. I met several J1's working in the bars there. I would prefer San Diego to San Francisco and LA. Orange County has some great spots - you could try Newport Beach/Costa Mesa or Huntington Beach.

Rcuomo

i spent last summer in san diego, its a really cool place, the only draw back i found was that there were too many irish people tbh...having said that there was never a lack of a house party to go to which was good, i stayed in pacific beach which is apparently the best place to stay in terms of accomodation, near the beach (obviously), there's a good few bars, clubs, retaurants and close enough to seaworld downtown if you want to work there...mexico is a great place, tijuana is a dive but still fun if you watch yourself, wednesday nights i irish night in safari, basically a couple of thousand pile into the one night club, but they do strange things to the drinks so just be careful! further down the pennisula is much better, places like san felipe and ensenada are great fun and good places to go for the weekend...
san diegos a great place too becaues of its vicinity to las vegas, the grand canyon, hoover dam etc...rent yourself a car and you're there in 5hours i think...basically s.d, paticularly pacific beach, is a really laid back beach chillin' surf cathing place to go... other options close enough to s.d are as the above post mentioned, the o.c, santa barbara is really good ive heard, a sort of slightly upper scale university place...

The Failed God

Right right all sounds excellent! What would your opinion on how much of a drawback being under21 is there?Is it extremely strick? Does it cut down on the fun??

LegacyUser

Isla Vista in Santa Barbara would be the best place to go if you are underage. It really is....all house parties and no need to go to pubs/clubs....also a much better set up than San Diego....I had the best summer there...

BrayHead

Being under 21 is a major problem in California. They are Nazis about this in terms of going into bars. They will only accept US drivers licence or a passport or irish drivers licence. I'm afraid this is one of the big problems for J1's ...

melekalikimaka

ha good luck getting isla vista this year

Rcuomo

yea i forgot about that whole thing with the irish students and the thrashing of the apartment in i.v, it was pretty difficult for irish lads to rent an apartment in san diego last summer, i predict it'll be a nightmare next summer. When we rang a number to rent an apartment last summer the minute they realised it was an irish guy they either lied & said the apartment was gone or just said im not renting to you irish, 'your reputation precedes you'... the best thing to do there is get girls to ring for you even if theyre not staying with you, just to get your foot in the door...
as for the under 21 thing, you probably will have trouble getting in anywhere in s.d without proper i.d but as i said if you like house parties then you'll be grand, although imo they got old after a while so it was handy being over 21 cos there's some good bars/nightclubs to go on garnet in PB. also with mexico across the border at least your wednesday nights will be sorted...go on weekends aswell cos all the american women go then and party...(if you're into that of course)