San Diego Insider Tours

Private Tour by Appointment or Public Excursion as listed.
4-hour Surf Culture Safari: Saturdays at 8:30am or by appointment
3.5-hour Beads, Baubles, and Jewelry Junket: Thursdays at 1:30pm
4-hour Photographic Treasure Hunt: By Appointment

Valid until: Jan 31, 2010

Surfing has shaped San Diego's popular culture and it helps to drive the local economy. Our Surf Culture safari introduces participants to the best of local beach life - without getting them wet.

• Get acquainted with some of the most sublime beaches in California.
• Hear amazing surf stories that few locals know.
• From the longest pier in California, get a surfer's view of the beach where people first began riding San Diego's wave almost 100 years ago.
• Visit the world's first engineered surfing park, where the "Bruticus Maximus" creates a churning wave so huge it challenges the skills of expert surfers.
• Check out a taco shop/surfboard museum (and sample a fish taco)
• Experience San Diego's four wildly diverse beach communities
• Learn to read surf patterns and see how surfers pick their waves.
• Visit the first surfing park ever established in the United States, where awesome athletic performances unfold daily.
• Explore one of the city's hottest surf shops and pick up swim wear, equipment and beach culture memorabilia at a 20% discount!
• Get a gourmet snack, bottled water, and a glossary of surfing terms.

Valid until: Jan 31, 2010

San Diego has been recognized as a gemological treasure house for more than a century. Today it has also become a Mecca for lovers of gems and jewelry, as well as for professional jewelers.

This is a shopping-oriented tour that combines the pleasures of finding amazing bargains with the opportunity to use your creativity to the fullest.

• Visit the largest wholesaler of beads, gems, and jewelry in the United States – an Ali Baba’s cavern of sapphires, turquoise, amethysts, Swarovski crystals, garnets, rubies, tiger’s eye, jade, hand-made glass, pearls, onyx, coral, silver, and more.
• Unearth incredible bargains (typically 75% off retail)
• Take a 90-minute beginning beading class and get a DVD recap of the basic techniques.
• Learn about the activities of the Gemological Institute of America - the world's leading research and education facility, located in northern San Diego County.
• Hear amazing stories about the wild gem-mining boom that exploded here 100 years ago, ignited by the appetites of the infamous Dowager Empress of China.
• Get an overview of the San Diego's layout and remarkable history.
• Enjoy a gourmet snack.

Valid until: Jan 31, 2010

Creating photographs from nature requires more than photographic technique. A skillful guide can lead you to the best subjects. On this excursion, you'll discover some of the photographic opportunities in the heart of San Diego.

After an overview of San Diego's pulsing urban core, this adventure will take you to Balboa Park, the largest urban cultural preserve in the United States. San Diego's spectacular climate permits plants from all over the globe to thrive here. On foot, you'll smell their fragrances and capture their beauty - either within your camera or your heart.

• Get an overview of San Diego's layout and history.
• Hear fascinating stories about the people and events that have made the city what it is today.
• With advice from an expert photographer, take better pictures of the fantastic horticultural diversity nurtured within Balboa Park.
• Visit a grove of redwoods and giant sequoias.
• Meet two of the most splendid and valuable trees in the United States.
• Visit a hidden butterfly garden with a scandalous past.
• Stroll in an otherworldly desert garden that could double as a modern art gallery.
• Stop to smell the latest prizewinners in one of the top 12 public rose collections in the world.
• Descend into a tropical palm-filled canyon to visit one of the oldest specimens in San Diego.
• Get a gourmet snack and a list of some of the plants you've met. (Cameras not included.)