San Diego, nicknamed “America’s Finest City,” is the second largest municipality in California and the eighth largest in the U.S. Three million people call San Diego County home, and 1.3 million residents live in the city of San Diego. San Diego County spans 4,200-square miles and includes 18 incorporated cities, as well as a multitude of neighborhoods ranging from historic to eclectic and everything in between.

Impressively, San Diego boasts 70 miles of beachfront and an enviable climate – the average daily temperature is 70.5 degrees Fahrenheit here. One unique feature of San Diego is the variety of temperatures one may experience within a short distance. At the coast, for instance, it can be 20 degrees cooler than it is in the valley just 10 miles away. Also, in San Diego you can enjoy the beach and the mountains within the span of a single day.

In 1869 Alonzo Horton, who many consider to be the father of San Diego, built a wharf at the foot of Fifth Avenue that cost about $45,000. On March 24, he sold $5,500 worth of commercial and residential lots in one day and San Diego began to boom. It took more than a hundred years for the revitalization to really catch on, and now San Diego has been transformed into one of the country’s newest and most dynamic metropolitan areas. Downtown San Diego is home to eight distinctive neighborhoods, including Marina, Little Italy, Horton Plaza, Gaslamp Quarter, East Village, Cortez Hill, Columbia and Core.