Well well well, look who has a fancy transit system. This is what surprised me most about San Diego — how efficient, how timely, and how clean their buses are. It seems unfair. Why are we stuck with MUNI, when they get the San Diego Metropolitan Transportation System?

It seemed no matter where I was, there was either a trolley or bus to take me to within a block of where I wanted to go. I only ever had to wait a few minutes for a bus to arrive, even late at night, and I always got a seat. If you regularly ride SF’s MUNI (or really, any other city’s transit), using the buses in San Diego will be a breeze for you.

A minor nitpick: their online map is hard to make any sense of.  That’s how extensive their service is — so extensive it’s hard to put it all in a map. Plus, the online map is only useful if you’re at a computer and decidedly totally useless if you’re standing on the corner of University and 35^th and wondering how to get to the Marston House.

Enter the Google Maps phone app. This was a lifesaver on my trip. (Literally. I got caught in a spontaneous thunderstorm, with no nearby shelter and no idea where I was. People gaped in horror at the sky, like kittens were falling from it. Panic ensued. Southern California is not used to lightening.) I searched for my destination, clicked on the Directions button, specified that I’d want to get there by transit, and miracle of miracles, Google Maps would tell me exactly which bus to take, where to get on, and what time it would pick me up. Brilliant.

MTS also has a trip planner on their website, which functions similarly to San Francisco’s 511.org. So, check that out if you like to plan ahead.

Buses

Nearly every large street is served by a bus route, with key diagonal bus routes like the 7 getting you from downtown to Balboa Park and the North Park neighborhood. Here is a list of all the MTS Bus Routes and their timetables.

You need exact change to board a bus: $2.25.

Each bus stop has a sign telling you to text a numeric code to a phone number to find out when the next bus will arrive. It also worked perfectly – we got a text back within seconds.

Trolleys

Trolleys run between downtown’s Sante Fe Depot stop and Old Town (and other neighborhoods), with plenty of stops in between. (See map here.) It’s a really smooth, quick ride.

You’ll need to buy a fare ticket on the trolley platform, and most of them give change. One-way trolley fare is $2.50.

You can also buy a $5 day pass at any trolley kiosk, which you can use on buses and trolleys all day long.