First recommendation is the museums at Balboa Park. Balboa Park is a place where you can take multiple days to explore the dozen-or-so museums located on the property. I recommend spending a half-day there and checking out some of the ones that you're most interested in.

A few of my favorites are

1. Museum of Man

2. Air & Space Museum

3. The Natural History Museum and

4. The Tree Museum

5. Check out the organ Pavilion

6. The botanical gardens etc.

It's a great place to spend a few hours in San Diego.

This is something you've certainly heard of before and that's the San Diego Zoo.

San Diego Zoo is located in the balboa area and it's one of the best I've ever been to.

The zoo is massive with tons of different animals, you can see polar bears and elephants to meerkats and flamingos.

if you have young kids, this of course is a great spot to bring them but even if you don't, I still find a ton of things to enjoy at the zoo do every time.

The USS Midway is on the water in downtown San Diego.

The USS Midway has been a really popular attraction for decades. This large aircraft carrier takes hours to fully explore and there's a ton of cool stuff to see as well as great views of downtown San Diego when you get to the top.

The unconditional surrender statue is from the famous picture of the sailor kissing the woman on victory over Japan in Time Square in 1945.

Tthis statue is about 40 ft tall and it's a great place for photography and also right next to it is an area dedicated to Bob Hope, which plays some of his speeches he gave to the military and has a lot of bronze figurines that you can check out.