Old Town San Diego Free Tour

Join our walk through Old Town, often called the "birthplace of California," tracing its history from Indigenous communities through the region’s first permanent European settlement in 1769. The narrative follows Old Town’s growth into the Mexican pueblo of San Diego and its later transformation into an American town after 1848. Along the route, we'll see adobe homes, brick facades, and other landmarks that reveal personal stories of the people who lived, worked, and traded here. The tour highlights themes of survival, cultural adaptation, and resilience as successive populations reshaped identity and community under changing political rules. Rather than a static past, Old Town is presented as a layered history—visible, tangible, and still influencing life today. We'll see those layers beneath our feet: how California’s complex past continues to inform its present.

Tour Stops: * Casa de Reyes * Covered Wagon * Cosmopolitan Hotel * Blacksmith Shop * Seeley Stable * Casa de Estudillo * Old Town Market * Whaley House * El Campo Santo Cemetery * Candy Shop * Courthouse / City Hall * Colorado House