By Public Transit
The Metropolitan Transit System MTS (http://www.sdmts.com/home1.asp), San Diego's public transit service, has a few bus routes serving the area: the Route 8/9 loops through Mision Beach and Pacific Beach, connecting to Old Town to the south. Route 27 travels up Garnet Avenue through P.B. to the suburban neighborhoods of Clairemont and Kearny Mesa to the east. Finally, there's the Route 30 which connects to La Jolla to the north and Old Town and Downtown to the south.
By car
From Downtown and areas south get on Interstate 5, referred to as âthe 5,â exit onto westbound I-8 and exit at West Mission Bay Drive. Stay on West Mission Bay Drive to get to Mission Beach, or you can access Mission Bay by taking Ingraham Street or Sea World Drive. If you want to get to Pacific Beach, take I-5 to Mission Bay Drive and hang a left on either Grand Avenue or Garnet Avenue and follow them into the heart of Pacific Beach. Be prepared to sit in traffic during rush hour and busy weekends, this is the one of the few entrances to Pacific Beach and it creates an absurd bottleneck.
From La Jolla and areas north you can take the 5, exit at Garnet Avenue and make a right. From coastal La Jolla, it might be faster and definitely more scenic to take the surface streets. Follow La Jolla Blvd. south until it intersects Mission Blvd. and youâre in North Pacific Beach. Make a right on Mission Blvd. and youâll be driving south, parallel to the beach with the ocean on your right.
From Ocean Beach, take Sunset Cliffs Blvd. to West Mission Bay Drive which will take you through Mission Beach to the west part of Pacific Beach, or to Ingraham Street which will lead you into the central part of Pacific Beach. All the overpasses and underpasses can get confusing. After you go over the dry San Diego River, loop around once for Ingraham or stay right and loop around again for West Mission Bay Drive.