The best souvenirs to bring back from San Diego

San Diego Zoo is renowned for its world-class conservation programs – and for its frankly vast array of gift stores – a dozen of them, if you’re counting. These (ahem) zoo-venir emporia are dotted across the zoo’s 100 acres in beautiful Balboa Park, meaning you can pick up gift items in between saying hey to the residents – flamingos, giant pandas and Arctic foxes, all of whom are also available in plushie form at the San Diego Zoo Kids Store along with books, toys, apparel and more.

The Zootique (see what they did there) adds gourmet foods and jewelry into the mix, and Sydney’s Shoppe has all your Antipodean desires covered, including cute cuddly souvenir koalas (no, not real ones!). Elsewhere the fairly self-explanatory Panda Shop and Tusker’s Trunk are catnip for fans of big cuddly bears and stompy pachyderms.

Visit San Diego Zoo with the San Diego pass.

A similarly thrilling option for picking up animal-themed souvenirs is SeaWorld San Diego. Boasting dozens of engaging exhibits with a strong focus on conservation, there;s more to this vast Mission Bay complex than just exhilarating rides and wildlife shows – although yeah, those are pretty cool too. As a result, souvenirs in the SeaWorld Store have a significant educational bent, with plenty of toys, games and books that will grab visitors of all ages.

As with San Diego Zoo, there are plenty more satellite stores to visit around the park, several of which focus on specific seafaring critters like turtles (Reef Gifts) and whales (The Whale Shop). Better yet, 5% of profits from purchases of apparel in the Sea Rescue Merchandise store is ploughed straight back into sealife conservation projects.

Note that some stores are only open in the summer, so be aware of this when planning your souvenir shopping.

Visit SeaWorld San Diego with the San Diego pass.

If you’re a military history fanatic, or have even just a passing interest in America’s storied past, the USS Midway Museum is surely one of the best places to buy souvenirs in all of San Diego. But, before you start shopping, be sure to wield your Go City attraction pass to step aboard this hulking former aircraft carrier and explore its fascinating array of exhibits and attractions, including engine rooms, sleeping quarters, galleys, flight simulators and some 30 or so fighter planes and naval helicopters.

Afterwards, browse yourself silly in the eclectic Jet Shop on the Hangar Deck. The store is crammed with U.S. Navy and USS Midway apparel, educational books and toys, special memorabilia, and plenty of San Diego-specific souvenirs. And plenty of Top Gear-related items too – think bomber jackets, ‘need for speed’ mugs and shiny fridge magnets.  And, if you enjoyed your tour of the ship, you can also purchase a souvenir photo snapped as you boarded. 

Visit the US Midway Museum with the San Diego pass.

While it might seem like you can get LEGOs at any regular toy shop, there’s something special about the LEGO set or character that you get straight from the source. Our favorite toy-themed amusement park, LEGOLAND® California offers the best in LEGO entertainment for your little ones.

You’ll want to try out the rides and workshops first though, of course. After all, what’s a trip to LEGOLAND® without a colorful spin on Unikitty’s Disco Drop or a bit of healthy competition at the LEGO Ferrari Build and Race?

As far as souvenir shopping goes, you can get pretty much any LEGO set you can think of here, and probably many more that you can’t. The one-stop LEGO Shop is an enormous emporium that covers most bases, but for more specialized LEGO tastes, hit up the likes of Wu’s Warehouse (for NINJAGO merch), Brick Brothers Trading Co (for vehicular LEGOs) and the modestly named Awesome Shop (for LEGO Movie-related bricks’n’bobs). And, if that’s not enough, in addition to the regular gift shops, you can also trade your LEGO minifigures at various locations throughout the park – during special seasonal events, you can get minifigures here that you won’t find anywhere else!

Visit LEGOLAND® California with the San Diego pass.

Another of Balboa Park’s big beasts, the San Diego Natural History Museum (aka The Nat) is an absolute treasure trove of ancient fossils, dazzling gems and rescued Californian critters. Step inside and you’ll come face-to-skull with mammoths, saber-toothed cats, mosasaurs and more. There are two whole  floors of glittering gems, plus a mineral gallery and a Living Lab that’s home to live snakes, frogs and spiders. Don’t miss the T. Rex (not that you could, really) and the epic California landscape dioramas. 

The Gold Leaf museum store has some of the coolest, quirkiest and downright most stylish souvenirs in town. We’re talking an eclectic selection that includes canvas totes and umbrellas festooned with colorful bugs and butterflies, fungi-themed mugs, specimen-collecting kits, barn owl earrings, cactus-shaped shot glasses, and so much more.

Visit San Diego Natural History Museum with the San Diego pass. 

It’s fair to say that museums tend to be pretty reliable places to do your souvenir shopping, and the San Diego Air and Space Museum – also in Balboa Park – is no exception. Step inside via the museum’s swoon-worthy Art Deco façade and you’re straight into the action. Look up: that’s the Spirit of St. Louis soaring overhead! Check out this and other real aircraft, from a hand-built Wright Flyer to a Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet, plus sleek Blackbird spy planes, WWII biplanes and glimmering silver jets. There are also authentic Apollo and Gemini space capsules to ogle up close – more than 70 larger-than-life exhibits all in.

Blast off  into the store where airplane models, kid-sized space suits, gliders, spacey backpacks and more await. You can even pick up plaques signed by real astronauts and space food like freeze-dried astronaut ice cream. Yum.

Visit San Diego Air and Space Museum with the San Diego pass.

We’re still in Balboa Park, where the mighty San Diego Museum of Art has all your arty souvenir-hunting needs covered. The building – a grand Spanish-Renaissance confection complete with statuary, elegant fountains and ome of the biggest doors you’ve ever seen – is a work of art in its own right. But you’ll find the real treasure inside, where masterpiece after priceless masterpiece from (mostly) Spanish, Italian and American artists. Ogle Goya, El Greco, Picasso and the Pre-Raphaelites and check out modern pieces by homegrown talents including Warhol, O’Keeffe and Rothko.

The gift shop is where it's at for some of San Diego’s most elegant souvenirs: handpainted Japanese kokeshi dolls, Frida Kahlo mugs, Warhol soup can totes, Cubist paint-by-numbers kits, prints of works by the likes of Picasso and Toulouse-Lautrec, and stacks more.

Visit the San Diego Museum of Art with the San Diego pass.

Can you even say you’ve been to San Diego if you haven’t walked the hallowed grounds of Petco Park Stadium, home of the San Diego Padres? Take a tour that takes in the dugouts, the press box, the old brickwork of the Western Metal Supply Company building and even lets you step onto the field. Die-hard baseball fans will get a real kick from accessing hidden tunnels and VIP areas, all led by enthusiastic local guides with great tales to tell. Heck, even if you’re not a die-hard, it’s still likely to inspire you to come back to catch a game later. Or, at the very least, pick up some legendary Padres merch in the store for a San Diego souvenir par excellence. Caps, shirts, flags, banners, hoodies: you’ll find them all here, and then some.

Take a Petco Park tour with the San Diego pass.