Watching the sun set over Coronado Island from the 40th floor of San Diego's Manchester Hyatt drinking an ice cold beer, you get that feeling that life simply can't get any better. Salubrious surroundings, excellent service and a million dollar view. Granted the drinks are expensive, the company is so-so and the music is pedestrian, you can't have everything, right-

Perhaps you can, you just need know what exactly you're looking for. During the period I spent in San Diego, I found the city to be extraordinarily deceptive, suffering from an identity crisis that saw it precariously balanced halfway between retired-wealthy-white-golfer-paradise and surfer-drop-out-burrito-capital. Distinctly different gathering places such as Balboa Park and Pacific Beach are perfect examples of this.

Balboa Park is the cities cultural and spiritual heartland. Here we have a collection of four museums, a world class gallery, a Japanese Garden and the world's largest operational organ. Imagine someone dropped Federation Square in the middle of the Botanical Gardens and you will be on your way to picturing it. Balboa Park frequently plays host to open air concerts, wine festivals and touring exhibitions. The kind of place you might find yourself on a hot August night after viewing a Jackson Pollack retrospective, sampling a local Pinot Noir and listening to the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

No more than a 5 minute drive from Balboa Park, you reach Pacific Beach (or PB as it is known to the locals). PB is a mile long strip of beaches, bars and boutiques populated by blondes with impossible physiques. On any given Tuesday, you and a thousand other people could be partying down wearing next to nothing, downing draft beer and two-dollar fish taco's while enveloped by the peculiar brand of Southern California pop punk that dominates the region.

Of course it's not all wine, women and song in San Diego. There's excellent surf and unique architecture too. From Black's Beach in the north, through La Jolla to Mission Beach, the keen surfer is usually rewarded with some nice breaks or at very least stunning weather 360 days of year. On the other hand it might be Spanish Colonial architecture that floats your boat. There are literally hundreds of genuine examples scattered across the city, not to mention the incredible engineering feat that is the Coronado Bridge or the opulent Hotel Del Coronado that Billy Wilder chose for the set of his film 'Some Like It Hot'. Coronado Island is connected by the bridge to the city. The island itself a curiously American mix of military installation and playground for the rich. Half the island is taken up with a permanent naval base home to various aircraft carriers while the other half is densely packed with property developments that make Toorak appear affordable in comparison.

Still looking for sensory overload- Well perhaps a $2 trip to Mexico will provide you with what you seek. That's right, just $2 will buy you a trolley ride to the San Ysidro border station where you are just a hop-skip-and-a cab-ride to Tijuana where fortune favors the sensible and the stupid end up in jail. The less adventurous among us would do better to visit during the day where the assault on the senses consists of children hawking trinkets, margarita bars, animals and wandering mariachi. A night time visitor will be no less safe or worse off, but a rather noticeable change of guard takes place with the hawkers are replaced by tattooed nightclub bouncers, the margarita's with all-you-can-drink bars, the animals with drunk American minors and the mariachi with trance and hip hop clubs that the fire code forgot.

It is hard to believe that a little over 125 years ago people were dreaming up ways of attracting migrants to California. Those that first settled were attracted by the quality of lifestyle, the climate affords and the opportunities for property development.  It's reassuring to know some things never change.