San Diego Hotel

Dianejay,
The SD Zoo Safari Park is not in San Diego, but in Escondido, about 30-35 miles north of San Diego. I lived in SD for several years, plus my kids went to college there and lived there also. Your two days' activities are doable. If flying into SD early, I would head straight to the Safari Park, spend the day there, then drive to your hotel in SD in the latter part of the afternoon. Hotel Circle in Mission Valley has lots of hotels and is fairly central to places you want to go, plus you can probably find better prices than downtown. It is also not far from the airport but not under the flight path and has lots of restaurants in the area. It is close to Old Town San Diego (the origin of the city), where there are some very nice Mexican restaurants. Next day you can drive to Coronado for the morning, and go to Balboa Park in the afternoon. Balboa Park has, of course, its wonderful zoo, but in one concentrated area there are several museums, gardens, outdoor sculptures, free organ concerts (outdoors on Sundays), and the 1910 carousel (still operating). Within the park the Mingei International Museum is terrific, plus there are art museums, a railroad museum, an automotive museum, a natural history museum, the Fleet Science Center (a gem)....and more. The various gardens are scattered about. If you are there at the right time of year the Old Globe Theater (reproduction of the one in England) puts on Shakespeare plays. There are other productions there as well. Honestly, you will have to decide what to leave out as there are days worth of things within a relatively small section of this giant park.
SD has some really great seafood restaurants too (naturally).

BTW, what do you plan to do in Coronado? Most of the island is the navy base, where you may not be able to go. The Hotel Del is worth a walk around. (Maybe lunch in the big dining room is a possibility?) There is a beach there also. (When in high school I went to a dance there in 1960 and we had to take the ferry across the bay as the bridge didn't exist then. Very posh! It was magical!)
If you decide to spend some of your time in SD at the beach (if you have any time left), Mission Beach has some of the amusement park left, and the beach is wide and nice with good waves for body surfing. Pacific Beach is popular also. They are next to each other along the coast.
Oh, I wish you had more time. San Diego is a great city!
Have fun!

One thing I forgot. San Diego is where the first California mission was established by Fra Junipero Serra. It is right in Mission Valley in case you can squeeze it in. Also, above Old Town is Presidio Park where there are great views of the city. The presidio was where the Spanish govt. headquarters were. It's a nice spot for a picnic.

Sorry to give you more info than you asked for. I get carried away when San Diego comnes up because I think it is one fine city!

Thanks so much! I'm enthusiastic about my home city and I appreciated all the information. Is Hotel Circle one hotel? I'm rethinking our plan a little. The Safari Park is my friends primary reason so we are spending 2 days there and then 2 days in San Diego. I don't like to drive and she doesn't drive so I may return the rental car after the Safari Park and then take a shuttle back to San Diego and we can do the Hop on hop off bus . We enjoy those. Or uber. She wants to go to the Japanese Friendship Garden .
I've been to San Diego many years ago and it's lovely .

I am not familiar with the HOHO bus in San Diego or where it goes to or its frequency. I hope it covers the areas you want to see. The Japanese Friendship garden is in the area of Balboa Park where many of the places I mentioned are located. You can wander and visit many of them easily on foot, once there. I can't imagine spending two days at the Safari Park. To me one day would easily cover all of it. But each of us is different. Be aware that Escondido is more inland than San Diego and can be hotter there. I am also unaware of any shuttle to/from the Safari Park and the city of San Diego. My choice would be to keep the car until I left SD. Maybe Uber or Lyft will work for this. Visiting most cities in SoCal are kind of difficult without a car as things are way more spread out than in New York. The city bus system in SD is quite good. I used to take it a lot, especially to downtown and to the park area where the zoo and museums and gardens are located. It would be worthwhile to check the transit system there.

Hotel Circle is an area in Mission Valley with several hotel/motel options on either side of the freeway that runs through the valley. It is within San Diego proper and a relatively short drive to Old Town, Mission Bay, Balboa Park and even downtown and the airport. It is also close to Petco Park baseball field. Of course there are lots of options in a city the size of San Diego. I just mention Mission Valley for its location.
BTW, in my opinion San Diego drivers are not the best. Maybe they have improved since my kids lived there,but being a Southern Californian used to our freeway systems, I prefer the LA drivers to the SD ones. Of course, they are not nearly as bad as the drivers in Boston or around DC. (Sorry, guys, but that is my experience!)