Where is the Cheap Parking in Downtown San Diego?

Have you ever driven to downtown San Diego and wondered, frack is there any free parking here?

Just yesterday I had a money clip with no cash in it, an ashtray full of pesos, and I needed to park in downtown for more than 2 hours. Yeah I know, who goes to downtown San Diego expecting to find free parking? Not me, although there is some free parking if you are willing to walk (see below). I actually forgot my clicker to the parking garage and I needed to park ASAP. so there I was driving around looking for somewhere to park on the cheap. After a couple blocks Mario reminded me of these parking pay stations (pictured left) in front of The Harbor Club.

These San Diego city parking pay stations are your saviour. If you find a spot around these pay stations, the rate is 50 cents per hour and you can park up to 9 hours or as little as 2 hours during the week depending on the location (read the sign for hours). At a minimum these pay stations are 50% cheaper than parking meter spots and they take credit / debit cards, not just Pre-Paid Parking Meter Debit Cards like the regular meters do.

Free Parking in Downtown?

If you are a total cheap skate and wondering where the free parking in downtown is, we have you covered. After driving around for an hour I came up with a perimeter of the no free parking zone in downtown San Diego. The red areas in the map below may have some free parking areas but they are few and far between. The blue areas are full of free parking relatively speaking, but parking in these areas means a lot of walking if you are headed to popular downtown destinations.

Of course this is not a comprehensive parking map, but feel free to drop a comment and point out some free parking spots.