Nighttime is the right time to dine at the San Diego Pier Café, where first-rate seafood complements a breathtaking view of San Diego Bay and the illuminated San Diego-Coronado Bridge.

San Diego, a sprawling city that spreads across 320 square miles (829 square kilometers) of hill, canyons, and shoreline, has a venerable history. Europeans first set foot here around 1542, 78 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "San Diego Serenade," January/February 1998, National Geographic Traveler magazine)