Car-Free San Diego Ice Cream Crawl

Little Italy is a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood with plenty of piazzas to gather your friends and family together for a day of ice cream tasting. 

How to get there:
Use one of our Park & Ride lots and then take the UC San Diego Blue Line or Green Line Trolley to County Center/Little Italy station. Head east on W Cedar Street and walk 0.2 miles to your first stop at Pappalecco.

1.) Pappalecco
1602 State St

Gelato is like ice cream's richer, more indulgent cousin and a good way to kick off an ice cream crawl to get a taste for something a little different. Pappalecco has a number of outstanding flavors to try and this being the first stop, it will be hard to pick just one. Don't go overboard on your first stop though! Get your group to choose one (or maybe two) flavors and share it so you can make it to a few more stops.

2.) Bobboi
550 W Date St (inside the Little Italy Food Hall) or 2175 Kettner Blvd

There’s one other gelato option in Little Italy - with two locations! One is inside the Little Italy Food Hall and the other is down on Kettner Blvd. With their made fresh daily gelatos, either location will work for this crawl.

[Peanut Butter with Reese's Cup | Holy Paleta]

3.) Holy Paleta
2040 India Street, San Diego

Holy Paleta offers a variety of paletas (or popsicles) that are milk or water based and usually made with a variety of fresh fruit. Holy Paleta has a variety of flavors such as Pineapple Basil, Strawberry Mojito, Sandia (Watermelon) con Chile and dairy based flavors like Arroz con Leche, Peanut Butter with Reese's Cup, Horchata, Key Lime Pie and many more.

4.) Pop Pops Paleta
1740 India Street, San Diego, CA

Another paleta stop! Some of Pop Pops Paleta’s flavors include Mangonada, Milky Rice Pudding, Guava Cheesecake, Passionfruit, Very Berry Greek Yogurt, Cookies & Milk, Royal Tiramisu, and more.

[Honey Lavender | Salt & Straw]

5.) Salt & Straw
1670 India Street, San Diego, CA

This ice cream shop from Portland is always creating new flavors. Last month they featured a “Cinnamon & Honey Fried Chicken” which had bits of croissant deep fried in chicken fat (no actual chicken in the mix, if you’re wondering or possibly worried). They do have more “normal” flavors like Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons and other West Coast Exclusives like Cold Brew Coffee Cashew Praline and Pear & Blue Cheese. If you can’t decide on a flavor, you can even get an ice cream flight! But for an ice cream crawl, we recommend that your group choose one flavor to share. Make it something that everyone can agree on!

All of the ice cream shops listed for the Convoy Street Crawl are a bit different than your regular ice cream or gelato shop! Do this crawl if you want to experience some different flavors and textures along with your ice cream.

How to get there:
Take Route 44 (connects to the Trolley at Old Town and Morena-Linda Vista Stations) to Convoy St and Armour St; or take Route 27 from the Balboa Avenue Station (exit Balboa and Convoy, then walk down half a block); and start at Bing Haus. After you’re finished at Bing Haus, simply walk two blocks north on Convoy to Dagget St.

1.) Bing Haus
4425 Convoy Street

Thai rolled ice cream is like having a show with your dessert. They spread out ice cream on a very cold surface and it’s rolled up with a spatula. It looks a bit like a swiss cake roll - but it’s ice cream! Bing Haus also offers soft serve (flavors change monthly), shaved snow and other treats.

[Milk Soft Serve with Taiyaki Cone | Somi Somi]

2.) Somi Somi
4620 Convoy Street

Somi Somi serves up a Korean dessert known as “Ah-Boong” which has a fish shaped waffle cone with your choice of filling and topped with soft serve. They feature different flavors of soft serve as well as different “swirls” every week. Each location features a different swirl which is a combination of two of their soft serve flavors.

3.) Iceskimo
4609 Convoy Street

Iceskimo specializes in Tawainese shaved snow which is shaved thin ribbons from a block of snow ice. The thin shaved snow creates a delicate and creamy melt in your mouth experience. They also have soft serve that you can get with a bubble waffle to have a mixture of a hot and cold treat.

[Strawberry Cheesecake Puffle with Vanilla Custard | Boba Bar & Desserts]

4.) Boba Bar & Desserts
4619 Convoy Street

Boba Bar & Desserts have “puffles” which are small egg shaped bubble waffles with soft serve and a variety of toppings. The puffles are made to order and are served warm! They offer a variety of different toppings and different style of puffles.

5.) LAB Desserts & Coffee
4817 Convoy Street

Round out the crawl with a macaron ice cream sandwich or a cotton candy burrito filled with ice cream.

The best thing about an ice cream crawl at Pacific Beach is being by the water and enjoying the ocean breeze.

How to get there:

Take the UC San Diego Blue Line to Balboa Avenue Transit Center
Take Route 8 to Mission Blvd & Thomas Ave and walk about 0.2 miles or
Take Route 27 to Mission Blvd & Felspar St to start at the Baked Bear

1.) Baked Bear
4516 Mission Blvd

Start off your ice cream crawl with a customized ice cream sandwich! The hardest part will be trying to get your group to choose from the many options available and then cutting it up into smaller sharing sized pieces. You got this!

[Peanut Butter Parfait | Handel's Ice Cream]

2.) Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream
4475 Mission Blvd

There are tons of flavors to try at Handel’s! A few that caught our eye: Banana Cream Pie, Spouse like a House, Chocolate Raspberry Truffle, and Graham Central Station (with graham ice cream?!).

3.) Afters Ice Cream
855 Garnet Avenue

Mix things up and get a milky bun for your ice cream and some interesting toppings.

4.) Insomnia Cookies
1007 Garnet Avenue

Is your ice cream crawl ready for a second cookie sandwich? Try out the Blue Ribbon Blueberry Monster’wich which has vanilla ice cream with snickerdoodle cookies mashed in between two Blue Ribbon Blueberry cookies.

[Skrewball Peanut Butter Cookie | Pacific Beach Ice Cream Co]

5.) Pacific Beach Ice Cream Co
1010 Grand Avenue

Pacific Beach Ice Cream Co is over on Grand Ave but don't skip this spot! They feature handcrafted ice cream with delicious flavors like Bourbon Breakfast, Chocolate Covered Strawberry, Skrewball Peanut Butter Cookie, Honey Vanilla, Julian Dutch Apple Pie, Dad's Famous Mint Chip (made with real mint leaves!) and Saffron Rose Pistachio.

If you’re not interested in doing an ice cream crawl but still want to get some delicious ice cream, may we suggest one of the shops below?