Use Spothero or your favorite parking app to find something better nearby. Hotels always mark up parking and some folks who don’t know better pay it.

Alternatives:

-Use Lyft or Uber.

-Locate street parking driving east on Market or Broadway and park on of the numerous cross streets. This is problematic as its difficult finding available spots in the middle of the city. You will have to drive around, hope you find an open space, park, then rideshare it back to your hotel. It'll be cheaper but risky and time consuming.

Outrageous is in the eyes of the beholder. The tradeoff is between cost and convenience.

It is possible to ride share to and from the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We have seen visitors alighting from rideshare.

Cabrillo National Monument requires a car, and visiting area around La Jolla and Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve is much more convenient by car.

What are your plans for Saturday and Sunday? Could you rent the car on Friday, return it that night, and just use rideshare on the other days? The downtown car rental places will probably be closed for the day by the time you return from the Safari Park, so you'll need to arrange to return the car at the airport and rideshare back to the hotel.

>>>Outrageous is in the eyes of the beholder. The tradeoff is between cost and convenience.<<<

Zactly.... $55 is not out of line for Downtown San Diego or Downtown any major city.

Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions. Apparently I have not done overnight parking in a major downtown city in a long time. Based on what we do on Saturday and Sunday will determine how we handle the car and garage situation