Diet and exercise affect the appearance of CJ. If CJ is too fat, any missions involving the jetpack will not start, as it would take a lot more power for him to be propelled and be difficult to balance.

In an OG Loc mission called Madd Dogg's Rhymes, one of Madd Dogg's bodyguards hints a reference to DRIV3R, saying "Tanner, you suck ass!"

There is a fictional bar/motel called The Lil' Probe'Inn in San Andreas located north of Fort Carson. The Lil' Probe'Inn is actually a parody of the Little A'Le'Inn in Rachel, Nevada; the interior of the Probe'Inn matches the interior of the real life Little A'Le'Inn. Down the road from the Probe Inn is Area 69, a parody of Area 51.

The name Lil' Probe'Inn is spelled as deliberately as its namesake, the Lil' A'Le'Inn, whose name, when spoken with apostrophes, sounds like "Little Alien". Similarly, Lil' Probe'Inn sounds like "Little Probing", a double entendre indicating both sexual penetration and the infamous anal probes supposedly used on abductees by aliens.

Lil' Probe'Inn is additionally distinguished by a variety of photographs hung on its walls that seemingly depict flying saucers; a map of San Andreas with a number of marks is also found in its back room, likely a reference to UFO hunting.

The three cities in San Andreas, Los Santos, San Fiero, and Las Venturas, represent the real life cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, respectively. All of the cities in San Andreas bear striking resemblance to their real-world counterparts (including rough street layout and district names) and contain numerous historic landmarks from each city. The name San Andreas itself is a reference to the San Andreas Fault, a continental fault line that runs through California.

Claude, the protagonist of GTA III, makes a cameo appearance in San Andreas as the contestant of an illegal racing ring. He becomes involved with Catalina, who had recently split up with Carl "CJ" Johnson. Following his loss to CJ, Claude leaves San Andreas with Catalina for Liberty City. Catalina later betrays Claude during a bank heist in the opening sequence of GTA III, thus setting off the events of the game.

Pier 69, located San Fierro, is clearly modeled and named after the San Francisco tourist attraction Pier 39. A prime example of Rockstar Games' satirical style, the name is also a parody of the 69 sexual position.

An Easter Egg can be found on the top of the southern suspension tower of the Gant Bridge in San Fierro - a sign that reads "There are no Easter Eggs up here. Go away." A parachute can also be obtained on top of the northern tower.

Ryder owns a brown Picador with a license plate which reads SHERM, referring to his addiction to sherm, a cigarette with marijuana mixed into the tobacco that has been immersed in PCP. During the mission 'Home Invasion,' Ryder can be seen frantically searching for the drug in his back yard, where he had previously buried his drugs, but can no longer find them. Throughout the game, CJ also continually calls Ryder 'sherm-head.'

There is a show called "Area 53" on WCTR. One of the callers who goes by the name of 'Kevin' says that he can launch all the nuclear missiles in the world by just whistling into a phone. This is a reference to phone phreaker Kevin Mitnick, who was tried for computer hacking in the late 1990s. During the trial, the prosecutor claimed that Kevin was so dangerous that if given his one phone call in jail he could launch all the nuclear weapons in the United States. He was also sentenced to 18 months in prison, the same amount of time as the caller on the show.

The Ganton Bridge in San Fierro has a few Easter Eggs scattered around it. At the right side of the entrance, a museum can be found that focuses on the bridge. It has a sign listing a few facts about the bridge. These facts include that the bridge has 11 textures and takes up 1.27 MB of disc space. Also at the museum is a sign that demonstrates "an actual piece of cable". Both of these signs, as well as the museum, are based on their real-life counterparts near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransisco.

There are a few referances to Vice City scattered throughout the state of San Andreas. First is the Tiki Theatre in East Los Santos, which has a large version of the tiki statue hidden packages from Vice City on its roof. The next referance is in Angel Pines. Knocking over some of the open trashbins in town will yield maps of Vice City scattered inside. The final referance is in Foster Valley. Approaching the windows of the buildings alongside the road in that area reveals a small, highly pixelated but still legible version of the box art for Vice City, repeated constantly across all of the windows.

Cars will only spawn near the player. This causes a glitch where if CJ wanders around the countryside's forest, cars with no people inside will roll down the hills until they crash or lose momentum.

The mission "Saint Mark's Bistro" has CJ temporarily return to Liberty City in order to carry out a hit for Salvatore. Although the player cannot see much of it, a large part of Portland, Liberty City has been modelled, although not much of it is solid.

One can use cheat devices (or mods on the PC version) to reach Liberty City and have a look around, although having a jetpack is recommended.

There are ghost cars found in Back O' Beyond. The vehicles are found damaged. They move without a driver and can possibly be driven.

When you enter Zero's shop, you can see action figures of Rockstar characters from GTA: Vice City and Manhunt. Also if you check out the RC section you'll notice the store has several model vehicles, some of them based on the vehicles of San Andreas.

When you find trash bins in Angel Pine, knock them over and use a camera or a sniper scope to see beta versions of GTA: Vice City maps in the garbage.

At the train station in Los Santos, look up when standing at the mouth of the train tunnel to see a billboard that makes a reference to the game's competitor "True Crime: Streets of LA". The billboard says, "Get rid of old rubbish fast! True Grime: Street Cleaners". It can be found in other billboards around San Andreas too.

The name of the mission "Body Harvest" is likely a reference to the Nintendo 64 game of the same name, produced by Rockstar North when they were DMA Design. It is arguably Rockstar's first free roaming 3D adventure, setting the precedent for GTA III to follow. The use of the Combine Harvester is likely also a reference to Body Harvest, as a part in the game involves the use of a combine harvester to run over zombies.

At one point during development, the Combine Harvester had a green body color, no step bars into the driver cab, and a less detailed combine head.

Rockstar had the idea to include several playable characters in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, like in Grand Theft Auto V, but the feature was omitted due to the technical limitations of the time.

The Gasso station in Dillimore has a label that says "Max Pane - Bullet Proof Glass", an obvious reference to the Max Payne series.