It’s only when I’m wrapped in foil that I really start to feel like a baked potato. It’s not a leap—I’ve been buttered (slathered with lotion) and salted (exfoliating scrub) and am now roasting gently in a cocoon of crinkly, metallic paper and hot towels.
While I broil, a woman with very strong hands obliterates all the tension in my body by pushing her thumbs into a previously unremarkable section of my temples. In about 40 minutes, I’ll emerge into the world soft, almost melty, and glistening with a light coating of oil—not unlike a perfect steakhouse spud.
A spa day is a beautiful thing. The right treatment can shove away anxiety, unknot uptight muscles, soothe stressed-out skin—and even help you see yourself and the world from a new perspective. San Diego is chock-full of spots to indulge in a little self-care, whether you’re seeking a quick mid-day facial or an unplugged week-long escape.
We rounded up the county’s finest spots (and a few further afield) for mood-boosting treatments and post-massage lounging. Go find your baked-potato bliss.
It’d be easy to assume that the “rainfall” in The Fairmont Spa’s Rainfall Massage is like the “golden sand” in a Yankee candle name—metaphorical. But no. After a zen-inducing, full-body rubdown with coastal sage-infused oil, your service provider switches on a half-dozen shower heads for some hydrotherapy right there on the table. After drying off with warm towels, lounge in the whirlpool, relax in wet and dry saunas, nibble free snacks (the oat bars rule), and post up by the hotel’s spectacular, adults-only Relaxation Pool, open only to resort guests and spa-goers. Tip: If you want to order a lounge-chair lunch, tuck your credit card into your robe pocket—servers can’t add food to your spa tab.
Ocean Pearl Day Spa at The Westin Carlsbad Resort & Spa
Carlsbad, $$$–$$$$$
Serenity awaits at this newly renovated spa—a chic, coastal-inspired oasis. The San Diego spa’s got you covered with tailored massages and custom facials that incorporate marine-based botanicals. Consider the 80-minute Sunset Treatment after a day’s worth of play in the sun, featuring a full-body reef sugar scrub, a warm towel treatment, and either a foot exfoliant or hydrating seaweed scalp treatment. Scope out the eucalyptus steam room, showers, lounge, fitness center, heated pool, and hot tub before checking out.
The Spa at The Lodge at Torrey Pines
La Jolla, $$$$$
The Lodge at Torrey Pines is a local legend for good reason. After steam and sauna time, head outside to the pool and hot tub to stare at the Pacific as golfers wander one of the most sought-after courses on the planet, all under the careful watch of the incredible namesake’s native trees. After a couples massage, share tea by the fire in the co-ed relaxation room, and bask in your good fortune.
Spa Ritual at Sycuan Casino & Resort
El Cajon, $$–$$$
In the subterranean trenches of a casino resort, the sleek Spa Ritual offers a jetted hot tub in gendered changing rooms, plus a steam room and sauna, while the co-ed outdoor pool and lazy river bring the fun on warm, summery days. Splurge on the “Spoil Me” package, an 80-minute Royal Milk & Honey Wrap with a 75-minute Oxygen Facial. You’ll be painted with coconut milk and honey sugar, coated with warm coconut oil, and cocooned in warm blankets while receiving a scalp massage. The Oxygen Facial will plump up your skin while you get your hands and neck rubbed. Tack on the Reduce hot stone massage for a decadence upgrade.
Courtesy of Park Hyatt Aviara
Miraval Life in Balance Spa at Park Hyatt Aviara
Carlsbad, $$$$$
A Miraval-branded San Diego spa has taken up residence at Park Hyatt Aviara—the only one of its kind operating outside Miraval wellness resorts. Nature’s beauty is on display here: There’s an indoor solarium with hanging plants and a wall of crystal geodes. Guests are encouraged to turn off devices before settling in for treatments like the Warrior’s Recovery deep-tissue massage, which incorporates a warm herbal poultice of turmeric, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and prai. A sauna, steam room, whirlpool tub, and adults-only pool await.
The Hideaway at Marriot Marquis San Diego Marina
Downtown, $$$–$$$$
Catch us playing hooky from work and disappearing at The Hideaway, the Marriott Marquis’ cozy day spa. It’s quiet, which we love. You’ll find all the standard massage and facial services here, featuring Yon-Ka skin products and Doterra organic essential oils. The hidden oasis is sandwiched between the city and the bay, the ideal getaway for busy downtown folks.
The Spa at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa
Carlsbad, $$$–$$$$
An expansive resort complex featuring a golf course, ballrooms, and dining options, Omni’s pristine white-stucco property encompasses all your needs for an extended stay. The spa, though, offers enough services and features to make it worth a stop in its own right. Generous amenities include men’s and women’s hot tubs, a sauna, and a steam room, with an all-gender pool and café in the sunny courtyard.
Treat yourself to a Deluxe Hydrafacial that combines lymphatic drainage, deep moisture, peptide boosts, nourishing seaweed, and LED light therapy for radiant skin that glows from the inside out. Or, let your whole body experience the benefits of LED with a LightStim bed session. Omni is also set to undergo an extensive facelift starting in January and finishing in spring 2024, just in time for your summer refresh. Look forward to new amenities, with airy, coastal design sensibilities.
Sunny’s Spa & Beauty Lounge at The Seabird Resort
Oceanside, $$$$–$$$$$
Relaxing with a cup of tea on the ocean-view terrace at Seabird’s spa is worth the visit alone. Guests don’t have to choose between a massage and body treatment at this beachy paradise—the seasonal Green Smoothie Scrub has both. The full-body massage includes a hair and scalp treatment, while the CBD-infused body scrub helps with inflammation. Carve out time for the dry sauna, cool mint misting showers, and heated benches. Hair and nail salons are onsite for more pampering.
Courtesy of Pendry San Diego
Spa Pendry at Pendry San Diego
Gaslamp Quarter, $$$$$
The third-floor San Diego spa at Pendry is a world away from the hubbub of J Street. Arrive early to enjoy tea service and the eucalyptus steam room before a signature service, like the immersive 120-minute Pendry Rose Ritual. (We recommend bringing your own bathing suit, but one can be provided if needed.) After full-body exfoliation, the steaming milk and rose petal bath, and a neck and scalp massage, will release tension from places you didn’t even know existed. Once you manage to emerge from the tub—at this point, you’ll feel gloriously languid—the treatment finishes with a floral and citrus body soufflé massage. Blissed out is an understatement.
The Spa at Harrah’s Resort Socal
Valley Center, $$–$$$
Need a break from blackjack? Grab your winnings and head over to the Spa at Harrah’s to celebrate with fabulous facials, relaxing massages, and maybe even a new look at the salon. No pool, but you can enjoy a dry sauna, steam room, and salt bath whirlpool before a fun night back on the casino floor, all for a relatively low cost.
The Spa at Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa
Rancho Santa Fe, $$$$
Rancho Valencia’s spa—at Southern California’s only Relais & Châteaux property—is considered one of the best in town by locals and travelers. The spa’s grounds sit in lush gardens around Spanish-style cottages connected by outdoor breezeways, generously dotted with a hydrotherapy circuit, salon, pool, plush seating, wood-burning fireplaces, and plenty of refreshments. Of special note is the Biologique Recherche Firming + Lifting facial, which combines exfoliation, hydration, and a face massage to have you resembling whatever Jane Fonda looked like at your respective age. It’s that good.
Spa & Salon at The Hotel Del Coronado
Coronado, $$$$–$$$$$
We dare you to have a better experience in San Diego than heading to the iconic Hotel Del on a perfect sunny and 70-degree day, getting a deep-tissue massage and marine peptide facial with all sorts of algaes, then washing it down with a glass of Champagne while sitting oceanside. Add in a fresh Neapolitan pizza from the grounds, for good measure. It’s a peak San Diego experience, and it’s owed in large part to the hotel’s beauty and its ideal Coronado beachfront location. But the Del’s spa is a destination in its own right, with top quality treatments and world-class bodywork pros and estheticians on staff.
Courtesy of Rancho Bernardo Inn
The Spa at Rancho Bernardo Inn
Rancho Bernardo, $$$
It makes sense that Rancho Bernardo Inn is tucked deep inside a suburban community in North County—it’s very much a resort for the fam. Dad can practice his swing on its championship golf course and pop pop can play cornhole with the kids, all while you enjoy a Holistic Wellness massage. Targeting muscle and tension relief, this gentle treatment may have you falling asleep (especially if you add CBD foot balm). Before heading back to your crew, jump in the steam room and hot tub located in both the men’s and women’s locker rooms.
Spa Brezza at the San Diego Mission Bay Resort
Mission Bay, $$$
Say hi to glistening skin with a subtle fragrance of lavender and rosemary. Gentle and aromatic, the VOYA Organic Lavender Seaweed Sugar Scrub exfoliates and refreshes the skin without the harshness of a heavier, salt-based scrub. After getting rubbed down from head to toe, you’ll have time to rinse off inside the dimly lit suite before your skin is moisturized and massaged to silky perfection. Pro tip: Arrive early at Spa Brezza to kick back in the sauna, gym, or lounge.
Willows Spa at Viejas Casino & Resort
Alpine, $$–$$$
Escape the heat at this desert oasis at Viejas Casino & Resort. The chic space is adorned with marble interiors and glass chandeliers. Treat yourself to massages, facials, waxing, or other signature treatments like the Fire & Ice body wrap, featuring a stonecrop exfoliating scrub, followed by a thermal wrap, foot and scalp massages, and a skin-rejuvenating gel massage. Afterward, immerse yourself in the salt sauna or their saltwater pool for an extra dose of fire-and-ice indulgence.
The Catamaran Spa at the Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa
Mission Bay, $$$–$$$$
The Catamaran Resort may be storied—the Mission Bay institution opened in the ’50s—but its Polynesian-inspired spa is decidedly modern. The Catamaran Spa boasts both traditional treatments (aromatherapy, massage, body wraps) and buzzy, techy options. Try the Anti-Gravity Facial, an 80-minute indulgence that utilizes a microcurrent device designed to lift, tighten, and coax out your cheekbones. Make time afterwards to sink into the bayfront whirlpool and people-watch PBcians and tourists alike.
AquaVie Fitness + Wellness Club at The Westgate Hotel
Downtown, $$$$
Booking a treatment at The Westgate’s AquaVie Wellness Club gets you access to a gym, sauna, steam room, and cool plunge. (The rooftop pool and hot tub recently closed for maintenance, but they are scheduled to reopen early this year.) Inside, everything—from the chair to the tiles—is a soothing blue. The gym is industrial-chic and spacious, hosting downtown biz folks sweating out their stress and hotel guests getting in a quick Peloton sesh. The club’s lobby looks out over downtown and features do-it-yourself Stash teas. The signature massage presses all the right buttons to take your blues away.
Spa L’Auberge at L’Auberge Del Mar
Del Mar, $$$$
Spa L’Auberge is an upscale sanctuary offering panoramic ocean views, wood accents, and citrus aromas with amenities like eucalyptus saunas, a serene courtyard, and a hot tub, perfect for sipping mimosas or herbal tea. The Ocean Quench treatment includes a head-to-toe scrub, lavender mask, cocoon wrap, scalp massage, and full-body massage—a must-try for lovers of lemongrass and oceanfront luxury.
SpaTerre at Kona Kai San Diego
Shelter Island, $$$–$$$$
Kona Kai San Diego sits on the tip of Shelter Island, and its spa is just steps away from docks full of swaying sailboats. Descend a staircase to reach SpaTerre, a secluded, candlelit retreat. (Should you want to stay beachside, though, you can book a treatment in a private cabana.) This full-service spa offers custom massages, facials, and body indulgences; try the signature Noble Massage to target tight or tired areas, from toes to temples. Bonus: Kona Kai San Diego is pet-friendly to an unparalleled degree, and while the spa’s cloud-like robes don’t come in dog sizes, the treatments do. To pamper your four-legged companion as much as you’ve pampered yourself, a Pawroma Therapy massage should do the trick.
Courtesy of Alila Marea Beach Resort
Spa Alila at Alila Marea Beach Resort
Encinitas, $$$–$$$$
Perched on the cliffside of north Leucadia overlooking the ocean, the Alila Marea hotel is quietly grand in earth tones inspired by the local terrain. Take the opportunity to recharge with Spa Alila’s signature Talisman Massage. This unique massage style employs warm, oil-drenched herbal poultices said to combat inflammation, relieve tension, and aid blood flow. They will customize their blend and level of pressure to fit your personal needs, leaving you deeply relaxed, as if dropped into a lower rhythm. The sauna offers Himalayan salt stones intended to further draw out impurities through your feet. Let any remaining muscle tension melt on a warmed amethyst-infused biomat in the spa lounge. With your body at ease, dive deeper with a personalized astrology reading. Or take lounging to a new level with a Daycation package to enjoy the pool before or after your treatments.
Boutiques
Courtesy of Oh Glory
Oh Glory
North Park, $$$
Oh Glory’s arresting, arched wooden door in the heart of North Park resembles the entrance to a house of worship—fitting, considering that the spa’s namesake facial is as soothing for the spirit as it is the skin. The estheticians here take a more holistic approach than most, massaging your shoulders, arms, hands, feet, and scalp while botanical-forward products work their magic on your face. Whether you’ve booked a skin treatment, a massage, or acupuncture, your attentive provider will offer thoughtful advice for continued self-care, long after you emerge from their softly lit, impeccably decorated space.
Saffron & Sage
Bankers Hill, $$$
Saffron and Sage is a holistic health club and wellness center featuring a mix of therapies including acupuncture, breathwork, energy therapy, cupping, and traditional spa services such as massages and facials. Using both Eastern and Western treatments, fans of the spa suggest booking a combination of services to encourage total body relaxation and rejuvenation. Plus, if you really want a complete ahhhh experience, the center hosts wellness retreats for men and women in places like Oaxaca, Mexico that include daily group classes, meditation, individual therapies, and curated nourishing meals.
Four Moons Spa
Encinitas, $$$$
This decompression hideout nails that quirky Leucadia desert surf vibe. With onsite naturopathic docs for acupuncture, IVs, empathic healing, and tarot; a Balinese hut in a thriving koi pond; a meditation and reading perch; a yoga room; a Hammam room; an outdoor soaking tub; and a sauna—all places to gracefully relax and just kind of exist—Four Moons Spa is becoming a sought-after events space for SoCal culture brands, weddings, art shows, and on socials.
Miss Lymph
Carmel Valley, $$$
Some say the key to beating bloating, fatigue, and stomach issues lies in lymphatic drainage treatments. At Miss Lymph, you’ll melt under the heat of a red-light infrared sauna before settling in for a depuffing massage. For a full-body detox, try The Ultimate, a two-hour experience that includes a sweat sesh in a body wrap, lymphatic facial drainage, and wood and vibration therapy. Pack your swimsuit, sweat-proof undies, or go commando. Small but mighty, the business is located inside ICE Recovery + Wellness.
Angelica B Beauty
South Park, $$
Angelica B Beauty is a staple of South Park—the natural beauty urban spa is in the building that once was the Burlingame Garage. We recommend trying the holistic massage facial with organic Laurel cosmetic products. Expect eye bags to disappear—seriously—right before your eyes. As if that weren’t enough, there are three add-on options to the facial that are worth trying: lymphatic drainage, gua sha (gentle combing with a rose quartz stone intended to get rid of unhealthy cells), and Buccal massage (Pilates for the face, said to increase collagen production). There are also services for lashes, brow lamination, makeup, sugaring, and waxing. The front-of-house boutique sells cosmetics, lash care, natural skin care, and sexual wellness products for take-away bliss.
SkinHabit
Pacific Beach, $$$
Boho, intimate, and minimalist, this crisp Pacific Beach outpost echoes the clean canvas your skin will become after a 50- or 80-minute customizable facial. Recover from winter dryness with the Hydrate + Calm facial, which quenches your skin’s thirst with activated hyaluronic acid, a gooey jelly mask, and other dewy substances. Book the 80-minute option for an added neck and shoulder massage and hand mask.
Shop Good
North Park & Del Mar, $$$
Shop Good knows that facials are not one-size-fits-all, so they offer a range of specialty treatments, diving into the history of your skin and nurturing your needs with various masks, gua sha approaches, and everything else under the sun (or at least everything under therapeutic LED lights). Their holistic estheticians offer a complementary “Clean Swap” consultation, assessing your current products to provide a more natural alternative.
Yu Spa
Convoy District, $$
There’s nothing quite like a Korean body scrub to leave you feeling fresh like a baby. This beloved Convoy District spa offers the revitalizing experience of lying on a table, getting intensively exfoliated from tip to tail by a woman in skivvies and hand mitts. Yu Spa guests can opt for a wet massage in the body scrub room or a dry massage in a private treatment room. The day spa pass option is popular, too, seeing as it gets you hours in the dry and steam saunas, whirlpool, cold plunge, and three Korean sauna rooms: the ice room, Himalayan salt sauna, and medicinal red clay room. It’s like a fun house for your body.
Retreats
Courtesy of Cal-A-Vie Health Spa
Cal-a-Vie Health Spa
Vista, $$$$$
Wake up in sateen linens, listen to the perfect water pressure bounce off your shower’s travertine tiles, and frolic across the 200 acres of vineyards and hiking trails at the renowned Cal-a-Vie. This French countryside–esque establishment doesn’t offer day passes—it’s impossible to immerse yourself in the opulence in 24 hours—so you’ll need to book a three-, four- or seven-night stay in a serene Vista Villa. Choose whether to spend your days caked in the greens of a Sea Wrap or on the greens of their golf course. This retreat is your oyster.
Golden Door
San Marcos, $$$$$
It’s said that lucrative deals have been made behind these doors—likely due to the resort’s nearly $12,000-a-week price tag. Founded in 1958, the Golden Door is one of SD’s most exclusive wellness retreats. Limited to three-, four- or seven-day stays, guests experience daily spa perks like massages, facials, calorie-specific meal plans, and fitness activities. You can also book à la carte services like the womb-cradling Watsu massage, which takes place in a warm pool followed by tugs and stretches to your limbs, focusing on gentle mobilization of the joints. Come for the mental break; stay for pickleball with the president of Sony.
Waldorf Astoria Spa at the Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort & Club
Dana Point, $$$$$
This is true rejuvenation. Services at this Waldorf Astoria resort will set you back more than most other places in this guide, but they allow you access to a spa pool, lap pool, sauna, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, and relaxation lounges. After your session, get cozy in their newly renovated suites with private firepits and spa-inspired bathrooms complete with complimentary workout gear. No need to worry about your dietary restrictions, either, since this getaway offers seven culinary concepts to meet your needs. With killer ocean views while you golf or exercise, and various boutiques to shop from, you’ll be set.
Courtesy of Rancho La Puerta
Rancho La Puerta
Baja California, $$$$$
Escape the mundane and explore this nature-filled retreat where your only dilemma will be deciding between heading out on a scenic hike or basking poolside in the sun. Set at the base of Mt. Kuchumaa in Tecate, Mexico, this 1940s-era wellness hacienda offers a program called Saturdays at the Ranch, which includes a day trip to the property, fitness classes, breakfast and lunch, a cooking demonstration, and more. Seeking complete relaxation? Add a 50-minute Ranch Classic massage.
Glen Ivy Hot Springs
Temescal Valley, $$$–$$$$
Glen Ivy is an oasis. A welcoming mimosa and luxurious robe greet you upon your arrival to this curated retreat featuring 19 mineral pools and therapeutic baths amid luscious, tropical gardens. Pack a swimsuit you don’t mind getting stained and coat yourself at “Club Mud”—the infamous outdoor mud therapy pool—then relax in the Wafa cave, where the sauna heat is intended to draw impurities from your skin. A massage won’t hurt, either (unless you want it to).
Courtesy of Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa
Spa Rosa at the Tommy Bahama Miramonte Resort & Spa
Indian Wells, $$$–$$$$
Perched on a quiet, sprawling property, the hotel’s Spa Rosa features the works (steam room, dedicated pool, lounge-chair snack deliveries), including a magical hot tub made of tiny waterfalls. The branded resort offers a wealth of treatments inspired by the Tommy Bahama lifestyle and the hotel’s desert locale, like a body mask made with mud from the Santa Rosa Mountains and a Marlin Man massage and facial aimed at golfers.
The Ritz-Carlton Spa at The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel
Dana Point, $$$$$
This beachfront sanctuary relies on the ocean’s natural bounty to restore your skin. Tranquil water features and aqua-and-beige treatment rooms lull you to surrender before you’re slathered in hydrating ingredients like marine collagen, sea salt, and seaweed. Book the 90-minute Laguna Wellness Experience to be cocooned in seaweed and kneaded like dough. If you’re staying the night, catch daily, complimentary morning yoga and Pilates classes overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Spa VEA at VEA Newport Beach
Newport Beach, $$$$
The two-story, 14,000-square-foot Spa VEA is Orange County’s new favorite spa retreat. Locals love getting day passes for the adults-only playground, complete with outdoor saltwater pool, steam and dry saunas, and cold-water foot revival. Some even post up in private cabanas with laptops to work while wearing bathrobes. OSEA Malibu’s ocean-inspired skincare line is used throughout the facial and body treatments, including the 100-minute luminous Luxury Oxygen facial, which leaves you with a red carpet–ready angelic radiance.
We Care Spa
Desert Hot Springs, $$$$$
This detox spa retreat in Desert Hot Springs is famous for its liquid fasting program, with celebrity fans including Ben Affleck, Reese Witherspoon, and Gwen Stefani. There are just 28 accommodations (all with oversized soaking tubs), and the daily regimen includes yoga, breathwork, sound healing, and meditation along with colon hydrotherapy (said to flush toxins) and more than 40 spa treatments. The date sugar body polish uses locally grown Coachella Valley dates for a head-to-toe glow.
On February 28, 1926, the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego (now called the San Diego Museum of Art) opened its Plateresque doors to 3,000 guests for opening day. Over the next century, the museum changed with the times—even once functioning as a naval hospital after Pearl Harbor. This year, the museum is celebrating its 100th birthday with an exhibit (open through January 24, 2027) featuring photographs, ephemera, and film footage spanning the museum’s history.
Courtesy of Tim Novara
Free Concerts at Spreckels Organ Pavilion
Every Sunday from 2 to 3 p.m., stop by the historic Spreckels Organ Pavilion for a free concert presented by the City of San Diego on the largest outdoor organ in the world (more than 5,000 pipes). The pavilion seats 2,400 for performances by the civic organist or guest artists.
Some think natural history museums are just cemeteries for dioramas that haven’t received an update since the Reagan administration. When it comes to The Nat, which just finished a $7.5 million rejuvenation, they’re totally wrong. The museum debuted a new rooftop that replaces its 25-year-old atrium. The old roof created a greenhouse effect that steamed up some exhibits, so the new one—which includes 200 solar panels and better temperature control—will help preserve the artifacts inside. Each Friday in the summer, The Nat also becomes one of the season’s vibiest hotspots during Nat at Night, with food from places like Wolf in the Woods and The Craft Taco, bars and signature cocktails on several floors, and a rooftop DJ.
Fleet Science Theater Remodel
The Fleet Science Center just received its most significant update since the 1990s. It expanded its exhibit space by 20 percent and introduced a newly designed entrance gallery (formerly the IMAX theater lobby) that includes free exhibits for visitors who want a taste of the science without paying an admission fee. The former ticketing area now houses the Mindbender Mansion exhibit, and there’s a new café, Element 8, that will, of course, sell the center’s famous soft serve.
September is San Diego’s unofficial second summer—the crowds thin, the weather stays warm, and the city’s calendar somehow gets even busier. This month brings stadium-sized rock shows, Broadway’s buzziest comedy, a new anime convention, world-premiere theater, gallery openings, food festivals, and the first signs of spooky season. Whether you’re ready to lean into fall or determined to keep summer going, here are the best things to do in San Diego this September.
As Guns N’ Roses storm into decade five, their appetite for destruction persists. During their Snapdragon Stadium concert, hear the hard rock anthems, new material and a set from The Black Crowes.
9/23
Kehlani is proof that the romance and earnest sensuality of old-school R&B will never go out of style. Hear her take it back to the aughts at Viejas Arena.
From the silver screen to The Old Globe stage, John Carney will Begin Again (again) with a world premiere musical adaptation featuring new songs—courtesy of Train—and a story overflowing with hope.
9/12-10/17
The concept of work is a guiding principle for San Diego native and multidisciplinary creative noé olivas. Observe his community-informed approach via Tierra y Cielo (Earth and Sky) at Best Practice Gallery.
9/18-10/25
Two workers grapple with the weight of their roles at a temporary migrant shelter in Mario Vega’s world premiere play Our Lady of the San Diego Convention Center, set for citywide performances.
9/26-2/28/2027
Luminous visions of peace and the Punjabi-American roots of Rupinder Kaloti inform The Gathering, a wondrous unification of family foretold via paintings at Oceanside Museum of Art.
9/29-10/4
It’s Mary Todd Lincoln’s world and we’re just living in it. See the presidential paramour barrel to her way to stardom at the Civic Theatre during Oh, Mary!, Cole Escola’s political spoof.
Courtesy of SeaWorld
More Fun Things to Do in San Diego This Month
9/5 & 9/6
Pros and Con(vention)s: Anime San Diego will debut at the San Diego Convention Center with cosplayers, panels and more than 400 vendors well-versed in Japanese animation.
9/11-10/31
Scaredy cats beware: SeaWorld San Diego’s Howl-O-Scream embraces frights forged in darkness. Enjoy an ominous lineup of live shows, scare zones and bloody bars ahead of Halloween.
9/12
The best parts of Artivál and the Alley Cat Art Walk have united for the free Alley Cat Art Fest, an all-day outing for live music and immersive artwork in Downtown El Cajon.
9/12 & 9/13
Take a Grecian vacation for a fraction of the price during the annual Cardiff Greek Festival, two days of immersive cuisine and culture—with plenty of dancing—on the Encinitas coast.
9/13-9/20
Step away from the stove! The California Restaurant Association has eight days of eating experiences with your name on it. During San Diego Restaurant Week, explore by meal, neighborhood or cuisine for your personal dining plan.
9/16
Nourish yourself with an all-inclusive spread of Pacific Beach eats and locally-crafted artwork during the HeArt of PB Restaurant Walk on Garnet Avenue.
9/19
When it comes to stand-up comedy, Chelsea Handler is always ready to roast. See Handler tell anecdotes and skewer an assemblage of victims during her Balboa Theatre performance.
Ryan Hardison is a freelance arts and entertainment writer and recent graduate of San Diego State. When he's not staring at his laptop, he's likely eating an adobada burrito or getting sunburnt at the beach.
Boredom's not an option. These are a few of the top events in the city each year, including a rodeo, free summertime music festival, and a chili cook-off
Meet some rodeo queens (or be crowned as one yourself) in R-Town’s annual celebration of the Wild West. Three days of mutton bustin’, tie-down roping, and barrel racing are all doing the community some good: Proceeds from the event funnel into local organizations like Ramona Town Hall and the Guy B. Woodward Museum. This month marks the 45th annual Ramona Rodeo, which takes place in the Fred Grand Arena and draws more than 12,000 attendees each year.
For nearly half a century, OB has hosted a chili cooking competition that has drawn thousands of hungry locals. (Buzz Cannabis presented this year’s event, so taste testers could have been under the influence of munchies-enhancing drugs.) Non-chili-related street fair festivities include beachfront live music, Fun Zone family-friendly play areas, and a Dirty Birds wing-eating contest.
Photo Credit: Cole Novak
Chicano Park Day
In 1970, Chicano Park was set to become a California Highway Patrol station. The problem: The city had promised a community park in that area. After decades of development fractured Barrio Logan and displaced thousands of families, Chicano locals were tapped out. So, for 12 days, locals occupied the area under the Coronado Bridge, blocking bulldozers and planting cacti. It worked. Construction stopped, and that area is now Chicano Park. Each year, locals celebrate the successful preservation of Chicano Park and the resilience of the Chicano Movement.
Solana Beach gathers at Fletcher Cove Park at the start of each summer for two days of live music ranging from country to pop to Chicano rock, plus an arts and crafts fair, an international food court, a beer and wine garden, and the Solana Beach Firefighters Association’s pancake breakfast. The event is free, but if you want an elevated experience, grab Seaside Pavilion ($75) or VIP Deck ($160) tickets for reserved seating, private cash bars, exclusive restrooms, and discounted swag.
Courtesy of North Park Music Fest
North Park Music Fest
The entire North Park neighborhood hosts an annual music festival, meaning a dozen venues—from Queen Bee’s to Bacari to North Park Community Park—become live music spaces each June. Some locations are open to the public, but if you’d prefer lounge access at Granada House and line-skipping privileges, check out the $65 VIP passes. General admission otherwise starts at $25.
Lemon Festival
It’s weird if you don’t wear a lemon-themed outfit at Chula Vista’s annual Lemon Festival. For one day each August, Third Avenue pays tribute to the city’s former “Lemon Capital of the World” status with live music, citrus-themed photo ops, arts and crafts vendors, a lemon cook-off competition, and plenty of other food that doesn’t include the famed hesperidium. But who would want that at Lemon Fest?
The Best Gym in San Diego Isn’t Really a Gym Anymore
Earlier this year, Fit quietly dropped "athletic" from its brand, from Fit Athletic Clubs to simply Fit, and started calling itself something new: a social wellness club.
There’s a version of San Diego that lives in two extremes. On one side, the 5 a.m. crowd: biohackers, marathoners, people who’ve already logged a cold plunge before your alarm goes off. On the other, the after-dark crowd, the ones chasing sunset happy hours and late dinners with friends. Everyone seems to be either optimizing or unwinding, and most of us feel like we’re failing at both.
Fit, San Diego’s reigning Best Gym for the third year running, has built its entire identity around erasing that divide.
Walk into one of Fit’s three San Diego locations on a Tuesday afternoon and the lines blur fast. Someone’s mid-set on the squat rack. Someone else has a laptop open at a café table a few feet away, half-working, half-people-watching. A group is trading plans for the weekend’s event by the recovery lounge. Nobody’s in a rush to leave.
“We’re not competing for the same people,” says Emily Waybright, Public Relations Manager at Fit, addressing the arrival of a national luxury gym chain in San Diego this year. “We don’t really feel like we’re in the gym category. It’s this unique thing.”
That unique thing has a name now. Earlier this year, Fit quietly dropped “athletic” from its brand, from Fit Athletic Clubs to simply Fit, and started calling itself something new: a social wellness club.
It’s a small wording change with a bigger idea behind it. Fit was never built around escaping the workday. It was built around the people who genuinely like what they do, and who want workouts, work, and friendships to happen in the same place instead of three separate ones. Because sometimes red light therapy with a stranger turns into weekend plans.
Fit’s philosophy traces back to its founder, who started the brand nearly two decades ago after failing to find a gym he actually wanted to belong to. He looked instead to the old-school country club, where people came for a shared interest and stayed for the community. His version was made for a younger generation, minus the golf, plus the loud music.
Which makes it a little ironic that the very award putting Fit back in the spotlight this year is Best Gym.
What does the best traditional gym look like when the definition of a gym is becoming less traditional? It’s a fair question, and Fit’s answer is that the fitness industry itself is shifting. The 45-minutes-in, 45-minutes-out model is giving way to something closer to a genuine third space, the kind of role the office and the bar used to play before remote work and changing nightlife habits rearranged how people spend their time
For Fit, community isn’t a marketing add-on to fitness. It’s the through-line. Members aren’t just paying for a treadmill; they’re paying for an entire day of social wellness that’s built on performance, recovery, connection, and a plan for the next event on the calendar. That’s a much harder membership to walk away from.
Ambition and ease aren’t opposites here, they exist side by side, where passion and play share the same morning. On September 12, Fit is hosting Sol, a full day wellness festival at Fit Social. The morning focuses on wellness classes and vendors and then the evening is a full party with multiple DJ sets and an open bar. Think of it as a kick-off to locals’ summer in San Diego.
Ready to see what a social wellness club actually looks like? Visit fitclubs.com, or follow along at @thefitclubs on Instagram.
It was the summer of 1999. MTV, The Matrix, and first-generation PlayStation glowed on tube TV sets all over America. What a time to be alive. Smartphones weren’t yet stealing people from the moment. Cultural was a shared reality. During the last few minutes of the monoculture, Tony Hawk executed the first-ever 900 at X Games V in San Francisco. That’s two and a half aerial rotations with a side of the dizzies.
The time had run out on the Vert Best Trick competition long before the 11th attempt when he pulled off the fateful feat. Nobody cared. Not the judges, not the competition, and certainly not the crowd. “Let that bird fly,” they said. Once the trick was landed, they partied like it was 1999 … because it was.
That was the tipping point when the skateboarding world exploded, going from counterculture to a national phenomenon. Shortly after that, “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” video game came out, introducing millions of kids to what skate culture looked like. Oh, the game had a killer punk soundtrack, too.
We can all thank Hawk for the globalization of skateboarding. But we can also recognize his local influence and how San Diego County continues to be a hub for skateboarders young and old, for competitors and street skaters. To see it all, go to Park De La Cruz in City Heights—or, heck, any other skatepark in the county—which, at 19,000 square feet, is about twice the size of the average skatepark and has signature features like an M-shaped transition ramp. The amount of talent that continues to evolve in this county is a testament to deep-rooted skate culture and world-class athletes supporting the next generation.
Photo Credit: Casiel Sanchez
The Skatepark
I’m a little early for a skate lesson with pro skater Mike Owen when I get to Linda Vista Skatepark. In the 2010s, Owen ranked as one of the world’s top bowl riders. He’s the founder of San Diego Skateboarding and has “helped thousands of kids, teens, and adults learn to skate safely, confidently, and with style,” the company’s site says. And now it’s my turn. We start the lesson on the nearby tennis courts, getting my basic foot mechanics down. Safety before style.
In terms of street plaza features, the massive Linda Vista Skatepark is loaded with rails, stairs, manuals, and ledges. There are more bowls than you can get from Cava: a flow bowl, backyard-style pool, and vert bowl. The main feature is a full pipe for advanced line riders. It’s a hell of a park, even if somebody just wants to watch the action from the 100-foot-long pedestrian skybridge overhead.
Right now, San Diego has over 50 public skateparks scattered throughout the county. “There are now more [skateparks], more resources for them, and more terrain,” Owen tells me. “Now, they’re offering different competitive style skateparks that help for competitions. The best parks have a variety of different terrain where you have things for beginners and bigger transitions. Not every town has that.”
San Diego, luckily, does. But despite the bounty, Owen believes there should still be more—public skateparks are safe spaces for all to learn and develop on-board skills. Without them, a huge portion of San Diego’s culture withers. Encinitas could be the next city to add a skatepark to the county’s roster: In early July, the Encinitas City Council appointed 12 local skaters and community members for the newly established Skate Feature Committee. In partnership with two councilmembers, the committee’s purpose is to design a working skatepark or feature for the city.
But like any big project, Owen says, it’s a long process to add another skatepark to the community.
“I wish it were easier,” he says. “When there are different contractors for different things, [there’s only] a certain amount of time to build. It gets tricky.”
Then there’s the matter of funding the actual construction and development of the skatepark. That usually comes from grants, fundraisers, and donations. For reference, Linda Vista Skatepark was built on a $4.46 million grant from the California Department of Housing and Community Development in 2014. With an additional $40,000 donated by the Tony Hawk Foundation, the park opened in 2018 and is the largest in San Diego’s Parks and Recreation system. The best way to get a skatepark in your neighborhood, Owen says, is to start a petition and reach out to your city.
Photo Credit: Blair Alley
The Street Skaters
Jordan Thrower’s first street skate sesh at San Diego City College in 2003 ended with a police chase. The campus was swarming with skaters riding rails, jumping stairs, and grinding tricks on benches, curbs, and ledges. When the cops got on their loudspeaker telling them not to run, everyone obviously ran. Back then, cops would give tickets and confiscate boards. The vibe has loosened since. “Now, the police don’t really care,” Thrower says. “They just make you leave. It’s not anything crazy.”
Street skating is when riders use real-world urban obstacles, rather than pristinely designed bowls or ramps—such as in college campuses, downtown areas, corporate buildings, and malls. Abandoned mini-golf courses and construction sites do the trick, too.
Thrower says the street skating hub here isn’t as huge as it once was. Thanks to modern technology and social media, skaters aren’t tied to any certain place to create skate videos. You know, those videos that could have been taken this year but have the low-fi vibe of 2004, where skaters carve down stairwells into parking lots, over mailboxes, or across park benches. The silver lining: Even though there are fewer street skaters than there once was, those who stayed in San Diego are still tight.
“Everyone skates with each other and knows each other here,” Thrower says. “In LA, it’s not really like that. It’s small there, but not everybody knows each other, and they don’t really skate with each other too much. They just have a lot of little crews.”
Back in 2015, Thrower started his own street team and brand that sells boards and shirts called Tantrum. The Tantrum team is split between San Diego and San Francisco. It doesn’t take much to be a part of a skate team. You just have to be a good hang.
“The way I pick people [for the team] is if I can get along with them,” he says. “It doesn’t even really matter if they’re that good. If you’re likable and funny, you can pretty much be on the team.”
Photo Credit: Marc Wierenega
The Future
Running it up to North County, a Vista-based nonprofit organization called Exposure Skate has been shaping up the youth since 2012. Its mission is to give more opportunities to otherwise underrepresented women, girls, and non-binary individuals by offering classes and camps. This, to build up confidence and community. We could all use a little bit of that, eh?
Thanks to Exposure Skate, 13-year-old Joey Yarbrough has found herself competing in the LA Olympic trials. (Her first time on a skateboard came at just 18 months old at an Exposure Skate Rising event.)
While competing for Team USA in Rome in June of this year, she finished 13th at the first Olympic qualifier for LA28. Currently ranked 21st in the world and 5th among American women, the young prodigy is blooming. And she’s in good company and mentorship from her biggest influence, Bryce Wettstein.
“She taught me at the first Exposure Skate Rising when I was little,” Yarbrough recalls. “I compete and skate with her all the time now, and it’s super fun. [At Exposure,] it feels so good to have someone there to help me whenever I need it. They’re like my family, always encouraging me and always there for me.”
Yarbrough will be just 15 years old when the Olympics go down in LA. She’s following the Olympic torch carried by other locals such as Wettstein, Ruby Lilley, Jordyn Barratt, and Exposure Skate’s Amelia Brodka.
“I’m working my hardest to get there,” she says. “I’ll also work my hardest to go higher in the Olympics, maybe on podium. That’s just my dream. So, hopefully it’ll come true.”
Jake Peterson is a San Diego-based journalist and culture writer. His work explores the city’s music scene, sports, local characters, and the offbeat corners of San Diego’s subcultures.
If magazines are like the adultier eldest daughters who know exactly how much anarchy they can get away with, zines are the far less predictable younger siblings going on whim and instinct. Those who draw on the walls around the house, DIY their own piercings, and experiment with different emo/straight-edge/back to emo phases (or not-phases). Boundaries and routines are what zines were created to rail against.
Walk into Verbatim Books’ zine corner, and this rebellion is immediately clear. Zines have no singular form, no clean category or definition. Vintage magazine scraps are collaged into new meaning alongside mini fandom zines. Single sheets of plain white printer paper are covered in nothing but black ballpoint pen. Repurposed hardback book covers are folded into something entirely new. Some are duct-taped together, others stapled. Some glossy, others matte. There are guides to anything and everything, comic panels, photography, hand-drawn cartoons, poetry, recipes, diaries, and ramblings that only make sense to the person who made them—and that’s on purpose.
Zines are creative magic. And with no rules, they’re incredibly accessible. Anyone can zine and have a voice, regardless of artistic training or work life experience.
You are your own Anna Wintour, Graydon Carter, Ruth Whitney.
San Diego–based zine creator Lyssette Williams specializes in mini zines—often limited to eight pages, they’re meditations in abbreviation. Outlining, thumbnailing, and revision all move quickly from idea to page. Larger projects, including Williams’ long-form graphic novel thesis, move at a slower pace. For those, she often returns to pen and ink, a choice that resists the over-editability of digital work.
Raised by a single mother and navigating mixed-race identity in a predominantly white town, she finds a home for processing it all in zines. Her work deals in identity, belonging, self-definition, and punk-rock childhood. But it isn’t always heavy; Williams creates a mini duck-themed zine called Backyard Duck Propaganda that’s hard not to love. “When I create, I think about what would have helped me find the words back then, what my younger self would’ve needed,” Williams says. “[Zines] put the tools in your hands and democratize art. They’re translations of memories and identities.”
Courtesy of Lyssette Williams
For Williams, a big reason she keeps creating is being surrounded by other creatives—a scene that extends across the border. She points to Verbatim and Comicbook Artists of San Diego, plus events like Zine Fest (October 17–18 this year at Woo in Barrio Logan) and Black Comix Day at the WorldBeat Cultural Center.
Zines have always been a road for subcultures. During the Harlem Renaissance, Black creatives like Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston self-published one issue of Fire!!, which inspired other Black authors. In the 1930s, zines (then called fanzines) were hubs for sci-fi nerds to write fanfiction, address the fandom, and create new characters. Superman actually made his public debut in a fanzine called Science Fiction (he was originally cast as a villain with a fully receded hairline). A couple decades later, zines about feminism and riot grrrl became subculture de rigueur.
The internet nearly killed zines, of course. But now, people tired of the algorithm’s firehose are finding comfort and renewed inspiration in analog. Zines, a salve for digital fatigue.
Courtesy of Duophobia
A giant figure in San Diego zine culture is Burn All Books. Founded by Amanda and Nick Bernal, BAB started as a risograph (digital screen printing) studio and turned into one of those places that keeps expanding the whole scene around it, even forming its own archive group, SCANNNERS. Since opening in January 2023, it has published over 35 works and collaborated with more than 100 artists, writers, and zinesters.
For Duophobia, the pseudonym for local twin sisters Alora and Kiani Dotson (affectionately known as the “possum twins”), zines make room for experimentation and play that doesn’t fit anywhere else. Room for eclectic cartoons and dirty jokes. For sticker-covered sketchbooks.
It’s that same brand of nostalgia you might feel when, say, you walk past the carcass of an abandoned mall and see a faded cartoon mural. Their work lives somewhere between childhood and adulthood, where being unserious is taken very, very seriously.
“We’re born and raised in San Diego, and the community of artists here is a main reason we started publishing,” Kiani Dotson says. “There are people here like Trixxie Land who run open art gatherings. Show up, and you’re part of it.”
Land, a zinester herself (she made 250 single-page zines during 2020’s lockdown), is all about storytelling over hierarchy. Art shouldn’t be about gatekeeping or intimidation, she says. So she holds open-invite arts shows at Subterranean Coffee.
Courtesy of Lyssette Williams
Duophobia regularly share their work at local galleries like Subterranean, filling that lowbrow space with pieces that answer: “What would’ve made us laugh as kids?” Children are often the first to pick up their zines, unfolding them in every direction while parents briefly panic at the impulsive destruction. The twins always step in. “No, no, it’s okay,” they say, before showing how one sheet of paper folds into an entire little book. “It’s like magic.” More often than not, the kids leave with a tiny zine tucked under a tiny arm, future San Diego zinesters in the making.
When asked what a zine really is, Alora Dotson’s response was simple: “It’s anything. Literally anything. The more genuine you are, the more people are going to hear what you have to say. Your voice matters, even if it’s just a silly joke or story. People want to hear about it.”
Not a perfect definition? Exactly. Zines inherently resist categories. Want to turn a single playing card into a storybook? Do it. What about your favorite graffiti artist’s signature tag at Prince Memorial Skatepark? Turn it into a zine.
Isabella Dallas is a freelance writer for San Diego Magazine and the Arts and Culture Editor at The Daily Aztec in her final year at San Diego State University. She previously worked as an editorial intern for SDM, but when she’s not writing, you can find her trying the best coffee spots in SD, devouring the latest rom-coms, and indulging in anything and everything pop culture.
SeaWorld dazzles with a drone show, big-name entertainers, new animal adventures and more
By Partner Content
Nights are heating up at SeaWorld San Diego. The quintessential summertime staple on Mission Bay is transforming into a destination for unforgettable day-to-night adventures, bringing back some of its most popular Summer Nights programming and introducing exciting new experiences sure to delight both kids and adults alike.
The 2026 Summer Day to Night at SeaWorld San Diego is the park’s most ambitious season yet. SeaWorld has planned a highly anticipated entertainment lineup that features nine weeks of throwback concerts featuring R&B and hip‑hop favorites from the ‘90s and early 2000s, including Jordin Sparks, Too $hort and Warren G, Ashanti, and an array of boy band heartthrobs performing together as part of the Pop 2000 Tour.
New this season is perhaps the park’s most visible update: a nightly drone show, Ocean of Dreams, which illuminates the sky with hundreds of synchronized sparklers. Drones form sea otters, sharks, dolphins, and a majestic orca that tell a breathtaking 12-minute story of marine life and underwater ecosystems. The show culminates with a spectacular electric neon finale celebrating hope, wonder, and ocean stewardship.
Nighttime visitors are also in store for animal adventures that fuse education with high-energy fun and the dreamy ambiance of nighttime. The park has launched two all-new animal presentations: Shamu’s Celebration:Light Up the Night and Dolphins: Touch the Sky. Shamu’s Celebration:Light Up the Night features vibrant lighting, music, and dynamic choreography that celebrates the power and beauty of killer whales. Dolphins: Touch the Sky showcases playful bottlenose dolphins and the special connection between humans and the natural world. And back by popular demand is fan-favorite Sea Lions Tonite. See the charming pinnipeds splash, play, and parody pop culture in this refreshed crowd-pleaser.
More must-sees: a newly reimagined Shark Encounter, one of the country’s more immersive exhibits highlighting 11 different species up close, SeaWorld’s beloved BMX Blast! stunt show, and high-seas escapade, Pirates Ahoy! The Battle for Mermaid Cove. And don’t miss the park’s all-new Deep Sea Disco, which encourages guests to dance the night away under the glow of the SkyTower, and vibrant closing time laser light display Laser Reef Summer Spectacular.
Amp up the nighttime vibe with local craft beers, curated cocktails, and nostalgic theme park treats with $1 beer all summer long. SeaWorld is the place for day to night summer fun. When the sun goes down, SeaWorld lights up, and inspires guests of all ages to embrace their inner whimsy and see why generations of San Diegans head to SeaWorld to make memories they’ll never forget.
