San Diego retirement communities have been working hard to elevate the experience for their residents while keeping their wellbeing in mind. These are some of the city’s most dynamic retirement communities.
With 20 years of service in San Diego County, Belmont Village Senior Living is a trusted choice for area seniors and their families. Belmont Village’s Cardiff-by-the-Sea and Sabre Springs communities offer independent living, assisted living, and memory care, with round-the-clock nursing, medication management, on-site therapy, and award-winning programming.
Social engagement, essential to overall well-being, is a high priority. Because Belmont’s common areas make up 40 percent of its building spaces, residents can choose from vibrant, enriching small-group activities from the daily activity calendar to stay connected and keep spirits high. Programming is tailored to each resident, allowing for a range of abilities and needs. The building itself is licensed to the highest level of care throughout. This means couples with different care needs can stay together, under one roof. And as needs change, Belmont changes with you, offering the level of care you need for where you are right now.
Local retirees seeking engaging retirement living in San Diego often turn to Senior Resource Group. Its two spectacular locations offer service-enriched lifestyle opportunities as well as safeguards. Their wealth of amenities includes 12-hour restaurant-style dining, innovative programming, transportation services, a spa and heated pool, and cardio, strength, and balance training in the fitness center. In Rancho San Diego, La Vida Real delivers independent and assisted living as well as memory care and boasts an on-site club lounge and bistro, a movie theater, and gardening areas. La Vida Del Mar’s coastal location in Solana Beach combines peaceful serenity with country club elegance.
For more than 30 years, Vi has been redefining how senior living in San Diego looks by adding an air of luxury to the retirement experience. The resort-like Life Plan Community offers upscale amenities, thoughtfully designed apartments, and a continuum of care that can be tailored to suit your changing needs. Vi at La Jolla Village strives to create an environment where residents maintain their independence so they can enjoy all that coastal life has to offer. Aside from the sparkling sand just minutes away, residents can enjoy access to cultural attractions, high-end shops and dining, get back to nature at Torrey Pines State Reserve, and take in the sights and sounds of Balboa Park. Centrally located to many local favorites, Vi at La Jolla Village is a constant reminder of what residents love most about Southern California living.
guide-to-aging-well-2022_2
Food for Thought
It’s a common misconception that retirees are relegated to bland, tasteless food. San Diego seniors have options when it comes to dining. It’s possible to eat healthy while not losing out on flavor. Keep it interesting with new recipes, and jazz up old favorites with herbs, spices, and international flavors.
If you’re after flavor and variety, but also something convenient and tailored to your specific needs, try a meal delivery service. Martha’s Senior Gourmet delivers freshly cooked and nutritionally balanced meals to your home with care. The Southern California service offers home-style meals that adhere to nutritional guidelines for various dietary needs including healthy lifestyle, diabetic, renal, congestive heart failure, gluten sensitive, and more. Meals are prepared using only fresh ingredients and are served in reheatable containers, making Martha’s Senior Gourmet a healthy and affordable alternative to cooking, shopping, and eating out.
Everything in its Place
A cluttered home can pose a safety hazard for seniors who may be experiencing mobility or memory issues. Aside from the increased stress that comes with hanging on to too much stuff, clutter also contributes to the risk of falls, which according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are the leading cause of injury and death in adults 65 and over.
A professional organizer can help you declutter and make sure the items you love, and the ones used most are easily accessible. Bee Organized specializes in simplifying spaces and establishing sustainable organizing systems that could help keep you safe and clutter-free in the long run. Bee Organized’s staff can tackle kitchens, closets, garages, storage spaces, bedrooms, and more, and can also streamline a move into a retirement community or help plan for an estate sale. The pros at Bee Organized help seniors with difficult decisions with compassion and without judgement.
.
Studio S
SEPTEMBER 9, 2026
Meet ArtsConnect, UC San Diego’s Invitation to SoCal Arts Lovers
ArtsConnect brings those experiences into view, helping residents discover what they can see, hear and create at UC San Diego while experiencing the campus in a new way.
Ask most people what UC San Diego is known for, and the arts may not be the first answer. Yet this fall, San Diegans can watch Ghostbusters with a live orchestra, try their hand at glassmaking and wander among more than 20 works of public art woven throughout the university’s La Jolla campus.
ArtsConnect brings those experiences into view, helping residents discover what they can see, hear and create at UC San Diego while experiencing the campus in a new way.
Courtesy of UC San Diego | Photo Cred: Erik Jensen
“The arts are at the heart of UC San Diego’s student-centered mission and vision,” says Alysson Satterlund, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life. “Whether creating, participating in, or experiencing performances, the arts are essential to a healthy and truly fun Triton student experience.”
That invitation often begins where the arts intersect with other fields.
“Some of the most innovative work and discovery happen where disciplines don’t usually share a stage,” says Cristina Della Coletta, Dean of the UC San Diego School of Arts and Humanities. “So through our unique intersection of the arts with science, technology, and medicine, we are improving lives, physically and emotionally.
Take The Inaudible Ocean, a collaboration between Department of Music Professor Lei Liang and Scripps Institution of Oceanography Assistant Project Scientist Josh Jones. Over eight years, the pair recorded earthquakes, ship noise, whale songs and other sounds in remote underwater locations. They transformed those recordings into a live music experience that allowed audiences to hear the ocean in an entirely new way. The work premiered on campus in May and continues to evolve.
The arts also connect the campus to the global art world and diverse perspectives. Chief Campus Curator Jessica Berlanga Taylor recently curated the Mexico Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, featuring RojoNegro, the collective formed by Noé Martínez and María Sosa. The collective will unveil a compelling new permanent installation for UC San Diego’s celebrated Stuart Collection later this fall.
ArtPower offers another easy entry point, bringing touring performers to venues including the outdoor Epstein Family Amphitheater and the intimate Loft. The nearly three dozen performances featured through its 2026-2027 season span music, dance, film, theater and conversation.
Among the fall highlights is Ghostbusters in Concert on Sept. 25, pairing the beloved 1984 film with a live performance of Elmer Bernstein’s score. Tickets start at $35, and the amphitheater is located next to the UC San Diego Blue Line trolley station.
“Every member of our community should have access to world-class art, so we work hard to remove the barriers that stand in the way,” says Colleen Kollar Smith, executive artistic director of the Campus Performances and Events Office. “That means affordable ticket prices, and performances, voices and experiences where people see themselves reflected on stage and know they belong.”
The arts at UC San Diego are not only something to watch. The Craft Center offers public classes and workshops in ceramics, jewelry, woodworking, culinary arts and even surfboard shaping. At the new Glass Center, beginners and experienced makers can explore glassmaking through classes, demonstrations and studio experiences.
Whether you want to attend a performance, make something yourself or spend an afternoon exploring public art, there is an easy way in. And the invitation extends well beyond students and alumni.
Kollar Smith says it best: “Visit, participate, spectate or create. You’re invited, and we hope you’ll connect with us soon.”
Growing up, Laika Nur, MD, Scripps Clinic sports medicine specialist, loved watching beach volleyball when the Association of Volleyball Professionals tour came to her hometown of Chicago. A talented volleyball player herself, she remembers sitting in the stands all day, and once, even got a couple autographs. Years later, Dr. Nur was attending a professional event focused on women’s sports, and the discussion turned to a new professional women’s volleyball league. The general manager and coaching staff for San Diego’s team, the Mojo, happened to be in attendance, and Dr. Nur took the opportunity to ask them if they needed a team doctor. Flash forward to the Mojo’s inaugural 2024 season, when Dr. Nur officially became the team physician. Click here to read more about Dr. Nur and how she incorporates lessons she learned on the court into her practice.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
Your feet and ankles probably aren’t something you give much thought to—until something goes wrong. Orthopedic surgeons at Scripps Clinic are on the leading edge of foot and ankle reconstruction, treating patients with sports injuries, deformities, traumatic injuries and other conditions. That includes repairing torn Achilles tendons with a minimally invasive procedure that shrinks the incision site to less than a centimeter, and performing advanced ankle replacement on some patients with ankle arthritis. Read more about Scripps’ innovations in foot and ankle care here.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
Mai Vue was just 34 weeks pregnant when she delivered her baby. Her pregnancy had been complicated, and she’d had a recent second trimester pregnancy loss, which led to her receiving specialized care from Sean Daneshmand, MD, a Scripps Clinic perinatologist who oversees high-risk pregnancies. Dr. Daneshmand and his team took care of Mai during her pregnancy, through the birth of her healthy baby girl and beyond. Mai was part of a program Scripps launched to provide support to new moms in the weeks and months after delivery. The postpartum program, known as Scripps Health’s Fourth Trimester Continuum of Care, provides care for women with high-risk pregnancies to optimize their health after childbirth and reduce the risk of complications in future pregnancies. Click here to learn more.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
It’s estimated that one in five people in the U.S. will develop skin cancer at some point in their lives. When you factor in living in a sun-soaked city like San Diego and the outdoorsy lifestyle that comes with it, that figure can jump to as high as one in three, which makes early detection and intervention all the more important. Dermatologists at Bighorn Mohs and Dermatology Center are using innovative imaging methods and advanced surgical techniques to diagnose and treat skin cancer. For certain cancers in sensitive spots, like the face, dermatologists perform Mohs surgery, removing skin tissue layer by layer until reaching healthy, cancer-free tissue. They also use a process called immunohistochemistry to view tissue samples taken during Mohs surgery in far greater detail than previous methods. Read more about how Scripps is advancing skin cancer care here.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
When endurance athlete Isaac Sanchez learned he had cancer, he felt blindsided. He was healthy, surfed often and was training for an Ironman triathlon. But he had to put that on hold to undergo treatment. His physicians at Scripps Cancer Center developed a plan to treat the cancer in his tonsil and lymph nodes that included six-and-a-half weeks of near-daily radiation and weekly chemotherapy. He also worked with a Scripps Cancer Center dietitian to enhance his nutrition to promote strength and healing. Today, Isaac’s back to doing what he loves. Read more of his story here.
For more nutrition, wellness, and healthy living tips, sign up for the San Diego Health newsletter here.
