If you’re ready to tie the knot and are looking for a city that is as stunning as it is versatile, Santa Barbara, known as The American Riviera®, should be at the top of your list.
If you’re ready to tie the knot and are looking for a city that is as stunning as it is versatile, Santa Barbara, known as The American Riviera®, should be at the top of your list. Santa Barbara’s breathtaking blend of mountains, ocean and Spanish-style architecture sets the scene for an effortlessly romantic day. Envision the peaceful movement of the sea, maintained by the silhouettes of the Channel Islands in the distance. A uniform panorama of red-tiled-roofs and white stucco buildings as far as the eye can see. The majestic Santa Ynez Mountains bathed in sunset hues of pink, purple and orange. No matter which direction you look in Santa Barbara, there’s always the perfect backdrop to capture the unforgettable moments of your wedding day.
One of the most appealing aspects of planning a wedding in Santa Barbara is its year-round idyllic weather. Unlike many destinations with a limited “wedding season,” Santa Barbara’s Mediterranean-like climate welcomes couples and their guests at any time of the year. Whether it’s a sublime summer afternoon or a sunny winter day, this big-city-with-a-small-town-feel offers the perfect setting for any outdoor ceremony.
Santa Barbara’s architecture is a standout feature of the area, reflecting its rich Spanish heritage. The Spanish-Revival-style design, interspersed with vibrant gardens and courtyards, offer a picturesque and romantic atmosphere that adds a touch of timeless elegance to any wedding. From the historic Santa Barbara County Courthouse with its stunning Mural Room to the charming Old Mission Santa Barbara, hosting your nuptials in Santa Barbara makes for a destination wedding without even needing to pack your passport.
Santa Barbara wedding venues with accommodations offer an even more enticing appeal, with a range of hotels that cater to various tastes and budgets. For luxury seekers, The Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara, sprawls over 78 acres with incredible ocean views, offering a blend of natural beauty and world-class amenities. Another gem is El Encanto, a Belmond Hotel, perched on the hills of the Riviera, providing an exclusive sanctuary with a mix of historic charm and modern opulence. For those seeking a scaled-back (yet just as magical) ceremony, the boutique Simpson House Inn, nestled in an acre of English-style gardens, offers a secluded, romantic retreat perfect for a smaller celebration.
Photo Credit: @tonyaszeleevents
The culinary experiences in Santa Barbara are an integral part of the wedding festivities. With a focus on farm- (or sea) to-table dining and an abundance of fresh, local produce, the city’s restaurants and catering services offer a diverse range of options to suit every palate. The thriving local wine scene, featuring renowned vineyards and wineries, adds another layer of indulgence to the celebration.
Photo Credit: @sanysidroranch via Instagram When it comes to activities for the wedding party and guests, Santa Barbara does not disappoint. From relaxing beach days and wine tours to exploring the charming downtown and engaging, Zen-filled outdoor adventures like hiking or kayaking, Santa Barbara has it all. Getting married in an all-encompassing vacation destination ensures that the weekend extends well beyond the ceremony and reception, allowing guests to create their own memorable experiences in The American Riviera®.
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Studio S
SEPTEMBER 1, 2026
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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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