Unleash your local loves and insider favorites once again in 2024, Powered by You! It’s time to nominate and vote for San Diego Magazine’s Best of San Diego Reader’s Choice Award. The winners will be revealed in the upcoming Best of San Diego issue this July and showcased on our website.
Your nomination and vote play a crucial role in giving your favorite businesses the recognition and bragging rights they deserve for the year ahead. So go ahead, show some love to your cherished local spots.
A business, place, or person must be nominated at least once to appear on the voting ballot. Once the voting period concludes, the business, place, or person with the most votes within their respective category will be selected as the Reader’s Choice category winner.
When submitting your nomination, please provide as many details about the business as possible, including its name, address, website, and phone number. Businesses and individuals that cannot be verified will not be eligible for voting.
Deadlines for Nominations and Voting
Nominations: March 11 – 24, 2024 Voting: March 25 – April 14, 2024
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.
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?
For thousands of years, the Kumeyaay who lived in this area called a mountain south of Julian Cush-pii, meaning “sharp peak.” Then, after the Civil War, Confederate sympathizers saw that same mountain and decided to rename it Stonewall Peak—after General Stonewall Jackson. The name stuck for nearly a century and a half, until Cuyamaca Rancho State Park announced earlier this year that the name will return to its original, Cush-pii. Hike to the summit for expansive views of the Coronado Islands to the west and Mexico to the south.
Courtesy of Culture Shock San Diego
Best Pop and Lock Spot
Culture Shock
In 1993, Angie Bunch gathered a group of hip-hop dancers—called Culture Shock Dance Troupe—and gave them a space to practice and perform. As hip hop grew through the ’90s, so did Culture Shock. It has since become a nonprofit, a space for young and old, beginner and expert dancers. Culture Shock has also expanded to Los Angeles, Oakland, Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta, New York City, and Washington, D.C., as well as Ottawa and Toronto, Canada.
In 2019, Amanda Leach created the Yoga Box method, which takes high-energy flows and adds strength-building poses in heated, vibey, lava-lamp-lit studios. What started on Grand Avenue in Pacific Beach has spread to 15 locations across the county, with even more trickling into Denver, Chicago, and Brooklyn. The best part? Mindfulness newbies who can’t touch their toes and six-packed contortionists can hang in the same class. You can customize each session based on your ability and fitness level.
Courtesy of Fit Athletic Club
Best Leg Day Turned Social Hour
Fit Mission Beach
A gym taking over a historic beachfront pool sounds like the setup for a new season of Love Island, but Fit Mission Beach operating the nearly 100-year-old Plunge at Belmont Park is real. The independent fitness brand has spent the past several years building a loyal following through group fitness classes, community events, and a members’ social club overlooking the ocean. Upstairs, members can work remotely, meet friends, or hang out long after their workout ends. Between the Plunge, the coworking-style lounge, and a packed calendar of events, Fit has evolved into something bigger than a gym. It’s a clubhouse for San Diego’s fitness crowd.
Best Place to Learn What a Vagus Is
Breathe Degrees
The wellness world is finally transitioning away from HIIT workouts and cult-like spin classes, where your heart rate hits Zone 5 within minutes and stays there until cooldown. Good. At Breathe Degrees, wellness takes the form of zenned-out communal breathing sessions or vagus nerve–activating cold plunges. Breathwork is said to boost your mood in the short term and improve your heart health in the long term, and maybe that’s why everyone’s coming back for more. You can’t run into someone in Carlsbad who hasn’t dropped into at least one breathwork session, and now the studio has opened a second location in Liberty Station.
Photo Credit: Shot On Us
Best Pilates Studio for People With Tiny Roommates
Soul Pilates and Care
Pilates wasn’t just popular this year; it was practically a requirement for maintaining your San Diego residency. New studios seemed to appear weekly across San Diego, each promising stronger cores and better posture, but Soul Pilates and Care found a way to stand out by addressing a challenge many parents know well: finding time to exercise at all. Fitness doesn’t have to compete with parenting responsibilities. Parents can drop their kids off with trained caregivers while they head into reformer classes, eliminating one of the biggest barriers to working out. The studio has earned strong reviews for both its instruction and family-friendly approach.
The Hotel del Coronado’s sweeping $550 million restoration touched nearly every corner of the historic resort, but one of the most anticipated unveilils was the debut of its redesigned spa. The oceanfront wellness destination now features 21 treatment rooms, a relaxation lounge, a sauna, steam room, and a treatment menu inspired by the coastal environment just steps away. The redesign blends the Del’s Victorian legacy with a cleaner, more contemporary aesthetic, creating a space that feels distinctly SoCal rather than generic luxury hotel. For locals who don’t have time for a vacation, it’s the next best thing.
Best Cheers Without Beers
Good News Bar
As non-alcoholic beverages continue their meteoric rise, Good News Bar has become one of San Diego’s most compelling arguments for a booze-free evening. The University Heights hotspot serves a menu of carefully crafted zero-proof cocktails that borrow techniques and ingredients from traditional cocktail programs (it’s not just fancy juices and soda water), minus the hangover. The space also hosts regular community events and has quickly become a gathering place for everyone from sober San Diegans to the merely sober-curious. In a nightlife industry built around alcohol sales, Good News proved there’s plenty of demand for connection without the buzz.
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.
This is your chance to gather support from your biggest fans and followers to nominate and vote for your business. You know that you’re the obvious choice (and we agree), so we’ve put together this marketing toolkit to help you promote your business and win.
The winners will be announced in San Diego Magazine‘s Best of San Diego issue this July and posted online. And let’s not forget, bragging rights all year!
If you’re looking to amplify your marketing efforts, email our team at [email protected]. We’ll help you further your message with our most engaged readers.
How to Win
Secure at least one nomination for your business from March 11 – 24, 2024.
Start Promoting: Invite your biggest fans and followers to vote for your business from March 25 – April 14, 2024.
The nominee with the most votes will win “Reader’s Choice” in their respective category.
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To celebrate all that 2023 has brought us, we’re taking a look back at some of your favorite stories by our editors and contributors. Here are SDM‘s top 10 most-read articles from this year:
Photo Credit: Eric Wolfinger
1: San Diego’s Best Restaurants, 2023
We asked, you answered. And the votes poured in like good, crisp hard kombucha on a sunny San Diego day. Here’s the best of the best in the food world, according to you (and us).
Courtesy of the San Diego County Fair
2: 10 Wild, Weird, Damn Good Eats at the SD County Fair
By Troy Johnson
Y’all are weird. And we like it. When we put out a list of the wildest foods to try at this year’s county fair, you grabbed your stretchy pants, coastered up the 5, and chowed down on Hot Cheeto sandwiches and mermaid floats like the youthful folks you are.
3: The Best Liquor Store Sandwiches in San Diego
By Emily Blackwood
Forget national chains and sub shops—you devoured our list of local markets with delis inside. From heroes to hoagies, San Diegans proved that they’re just as obsessed with sandwiches as everyone’s favorite pal, Joey Tribbiani.
Photo Credit: Jared Cross
4: The LaFayette Hotel San Diego Reopens Following $31M Renovation
By Jared Cross
Since it was one of the most anticipated openings of the year, we weren’t surprised that this SD icon’s rebirth caught our reader’s attention. Zebra prints, ostentatious furnishings, and velvet everything—The LaFayette returned under Consortium Holdings as an amusement park for the eyes.
Photo Credit: Johanna Siring
5: The Newly Renovated Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel Opens Its Doors
By Mara Altman
This year, Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel made its debut with a huge facelift and a fascinating story that started with a group of friends who wanted to purchase the property and ended up with an entire town instead. It’s a must-read.
Courtesy of Tanner’s Prime Burgers
6: Three-Star Michelin Chef Opens New Burger Joint in San Diego
By Troy Johnson
We love a good burger. So when we heard that Brandon Rodgers of The French Laundry was joining up with Brandt Beef to open Tanner’s Prime Burgers, we were eager to break the news. And you ate it up, too!
Courtesy of Pure Project
7: 15 of San Diego’s Best Breweries
By Beth Demmon
Honestly, no notes. This one was an obvious choice for a city that loves its craft brews. Beer guru Beth Demmon picked her favorite breweries in San Diego, and you took note. Sharpen your pitchforks—it’s a “best of” list.
Photo Credit: Stacey Keck
8: San Diego Mag’s Ultimate Spa Guide, 2023
SDM Staff
One of our most-read pieces each year is always our spa guide. It’s hard assignment for us staffers—we head into the city to check out the newest, best, and most interesting treatments in the spa world, just for you, our readers. Your very own ahhh guide, if you will.
Courtesy of Gilly’s House of Cocktails
9: Incoming: Gilly’s House of Cocktails
By Troy Johnson
When a beloved SD institution goes through a change in ownership, you watch, listen, and pray that it doesn’t lose its heart and soul. The brains behind some of San Diego’s top cocktail bars ushered in a new era for Gilly’s Cocktails recently, promising to keep it nearly the same—save for a few modern touches.
Courtesy of Corvette Diner
10: 20 Top Family-Friendly Restaurants in San Diego
By Beth Demmon
Topping out our top 10 list is a guide for families dining out. From thoughtful kid’s menus to toys and games, these eateries around town are parent- and kid-approved.
Nicolle Monico is an award-winning writer and the director of creative projects, digital editor for San Diego Magazine with more than 19 years of experience in media including Outside Run, JustLuxe and The San Francisco Chronicle.
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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