A private getaway in a winter wonderland is the perfect way to get in the holiday spirit, and the recently renovated and ultra-chic Caldera House in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is the place to do it.
The $100 million property, dreamed up by Wesley Edens (co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks), takes a luxury ski stay to the next level: It has only four 2-bedroom suites and four 4-bedrooms, each fitted with a chef’s kitchen, wood-burning fireplace, and elegant leather and wood interiors that evoke a modern take on the Wild West.
Go Now: Caldera House in Jackson Hole
Left: Guest bedroom in the Newberry suite | Right: The bar at Old Yellowstone Garage
The resort and members-only Alpine Club is at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, which officially opens for the season on November 28. Caldera House’s prime location in Teton Village lets you ski right out and back in, and is just a few minutes away from Grand Teton National Park, where the hotel staff can arrange everything from a wildlife excursion with a professional photographer to gourmet picnics. Serious ski addicts can even make a date to hit the slopes with Bode Miller—an Olympic gold medalist and one of the top alpine ski racers of all time—and test out custom Bomber skis and poles, or book a backcountry heli-skiing tour.
Go Now: Caldera House in Jackson Hole
Living room and fireplace in one of Caldera House’s four-bedroom suites
After a day of adventuring in the mountains, tuck in for an après cocktail at the on-site Old Yellowstone Garage restaurant or on your private patio, where you can watch the aerial tram zip skiers up and over the treetops. You may never want to leave, and we don’t blame you.
“There’s this constant ebb and flow of balance between summer and winter, and the summer is crushing the winter right now,” says Kirk Ryder, a wildlife biologist guide at EcoTour Adventures in Wyoming. On my right, the Grand Tetons rise up against the blue sky while remnants of the season’s first snowfall blanket the ground. “But 700 years ago, when these glaciers formed, the winter was beating the summer. This most recent period has been accelerated by human-led activities.”
I arrived in Jackson Hole a few days earlier in yoga pants, a tee shirt, and a puffy jacket, with little recollection of what winter weather outside of San Diego is like. With a high of 40 degrees during the day and a low of seven at night, the early winter temperatures were already threatening to send me back to California.
Soon, Snow King Mountain, Jackson Hole Mountain, and Grand Targhee resorts will be in full swing for the season. Snow bunnies looking for fresh powder will hit the 2,500-plus acres of skiable terrain. But for now, the town is quiet. A few of the more popular establishments, like the iconic Million Dollar Cowboy bar, are closed. Those that remain open are filled with more locals than tourists.
Courtesy of The Cloudveil The lobby at The Cloudveil hotel features Southwestern décor, cozy couches, and a large fireplace to counter the winter chill.
“Quiet,” however, is exactly what I’m looking for—I know that much, even if I’m unsure of what to expect from the town’s “in-between” season. My home for the week is The Cloudveil, a hotel which sits in the center of the town and, thankfully, features gas fireplaces in all of its guest rooms—a win for the weather-averse.
Around the property, guests have access to a swimming pool and hot tub, a Parisian-style bistro for all-day dining (get the French onion soup), a fitness center, and a rooftop deck. Each floor also features a snack station filled daily with complimentary items like chips, trail mix, fruit leather, hot cocoa, and sparkling water.
Courtesy of The Cloudveil Guestrooms at The Cloudveil are adorned with mountain-inspired artwork by local artists and custom leather and wood furnishings.
As part of their stay, visitors can book seasonal experiences through the resort’s Pathfinders program. During winter months, that includes activities like snowmobiling, dog sledding, snowshoeing, guided backcountry ski tours, sleigh rides, and a wildlife safari—the latter of which introduced me to Ryder.
From May through December each year, Ryder runs eco tours in the area before heading to South America for the rest of the winter to lead fly-fishing excursions. Today, he’s taking me on a private tour of the region inside a 4×4 safari-style Jeep while educating me about the challenges the area and its wildlife residents have faced over the decades.
Photo Credit: Christian Lind During the winter months, visitors to Jackson Hole can spot moose at lower elevations, where food is more accessible.
As we drive through Grand Teton National Park and the National Elk Refuge, we keep our eyes out for elk, bison, moose, bighorn sheep, and other animals scattered throughout the park. “Very soon, we’ll see an elk migration come down here, maybe as many as 8,000. And it really fills up the refuge,” Ryder says, pointing out at the landscapes in the distance. “It will be groups by the hundreds. This part of the valley gets the least amount of snow in Jackson Hole. It’s the easiest place to spend the winter.”
Today, Wyoming is one of the last true vestiges of America’s “Old West.” The state’s Indigenous culture, cowboys, cattle ranching, and vast open spaces (which remain largely untouched) are all a part of what makes this place so special. But ensuring it stays this way hasn’t been easy, Ryder tells me.
Courtesy of Visit Jackson Hole In the winter months, as many as 8,000 elk migrate to lower elevations.
“One hundred years ago, there were no wolves and very few grizzlies,” he says as we rattle over snow-covered landscapes. “This place was on the brink of just falling off a cliff, but with the environmental awakening of the 1960s and ’70s, the greater Yellowstone area was one of the first to say, ‘Hey, let’s restore this to the way that Mother Nature had it before we got here.’ So, today, we have all the original species.”
Among those efforts was an initiative to bring back wolf populations to the state. It is estimated that around 250,000 to two million gray wolves were once abundant throughout all of North America.
But, by the 1800s, when European-American settlers and their livestock moved west, wolves were viewed as a threat to ranching efforts. In 1945, they were eradicated from the Northern Rockies and were listed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as endangered in 1974. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem became designated as a recovery area.
“It took decades to bring the wolves back because they are so controversial,” Ryder says. “It was in 1995 that they first brought them back, and that was the final piece of the puzzle to complete this ecosystem. It saved everything.”
The wolves’ presence helps maintain healthy prey populations, reduce infectious and genetic diseases in prey, and improve habitats for other species. They indirectly impact plant life by changing foraging patterns that lead to the regeneration of trees and other vegetation.
Photo Credit: Christian Lind
When 41 wolves from Canada and northwest Montana were released into Yellowstone National Park in the ’90s, 26 years passed before they were delisted from the endangered species list. Today, Wyoming is home to around 350 wolves and 43 packs.
But the wolves alone aren’t enough to protect Wyoming’s wild spaces from the ravages of human activity. Climate change has hit the state hard. According to Ryder, harsh weather, rising temperatures, limited water, and poor soils have threatened the region’s ecosystem in a number of ways.
“In the past, these changes would happen much more slowly, and plants and animals and the timing of things could adjust and move,” Ryder says. “If it happens too fast, then these adjustments can’t be made, and you’ll see extinctions.”
Photo Credit: Christian Lind Today, Yellowstone preserves the most important bison herd in the nation.
With temps increasing each year, melting the snow more quickly, recent droughts have dried out soil, killing many trees while also upping the risk of forest fires. The changing climate is expected to decrease the availability of water in Wyoming in the coming decades as well, affecting agricultural yields and further fueling potential wildfires. It’s why people like Ryder and local conservationists are so passionate about spreading awareness of the state’s ecology.
“This is the last fully intact ecosystem of the lower 48. It’s the last vignette of primitive America,” Ryder says. “That’s the valuable thing about this place—acknowledging that the interplay of all these things is happening all the time.”
Back at the resort, dressed in a white robe and sipping wine, it’d be easy to forget about that fragile equilibrium.
Easy to take this place and its beauty for granted. Earlier in the week, at The Kitchen restaurant, I dined on Asian-inspired fare like duck breast with smoked miso, corn, crispy tofu, cucumber salad, and Thai basil alongside local flavors like bison tartare. As I think about today’s adventure and about that meal, I hear Ryder’s voice.
“Around the 1860s, the population of animals [was declining] so rapidly that [Wyoming’s] once American Serengeti–type landscape was reduced to nothing. [Before,] there were maybe 30 million bison, 50,000 grizzly bears, millions of pronghorn, millions of elk,” he’d explained. “And by the 1900s, that bustling Serengeti was silent, with almost no wildlife to speak of. People didn’t know if there were any wild bison left.”
Courtesy of Yellowstone National Park Lodges Conservation efforts have brought native bison back to Jackson Hole after homesteaders wiped out the area’s once-massive population.
Native to this area, bison were wiped out when homesteaders arrived in the Jackson Valley. The western United States, once flush with North America’s largest land mammal, was reduced to only a comparative handful of animals living in Yellowstone National Park. Efforts from 1948 until now have finally allowed for a resurgence of these native creatures. Today, Yellowstone preserves the most important bison herd in the nation and is the only place in the lower 48 states to have a continuously free-ranging bison population since prehistoric times.
Soon, I’ll head to dinner at Code Red, a taqueria known for its pozoles and unique taco selections like elk carne asada. I’ll drink local beer from Snake River Brewing and shop for turquoise jewelry made by local Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni nations. And I’ll be surrounded by residents gearing up for the start of the snow season before the crowds shuffle in.
It’s the ebb and flow, the delicate balance between keeping Wyoming as unspoiled as possible and bringing it into a new, more modern era. But maybe that’s the point of visiting a place like Jackson Hole. You don’t change it; you don’t mess with its ecosystem. You soak it in, learn about what keeps it wild, and leave it better than when you arrived.
“I think, if anything, it’s kind of cool to see that continuity here, where nothing has changed. Like Triangle X dude ranch has the same view that they had 100 years ago,” Ryder says. If we do things right, another century from now, someone—another wildlife biologist, another rancher, maybe another writer like me—will be able to gaze out at the very same sight.
Nicolle Monico is an award-winning writer and the director of creative projects, digital editor for San Diego Magazine with more than 16 years of experience in media including Outside Run, JustLuxe and The San Francisco Chronicle.
For a dose of snowy fun, hit Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Winterfest, a two-week celebration of all things winter, kicks off February 15. Stay at the area’s only LEED-certified hotel, Hotel Terra (hotelterrajacksonhole.com) in Teton Village, which boasts a view of the mountain’s famed aerial tram, “Big Red,” from the hot tub (pictured). For après-ski, don’t miss the newly opened Spur Restaurant and Bar in Teton Mountain Lodge, whose cozy yet modern atmosphere and decadent dishes are exactly what you want after a day on the hill. tetonlodge.com
Hotel Terra hot tub in Jackson Hole
Cameron Neilson
The hot tub at Hotel Terra in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
When three nations and 16 cities come together to host the FIFA World Cup 2026, the scale stops feeling like a tournament and starts feeling like geography. A continent becomes the stage as borders soften into corridors. And Southern California—shaped by migration, sport, entertainment, and constant movement—sits inside that landscape with all eyes on it.
San Diego and Los Angeles have always felt connected. Hop on the Pacific Surfliner, and the trip unfolds in one continuous stretch of coastline, passing beach towns, neighborhoods, and city centers.
Traveling from San Diego, everything still feels slightly suspended as the Pacific Surfliner follows the coast north with ocean on one side and a slow suburban blur on the other. San Diego stays in exhale. Los Angeles is already building toward something louder.
This summer, Los Angeles will host eight matches of the FIFA World Cup at Los Angeles Stadium, including the US Men’s National Team opener on June 11, while the region stretches into 39 days of programming across stadiums, parks, transit hubs, beaches, and neighborhoods. Instead of one massive fan hub, Los Angeles is embracing a citywide celebration, with fan zones spread across its entirety.
But this pattern has been rehearsed here for decades. In 1994, Southern California became one of the defining stages of the World Cup, when matches at the Rose Bowl placed global attention on the region and turned local stadiums into international landmarks, confirming its ability to hold the world at scale.
What distinguishes Southern California is not just infrastructure, but cultural permeability. Fashion, music, film, art, and sport constantly overlap here, creating an environment where identity is flexible and always in motion. From the Venice boardwalk, where skate culture shaped modern street style, to global soccer stars rubbing shoulders with Hollywood celebs, to authentic Spanish cuisine moving up and down the I-5 corridor, everything circulates.
The World Cup is not introducing anything new here, it’s showing up for the summer and showing out, revealing what this city has always known about itself. What follows is a look at the fan zones and how Los Angeles turns itself into a city-wide stage for the tournament, one neighborhood at a time.
Courtesy of Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board
Los Angeles Union Station
As the heart of Los Angeles, Union Station is an official Fan Zone June 25-28 during the World Cup, but in practice it never really stops being one.
It is the city’s circulation point, its meeting ground, its pressure valve. Commuters, travelers, match-day crowds, and everyday Angelenos all move through the same space, and everything mixes, overlaps, and scales in real time. In a way, this is where the World Cup stops arriving in Los Angeles and starts moving through it.
The Pacific Surfliner from San Diego to Los Angeles makes that shift feel almost too easy. No stress or gridlock anxiety, just a straight line up the coastline with ocean on one side and everything slowly becoming more built on the other. It’s one of the rare ways into LA that doesn’t feel like arrival as friction. You can sit with a laptop, watch the Pacific drift past, grab coffee from the café car, and let the city come to you in pieces.
That’s the beauty of arriving at Union Station. Instead of feeling like you’re on the edge of the city, you’re immediately surrounded by it. And, inside, the station already reads like a World Cup nerve center: banners, movement, multilingual energy, the sense that something global is about to funnel through this exact point. The Heart of the City Fan Zone only sharpens that feeling, with simultaneous match screens, DJ sets, meet and greets, and immersive activations built around marquee games like USA vs. Türkiye.
ROW DTLA feels like the first exhale after arrival. A converted industrial campus turned creative district where restaurants, retail, and open-air courtyards form a self-contained ecosystem. If you’re looking for the perfect first meal in LA, make it lunch at Pizzeria Bianco. The thin-crust pizza is reason enough to go, but the space leaves just as much of an impression.
What I liked most about ROW DTLA is how quickly it resets you after the train. One minute you are stepping off at Union Station, and the next you are in a space that feels like its own version of LA, a city inside a city with some of the most curated shopping I’ve ever seen.
Bodega hides itself behind a convenience-store front, a sneaker and streetwear space disguised as something ordinary, like LA refusing to make anything feel too obvious. The whole campus moves like that, part retail, part gallery, part neighborhood you are only temporarily inside.
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.
Stake Chophouse & Bar isn’t your average steakhouse. Blue Bridge Hospitality’s Coronado outpost is a modern interpretation of a big-city steakhouse nestled in the heart of the small coastal community. The team at Stake has reimagined the whole steakhouse experience. By prioritizing a seasonal farm-to-table sourcing philosophy, a personalized guest experience, and unique service touches, like a formal steak presentation and a bespoke knife selection process, Stake distinguishes itself in a sea of steakhouses.
Exceptional steaks, including Wagyu from Japan, Australia, and the U.S., and fresh seafood flown in daily form the core of Stake’s culinary identity. The menu features a five-course omakase-style steak experience highlighting house favorites, plus an array of cuts, and classic steakhouse staples—think a wedge salad, baked potato, or pasta carbonara—refined for a contemporary palate without losing their traditional appeal. Stake focuses on seasonal sourcing from the region’s best family farms and specialty purveyors, and incorporates intentionally unexpected touches to create something truly unique.
“I challenge our chefs and myself to take it a step further in sourcing,” says Chef Ronnie Schwandt. “It’s important to us to highlight different farms, unique one-off farms—whether it’s cattle, strawberries, a local fisherman or from anywhere in the United States, we’re always trying to find that niche.”
Beyond the menu, Stake emphasizes outstanding service, says Vinny Spatafore, Director of Hospitality Operations. Staff maintains detailed notes, allowing them to remember guests by name, recall previous orders such as a favorite martini (also memorable for the customer since it’s served in an extra tall, distinctly-shaped glass), and celebrate special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries.
“When you have those points of topic that you remember about a guest, they appreciate that,” he says. “Our servers are really good with that—we have a couple servers who have been here since the beginning and they’ll remember somebody from years ago, their name, their kids’ names, where they live. I’m really thankful to have a great front of house staff.”
Award-winning wines, rare whiskeys, special events, and a complementary black car service that provides transportation for guests throughout Coronado add to Stake’s appeal.
Schwandt stresses that Stake offers more than a meal; they aim to give patrons something unforgettable.
“It starts when you walk up the stairs and are greeted by the hostess—that sets the tone for the night. Then you’re greeted by a server, who may know you by name, and can guide you through the menu and curate as they get to know you,” says Schwandt. “Most people leave kind of blown away; they leave feeling like they just had an experience. That’s the goal, right? Whether you’re serving smash burgers or high-end steak, you want somebody to leave thinking, Wow, that was awesome.”
Mad Libs. License plate bingo. The “quiet game,” a universal parent savior. Long live Slug Bug, where kids with zero self-control punched each other in the arm every time they saw a VW Bug in the wild—an activity no doubt invented by some Volkswagen marketing intern who now quietly runs the world. A family that cruises together bruises together.
So many threats to pull the car over and leave unruly progeny on the side road for good. GenXers are such baddies because our parents actually followed through. But we tracked those boomers down—or just walked into the wilderness and formed angsty flannel bands. We survived.
There were no downloaded movies back then. No seatback entertainment. Just a mythical road, a few bug-gutty windows, and the fast-moving summer world beyond. Seatbelts ignored, hot air whipping a frenzy of hair and beef-stick child scent.
Very few chaoses match being trapped in a moving car with your entire bloodline. It’s unimaginable, but we kinda liked it.
The road trip was always about endurance, discovery, adventure, creativity, and memory. Somewhere between gas station hot dogs, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and musty motels with coin-operated vibrating beds—the bored between moments of mutual expedition sealed our love of the long distance car ride.
To respark road lust, we’ve put together a coastal California run up the 101 and Highway 1. The state’s famed road trip siblings, with ocean on one side and possibility in every direction. We analyzed what’s incoming, just-arrived, compelling, or a classic in need of a reminder in almost every county along the way—the kind of places we’d drag our family (or dog or best friend) to.
We start our trip just outside San Diego County lines and work our way through San Francisco. Because, by then, it’s time to turn the car around and do it all again.
The road is still the main character.
Photo Credit: @Tanveerbadal
Laguna Beach
A 90-minute drive from downtown San Diego, Laguna Beach is home to serene coves, big-deal art events, miles of hiking trails, and the greatest number of beachfront hotels in California. Among the latter is the newly revamped icon, Surf & Sand Laguna Beach. Along with tweaks to the guestrooms, pool, and onsite Splashes restaurant, the remodel includes a new spa, Aquaterra. Wake up to ocean views, then get outside: Go tide pooling at Shaw’s Cove, or descend to Thousand Steps Beach and spend the day stretched out with a salacious summer read. For dinner, get fancy at the upscale (no swimwear allowed!) Studio Mediterranean at the Montage Laguna Beach hotel. Led by Greek chef Dennis Efthymiou, it serves feta-, phyllo-, and fish-forward cuisine inspired by his heritage.
Newport Beach
Head another 15 minutes up the road to Newport, an unlikely destination for adrenaline junkies both relatively tame (family-friendly thrill rides at the Balboa Fun Zone amusement park) and willing to risk life and limb (30-foot waves at the Wedge surf break). It’s also increasingly a killer place to eat, with Luke’s, of international Maine-lobster-roll fame, having recently opened locations in town. James Beard Award winner Tyson Cole just opened his sleek omakase and sushi restaurant Uchi this year. Once you’re stuffed, lay your head at Bay Shores Peninsula Hotel, a midcentury-inspired, 25-room boutique resort overlooking the sea. Watch the waves from beside the hotel’s rooftop fire pits, or paddle out on surfboards provided free for guests.
Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach has been an icon of California surf culture since the 1910s thanks to Hawaiian Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku. Surfers still chase waves near his old haunts, including the Huntington Beach Pier, where the aptly named Huntington’s on the Pier is scheduled to arrive this fall in the location of the old Ruby’s Diner (RIP, Ruby). It’ll serve seafood, obviously, plus livestreamed videos of groms wiping out just a few feet away. Sports here don’t always require wetsuits: Mini-golf bar Playground is equipped with the obvious, as well as arcade and pinball games. Or bypass physical exertion en masse at the new Holistic Lounge at Hyatt Regency. It’s packed with newfandangled healing tech that uses light, heat, and electromagnetic fields to allegedly repair stressed skin and muscles tired from lifting mojitos.
Amelia Rodriguez is a writer and journalist and winner of the San Diego Press Club's 2023 Rising Star Award and 2024 Best of Show Award, she’s also covered music, food, arts and culture, fashion, and design for Rolling Stone, Palm Springs Life, and other national and regional publications. After work, you can find her hunting down San Diego’s best pastries and maintaining her five-year Duolingo streak.
From artsy, boutique hotels in New Mexico to a revolutionary restaurant in Baja, explore what’s new in these desert cities around San Diego.
Coachella Valley
Terra Palm Springs, Palm Springs
Serenity-seeking guests (and, presumably, the free-spirited ghosts of naked people) roam this 13-room wellness escape that was once a clothing-optional resort. Opened a year ago, it offers exclusive, 24-hour access to a Himalayan salt sauna, cold plunge pool, and rain room. For food and drink, it’s tonics and juice cleanses, plus poolside bites from Michael Beckman, exec chef of the nearby Workshop Kitchen + Bar.
Casa Palma Hotel & Bungalows, Palm Springs
Opened last year on the historic, two-acre Movie Colony neighborhood property originally built by actor Errol Flynn (it was called the Normandy then), this is a micro-hotel for people who love Taschen books. Casa Palma reimagined the place as a minimalist, veneers-white 33-room escape with pickleball; tennis; and a mountain view bistro serving breakfast, salads, and sandwiches.
“Surfing in the desert” sounds like an absurd ayahuasca notion, but the Coachella Valley already has one wave pool (Palm Springs Surf Club), and, soon, a 5.5-acre surf lagoon will anchor DSRT Surf, an incoming resort at the Desert Willow Golf Courses. Planned for completion in mid-2026, it’ll include a 139-room hotel, 57 luxury villas, and restaurants.
Photo Credit: Patrick Chin
New Mexico
Hotel Willa, Taos
Last spring, the Casetta Group (the same folks who own SD’s Pearl Hotel) resuscitated an old motor lodge in Taos, a longtime beacon for creatives, and named it after Willa Cather (who finished her novel Death Comes to the Archbishop in town). The 51-room Hotel Willa has adobe architecture, an artist residency, a pool with a giant weeping willow nearby, and a seasonal restaurant from husband-and-wife duo chef Johnny Ortiz Concha and artist Maida Branch.
Arrive Albuquerque, Albuquerque
Originally built in 1965 as the Downtowner, a classic, six-story inn on the motel-culture strip of Route 66 in downtown Albuquerque cycled through several identities before last year, when Palisociety reimagined it with the Secret Gallery (featuring modern work from Southwest artists), a cocktail bar, a restaurant, and 137 dog-friendly rooms. Like any good desert road trip hotel, Arrive Albuquerque hotel is a cheeky, midcentury affair centered around an umbrella-shaded pool scene and those strappy ’80s patio loungers.
Courtesy of Leo’s Santa Fe
Leo’s, Santa Fe
After forming Vital Spaces, an org that leased abandoned warehouses and rented them at a low cost to artists, furniture designer Jonathan Boyd launched Leo’s, a no-signage, no-reservations restaurant last August with James Beard Award–winning chef Zakary Pelaccio. It focuses on Thai and Malaysian dishes—catfish sum tum, pork belly with garlic prik phao, fried chicken with tofu-mustard sauce and jiao chili sauce—plus natural wines and inventive cocktails. It promptly landed on Esquire’s Best New Restaurants of 2025.
Arizona
Trailborn Grand Canyon, Williams
Trailborn is the base camp of hotel groups. It’s focused on America’s grand outdoorsy arenas, with spots in the Rockies; the Blue Ridge Mountains; and now, Williams, a mile from the Grand Canyon Railroad Depot. This kitchy, 96-room roadside hotel offers a moody, wood-paneled steakhouse; adventure excursions; free breakfast inside a bustling “camp hall;” and front-row access to the fanfare of Route 66’s centennial celebration this year.
Early this year, Paradise Valley (the mountain-wrapped town neighboring Scottsdale) will welcome the 40-acre Kimpton Miralina, with six pools; more than 400 rooms and villas; and three restaurants, including Hecho Libre, a new Baja-inspired concept from fellow Beard semifinalist Wes Avila (known for Angry Egret Dinette and MXO in Los Angeles).
International Dark Sky Discovery Center, Fountain Hills
As cities grow and stargazing becomes an endangered pastime, an org called International Dark Sky Places works to protect the best areas in the world to behold night skies. One of them is Fountain Hills on the outskirts of Phoenix. This summer, it’ll get even better with a $28 million discovery center featuring a massive telescope, a planetarium, science exhibits, and a stargazing terrace.
Courtesy of Cote Korean Steakhouse
Nevada
Cote Korean Steakhouse, Las Vegas
Cote is the only Michelin-starred Korean steakhouse in the US, an idea from Seoul-born and James Beard nominated chef and restaurateur Simon Kim. Part of The Venetian’s $1.5 billion renovation, it’s a show—18,000 square feet, with stadium seating, VIP skyboxes, a crow’s nest DJ booth, a glowing central bar, 1,200 wine bottles, and the inimitable buzz of energetic impulse spending.
F1 Arcade, Las Vegas
2025 was a big year for Formula 1 racing—the sport celebrated 75 years with a Brad Pitt film (for which Rancho Bernardo–based Sony Electronics created a one-of-a-kind camera that took viewers inside the cockpit), and Caesars Palace welcomed a 21,000-square-foot F1 Arcade where fans can flex their inner Lando Norris with 87 racing simulators.
GSR Arena, Reno
When built in the 1970s as the MGM Grand, the Grand Sierra Resort was one of the biggest hotels in the world with over 1,000 rooms. Almost 50 years later, it’s nearly doubled its occupancy and is undergoing a billion dollar upgrade. The star will be the $435 million, 10,000-seat GSR Arena, which broke ground in September. Once completed (hopefully in fall 2027), it’ll be home to the University of Nevada men’s basketball team.
Courtesy of Dendric Estate
Utah
Dendric Estate, Kamas
Utah’s High West Distillery was a groundbreaker, the first legal distillery in Utah when it opened in 2006. Now High West’s master distiller Brendan Coyle has left to open his dream project with his wife, Carly. They purchased 20 acres in Kamas Valley at the foothills of the Uinta mountain range, where they’re growing high elevation apples and flipping them into bone-dry boozy cider with Dendric Estate. You can tour the estate or wait for the onsite tasting room, planned for 2027.
The Inn at Sundance Mountain Resort, Sundance
In 2020, Robert Redford sold his famed, conservationist-minded mountain ski resort to Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners, who promised to keep his “build some, preserve more” vision going. Since, it’s earned a Michelin Key. This month, The Inn at Sundance Mountain Resort—a 63-room, ski-in/ski-out inn—opens with views of the 12,000-foot Mount Timpanagos. Perched right out front, the Outlaw Express chair lift takes you to the Mandan summit in seven minutes (getting there used to take 20). There’s a wrap-around porch, relaxation pools, a sauna, outdoor showers, and a cold plunge at The Springs.
Canopy by Hilton Deer Valley East Village, Park City
Four years after hosting the Winter Olympics, famed ski-only resort Deer Valley is undergoing a massive expansion of its East Village, including eight new hotels (the Grand Hyatt is already there, and the Four Seasons and others are incoming). Scheduled to open this summer, Canopy will be Hilton’s 180-room, ski-in/ ski-out property with après-ski and rooftop lounges. Deer Valley has also added 2,000 additional acres of skiable slopes, 100 new runs, and 10 new chairlifts.
Baja
Diego, Valle de Guadalupe
In the 2010s, Ensenada-born chef Diego Hernández was a headliner in the food-culture revolution in Valle de Guadalupe with Corazón de Tierra—named number 30 in the 2018 “World’s 50 Best Restaurants” list. It closed in 2020 (damn pandemic!). Last January, he returned with an eponymous 40-seat restaurant, Diego, inside Valle’s Museo de La Vid y El Vino, relying on onsite gardens and in-house butchery to prepare seasonal, multi-course tasting menus and à la carte dishes nodding to his Corazón roots.
Kadún, Cabo San Lucas
Over the years, the trend in Cabo resorts has been to get away from the action with secluded beachfront hideouts. Well, not all who travel to Cabo want to be tucked away. Last October, Mexico Grand Hotels (known for elaborate luxury resorts like Marina Fiesta and El Encanto) opened a smaller but still opulent thing: Kadún, a 110-room hotel with a rooftop pool and sundeck. It’s within walking distance to the Cabo Marina (the Vegas of Baja’s southern tip) and Medano Beach (one of the only swimmable beaches in Cabo).
Courtesy of Carnival Cruise Line
Ensenada Bay Village, Ensenada
Carnival Cruise Line has a vested interest in building up the ports it parks in. It’s established spots in Grand Turk, Roatan, and Cozumel, and its next elaborate disembarkment project is a $26 million beachside playground in Ensenada, planned for completion in 2027. Expect a sort of Pinocchio’s Island isthmus packed with zip lines, dune buggy rides, river rides, an adult pool, thermal springs, a spa, and wine and cheese pairings from Valle de Guadalupe (the wine region is 15 minutes inland).
Troy Johnson is the magazine’s award-winning food writer and humorist, and a long-standing expert on Food Network. His work has been featured on NatGeo, Travel Channel, NPR, and in Food Matters, a textbook of the best American food writing.
Amelia Rodriguez is a writer and journalist and winner of the San Diego Press Club's 2023 Rising Star Award and 2024 Best of Show Award, she’s also covered music, food, arts and culture, fashion, and design for Rolling Stone, Palm Springs Life, and other national and regional publications. After work, you can find her hunting down San Diego’s best pastries and maintaining her five-year Duolingo streak.
While glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agents have been used to treat Type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years, their recent emergence as weight-loss wonder drugs marked a new frontier in medicine. But their effectiveness has left some patients wondering what to do once they’ve reached their goal. Stopping the medication could mean regaining some, if not all, of the weight. A Scripps Clinic internal medicine physician recently conducted a small study of whether GLP-1 patients who had reached their goal weight could maintain that weight by taking their regularly prescribed injection every other week instead of weekly. Spoiler alert: 30 of 34 patients did. Read more about the study here and what that may mean as pharmaceutical companies roll out oral GLP-1s.
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