Why this laid-back Californian city is the West Coast’s must visit (2025)

The lobby is a scream of teal and animal print, with glinting chequered floors and pink chandeliers shaped like palm fronds. Well-dressed punters perch on tassel-trimmed bar stools and sip old fashioneds. The lights are low and the music is pulsing. I blink twice and adjust to the maximalism.

I’ve arrived at the Lafayette Hotel, which I’ve been told, twice already, is the place to be in San Diego. The first glowing review was from my Uber driver, who also delivered a fervent monologue about the city’s cool credentials; the second, admittedly, was by the porter, who whisked open the grand doors and led me into the extravagantly adorned hotel.

Beyond the lobby, bedroom wallpaper is stamped with serpents, Greek temples and battle scenes. My canopied bed has a zebra-print throw and lime-green French doors open to a pool-facing balcony. The pool deck looks like a Barbie dreamhouse, with frilled, striped umbrellas and leopard-print sunloungers. Like Graceland in hotel form, it’s one of the happening new spots — ambitiously renovated and reopened in 2023 — that has transformed this southern California city in recent years.

San Diego deserves its moment in the Californian sun. Too often road-trippers take the well-trodden route between San Francisco and Los Angeles, stopping short of more laid-back and manageable San Diego, about 120 miles further south. Now visitors are waking up to its burgeoning hotel portfolio, cheffy food scene and tapestry of culture-rich neighbourhoods. For Brits it helps that BA increased its flights to the city in April this year.

At its heart San Diego is a border town. It’s less than 20 miles from Tijuana, Mexico, and the two cities were collectively named World Design Capital for 2024. It’s the first time the designation has spanned two cities, let alone two countries — a glowing endorsement of the region’s creative scene and a demonstration of San Diego’s rich Mexican influence. Nowhere is this felt more keenly than in Barrio Logan, the city’s oldest Mexican-American neighbourhood.

Sunshine-yellow papel picado — like doilies strung up as bunting — flutters above me as I stroll down Logan Avenue, the district’s main artery. Boutiques sell intricately painted sugar skulls and brooches bearing Frida Kahlo’s face as the neighbourhood-favourite coffee shop Por Vida doles out cinnamon-spiked horchata lattes. A few doors down, El Carrito Restaurant serves raved-about chilaquiles — tortilla chips layered with toppings such as corn and salsa, and served with spiced meat — and generously stuffed burritos.

“There’s a youthful, creative buzz in Barrio Logan that makes it unlike anywhere else in San Diego,” says Claudia Rodríguez-Biezunski, a Mexican-American fashion designer and owner of Sew Loka, a clothes boutique on Logan Avenue. Rodríguez-Biezunski uses reclaimed fabrics and we stand amid colourfully patched denim jackets and flannel shirts as we chat. “The cool mix of people that live here make this neighbourhood extra special — the families who have been here for generations, the artists and small business owners, the vendors and paleteros [street ice-cream vendors]…”

This is also a neighbourhood rooted in activism and visual storytelling, she says. “People travel from all over to see the colourful murals that depict tales of resilience and community strength.”

She’s talking about Chicano Park, my next stop. This park is hallowed ground in Barrio Logan. In the 1960s the I-5 freeway was built, knifing its way through the heart of the neighbourhood and displacing many. The community were told that the land beneath the new, twisting Coronado Bridge would be transformed into a public park as “compensation”. However, years passed and no such park materialised. Eventually it was discovered that the land had instead been reserved for a California Highway Patrol station. Residents began a peaceful but persistent protest, occupying the land until construction was halted. And eventually the formation of Chicano Park was decreed.

Today the park sprawls out beneath the bridge, a matrix of paved boulevards, grassy patches and giant pylons emboldened with characteristically colourful murals. The columns rise like giant canvases: some depict Aztec deities; others pay tribute to deceased community members or Mexican icons. The Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center opened in 2022 and now also helps contextualise the park for visitors with poignant multimedia art displays (£6; chicanoparkmuseum.org).

The Lafayette is in North Park, another of San Diego’s must-visit areas. It’s old hat to describe anywhere as a “city of neighbourhoods”, but the label rings true in San Diego. North Park, I’ve been told, is the city’s “hipster” district — an assessment I find fair. I wander past plant-filled boutiques and coffee houses popular with remote workers and duck into Verbatim Books, a temple to reading that sits somewhere between a bookshop and an antiquarian living room, complete with lifesize cut-outs of Stephen King (verbatimbooks.com). I take a North Park street-art tour revealing kaleidoscopic Mexican-style murals and a surprising portrait of Amy Winehouse (£30; sandiegostreettours.com), then give my feet a rest at Bivouac Ciderworks, a craft cidery offering flights, tastings and a solid menu of elevated comfort food (mains from £12; bivouaccider.com). As I sip Bivouac’s most popular brew, the San Diego Jam mixed-berry cider, the owner Lara Worm fills me in on the city’s culinary scene.

“We have access to the finest ingredients, the freshest produce, excellent fish … and people here take their creativity very seriously,” she says. “San Diego has a bit of irreverence too: people don’t like to be constrained by too many rules or traditions.”

Indeed, experimentation is an essential ingredient of the city’s food and drinks scene. Mexican and cross-border cuisine is a culinary linchpin, but there’s plenty more besides. In Little Italy I eat wobbly “soufflé” pancakes at Morning Glory, a cult breakfast spot that Instagrammers love for its dusky pink booths and giant star-shaped sculpture (mains from £9.50; morningglorybreakfast.com). And at Marisi in La Jolla — a seaside enclave north of downtown — I eat burrata with pickled strawberries, followed by the best pasta alla norma I’ve tasted outside Italy (mains from £20; marisilajolla.com).

Christopher Plaia is assistant general manager at Marisi and says that although homegrown talent has led the charge, San Diego owes its culinary renaissance in part to the pandemic.

“We saw a fair amount of industry talent leave major cities for more balanced lives, and San Diego was a hot pick for many,” he says. “Point being, post-Covid San Diego saw a massive influx of savvy restaurant folks.”

Exploring La Jolla, I soon see why someone would choose to relocate to this SoCal city. This neighbourhood is the San Diego of my imagination: a palm-tree stitched pocket with a rugged coastline that’s a haven for seabirds, seals and sea lions. San Diego’s natural beauty is enough to draw travellers further south in itself.

Beyond La Jolla, the 1,200-acre Balboa Park serves as the city’s lungs; you could spend days exploring its gardens, grand boulevards, Spanish Renaissance-style architecture and museums, despite the plant-filled Botanical Building being temporarily closed for a multimillion-dollar renovation. The Mingei International Museum is an absorbing celebration of global folk art and design (£11; mingei.org). Then there’s the chance to see whales in the city’s Pacific waters. I book with San Diego Whale Watch, which pushes out from Mission Bay on three-hour naturalist-led tours (from £49; sdwhalewatch.com). I watch a pod of fin whales break the ocean’s surface in unison — a final thrill from California’s most exciting city.
Jacqui Agate was a guest of the San Diego Tourism Authority (sandiego.org)

Three places to stay in San Diego

1. The Lafayette Hotel and Club, North Park

A whimsically decorated hotel with a buzzy pool bar and restaurants including Quixote, which serves Oaxacan-style sharing plates. Make time to visit the Gutter, its ornate arcade room with bowling and shuffleboard.
Details Room-only doubles from £225 (lafayettehotelsd.com)

2. Palihotel San Diego, Gaslamp Quarter

An elegant reimagining of the 1912-built Hotel St James, with dark blue lobby and tartan-accented rooms that make it a chic urban retreat. A plant-filled roof deck offers views over downtown, while the bistro-style Saint James French Diner is a solid breakfast spot.
Details Room-only doubles from £152 (palisociety.com)

3. La Valencia Hotel, La Jolla

With striking, Spanish-style architecture and an enviable location overlooking La Jolla Cove, La Valencia is all about coastal luxury and timeless decor in the rooms, villas and suites. Spend afternoons basking on the palm-fringed pool deck, then move to the newly renovated Whaling Bar — the perfect place for a sundowner.
Details Room-only doubles from £404 (lavalencia.com)

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