🥾 Outdoors: Just south of the tiny beach town Del Mar, there’s a massive, 2000-acre coastal state park that’s the lone home to the Torrey Pine (the rarest pine in North America!), wildlife like bobcats and coyotes, fragrant coastal chaparral, and some of the most mind-blowing views in all of Southern California. Park at the top of the state reserve and hike your way down to the beach; pack a burrito and your bathing suit for a triumphant, sweaty plunge into the Pacific Ocean.

🥾 Outdoors: If you’re a fan of intertidal coastal wetlands (*raises hand*), then this sprawling, 1,500-acre estuary, at the mouth of the Tijuana River, is for you. It’s located right on the border of Mexico, in Imperial Beach, the most southwesterly city in the continental U.S. The bird watching is robust, the trails are wide and well maintained, and the salty Pacific Ocean air keeps things refreshing and cool. The Visitor Center is free and great for kids.

🥾 Outdoors: For one of the finest examples of SD’s iconic "coastal scrub" landscapes, look no further. There are over 12 miles of winding, mostly flat trails, taking you through grassy hillsides, flat mesa tops, trickling stream corridors, and even a waterfall cascading through volcanic rock. Walk slowly and take in the swaying wild fennel, the curling vines of coyote melons, and, in the spring, the hills bursting with blooming chaparral. Forget palm trees—this is the real San Diego flora.

🥾 Outdoors: San Diego is famous for its easygoing, mild climate, which means that anything and everything grows and flourishes at the exceptional botanic garden in Encinitas. You could get lost here, and I have; wander around the native plant fields (you’ll smell the rare coastal sage scrub before you notice it), the swaying bamboo grove (the largest living collection of bamboo in North America!), and the tropical fruiting tree orchard (with every kind of citrus you can imagine).

🍽️ Restaurants: This small restaurant is relatively new to the bursting Asian food district in Kearny Mesa, and it’s now one of my favorites, too. They’ll ask you to assign a number between 1 and 10 for every dish you order, in accordance with your heat tolerance. The sai oua (thumb-sized, deep-fried pork sausages), tom kha (galangal-scented coconut soup), and the nam khao (crispy rice and herb salad), are incredibly delicious and reviving no matter what number you can handle.

🍽️ Restaurants: It’s a fool’s errand naming the definitive spot for ordering a California-style burrito, which comes stuffed with an only-in-San-Diego blend of chopped carne asada, guacamole, cheese, pico de gallo, and french fries. I’m partial to La Perla (there are three locations; the Grand Ave outpost is my preference), where the flour tortillas are just the right balance of blistered and chewy, and the salsas are fresh and hot. They have a great variety of breakfast burritos, too.

🍽️ Restaurants: If Guy Fieri loves it, then you know it’ll be good. This Fieri-endorsed, family-run restaurant, tucked into a strip mall on El Cajon Blvd, makes some of the best Lebanese food in the city. They specialize in oven-baked flatbreads, or bajeen (don’t miss the intensely lemon spinach pie, which comes dusted in sumac), but everything is amazing and made from scratch—including their house-made yogurt, garlicky fava beans, and baked lamb spooned over rice.

🍽️ Restaurants: It was hard to come by a restaurant in San Diego that gave me that “big city” glam of great restaurants in NYC—until I ate at Callie. The chef, Travis Swikard, cooked with Daniel Boulud for years, and he brings that continental palate and rarified technique to dishes that feel more Mediterranean and easygoing. He has a thing for local seafood—order anything with local uni or line-caught fish and you’ll know what I mean. And if it’s spiny lobster season, you know what to do.

🍽️ Restaurants: If one has hiked Escondido’s Elfin Forest all morning and one is consumed with a hunger that feels bottomless, then one should drive immediately to Esperanza’s, a tortilla factory buttressed by a tiny but mighty grocery-butcher-taqueria heaven. The back counter serves up creamy bean-and-cheese burritos, crunchy rolled tacos, bowls of menudo, and more—all made with their in-house flour and corn tortillas, of course. Don’t forget to stock up on their jarred moles and marinades.

🍽️ Restaurants: I’m so jealous of everyone who lives within walking distance of this cozy, ocean-facing bakery, in the Windansea Beach stretch of La Jolla. The bungalow is draped in passion fruit vines and surrounded by vining watermelons and squash; inside, you’ll want to feast on flawless croissants oozing with ham and cheese, crisp-chewy baguettes, fluffy English muffins, and seeded sourdough loaves.

🍽️ Restaurants: Mitch’s Seafood, a super-relaxed, super-fun local seafood spot built right on the edge of the historic Point Loma Marina, is the best place to hang out in the sun, drink cold beer, and watch the seals dart around the docked boats. Grab a stool on the outdoor deck facing the marina, and order a rock shrimp ceviche, swordfish tacos, and octopus tostadas.

🍽️ Restaurants: There’s tons of vibey 1950s-era spots in SD, but Turf Supper Club, where guests cook their own steaks, chops, and burgers over a communal flattop, is my absolute favorite. (And allegedly, it was Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s favorite when visiting San Diego too.) There’s crackling scarlet-leather booths; zero natural light; an insane jukebox stuffed with The Stooges and Black Sabbath; boozy, big drinks; and a self-service salad bar—a.k.a. a perfect night out.

🍽️ Restaurants: This classy La Jolla restaurant was built in 1941 to cater to Hollywood high-society types. It’s built literally on the sandy La Jolla Shores beach, which is illegal now for obvious structural reasons. If you go during high tide, grab a seat at the low bar and order a martini. You’ll watch dramatic eight-foot high waves crash onto the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, just like the stars did 80 years ago.

🍽️ Restaurants: The flaky, impossibly fresh flour tortillas are what I first fell in love with, but everything is perfect at this tiny Barrio Logan taqueria, which has been run by three generations of the Estudillo family since 1933. A side of rice and beans comes with a tamale thrillingly tucked in; the rolled tacos are a San Diego staple executed perfectly; it’s all really wonderful, and worth the long lines.

🍽️ Restaurants: It’s not a trip to San Diego without feasting on the Baja-style ceviches and cocktails so iconic to the area. I love this tiny spot in Logan Heights, which has a cute shaded patio around the back where you can enjoy giant cups stuffed with cocktail de pulpo, plates of fresh oysters drowning in hot sauce, and punchy aguachiles tostadas.

🛍️ Shops: Growing up in La Jolla, I’d often while away the after-school hours at Pannikin Coffee (sadly now closed; the original in Encinitas remains) and D. G. Wills Books, the legendary bookstore next door. When it opened in the 1970s, it hosted authors like Allen Ginsberg, Edward Albee, Gary Snyder, and Derek Walcott; today, it has the hushed tones and energy of a temple.

🛍️ Shops: Located just off the 5 in Sorrento Valley, Torrey Holistics originally opened as a medicinal cannabis dispensary in 2015, but now all are welcome to shop in this serene little boutique. I gravitate to their lineup of Rose Delights, including Strawberry Singles, which feature peak-season Albion strawberries grown by the nearby Chino Farm.

🛍️ Shops: One of the oldest record stores in California, this North Park institution has incredible, hard-to-find records in every genre imaginable, plus an amazing local music section. Their merch is perfect, and the staff is kind; you can also find a more curated selection of vinyl at the nearby listening bar, Part Time Lover Hi-Fi.

🛒 Markets: There’s a tiny vegetable stand just off a palm-tree-lined road in Rancho Santa Fe, an affluent, mostly residential community in North County. Pull over and delight in the spectacular, organic vegetables and fruits grown by the Chino family—their famous sweet corn and tiny French strawberries, the exquisite melons grown from Taiwanese, Japanese, and Spanish seeds, the ruffled chicories and glowing raspberries—just like Alice Waters and Wolfgang Puck did in the 1980s.

🛒 Markets: Though you couldn’t tell from its nondescript warehouse exterior, anyone can shop at Specialty Produce, which caters primarily to the high-volume needs of the many restaurants and hotels of San Diego. Shop in bulk for myriad seeds, nuts, flours, and grains; wander through the massive refrigerated produce room for hard-to-find scores like borage flowers and bronze fennel from local farms like Girl & Dug.

🛒 Markets: The Convoy Street strip of Kearny Mesa is an iconic hub for Asian restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, and cafés (don’t miss Tofu House or Shanghai Saloon), and I especially love Nijiya Market, a Japanese grocery store that opened in 1986. During the week, stock up on high-end pantry items and homey prepared foods, but on Sunday, you can buy their super-fresh, sushi-grade fish at a steep discount.

🛒 Markets: San Diego is famous for its massive, deep-sea fish—your albacore and your mahi mahi and your marlin and so on. The best place for the freshest daily catch is El Pescador, a bustling seafood counter and restaurant in the middle of downtown La Jolla that opened in 1974. You can order pretty much anything from the case and have it spun into tacos, a salad, or a burrito; I usually go for the swordfish, spinach, and black bean burrito to eat on their succulent-lined patio.

🛒 Markets: It’s not a trendy, natural-wine bottle shop playing cool music, and I love it all the more for it. Way out east on Miramar Road, near the endless office parks and furniture superstores, you’ll find this brightly lit warehouse stuffed with cheap, delicious bottles from familiar wine importers like Kermit Lynch.