After-dark activities abound in buzzing San Diego, where night owls can partake of delights as diverse as spooky ghost tours, craft beer taprooms, sunset s’mores on the beach, and nocturnal critters at the epic Balboa Park Zoo. Dive in for our guide to some of the best things to do in San Diego at night time.
Get Spooked on a Ghost Tour
San Diego could well be the planet’s most haunted city. The proliferation of ghost tours available in and around the Old Town would certainly have you think so. Hit up the spookier-than-spooky Whaley House (built in the 19th century on the site of an old gallows, natch) for your main spectral fix. Here, in ‘the most haunted house in America’ (LIFE magazine) nearly two centuries of domestic tragedy make for perfect ghost-hunting fodder, with nerve-shredding night tours available, led by ghoulish expert guides. Fearless travelers can also join terrifying walking tours of Old Town burial grounds and the ghostly Gaslamp Quarter if they dare.
Creature Features
San Diego Zoo is one of the biggest and best-loved zoos on the planet. Excellent during the daytime, it’s arguably even better at night when the nocturnal critters start stirring from their daylight slumbers and getting ready for dinnertime. The night zoo operates through summer, adding tribal music, wildlife performers, acrobatics and more to an already fairly exotic roster of attractions that includes tropical aviaries, savannahs and Arctic environments.
Dinner on the Bay
An evening cruise of San Diego Bay is a great way to see the city sights and beautiful California coastline without lifting a finger (or indeed a foot). Sail across the harbor, taking in views of the dramatic skyline against fiery sunset skies and check out attractions including Coronado Island and the USS Midway. Lucky punters might even catch a glimpse of the occasional migrating whale (blue in summer; gray in winter) as they tuck into dinner and cocktails and enjoy the on-board entertainment.
S’mores on the Beach
San Diego’s long and beautiful stretch of California coastline means just one thing: you absolutely must cozy up around a night time beach bonfire with friends and family. Grab your cookies, chocolate and marshmallows and hit up cookout hotspots (no pun intended) at the likes of Mission Beach, La Jolla Shores and Coronado Beach. You’ll have to book your spot at the beach in front of the legendary Hotel del Coronado well in advance, but boy is it worth it. Perched right on the seafront overlooking Point Loma, ‘The Del’, with its distinctive conical turrets, is a Coronado institution. Here, families build sandcastles along the hotel’s fine band of golden sand, paddle-board in the lagoon, and gorge themselves silly on firepit s’mores at sunset.
Beery Bonanza
Microbrewing is big business in San Diego, where somewhere in the region of 150 independent breweries are thriving at any given time. Because of this, you rarely have to walk far to find a fine brewhouse or taproom, especially in hip enclaves like North Park, where colorful street art and beautiful beer make for fine bedfellows. Sup strong stouts at the Belching Beaver Brewery or grab a hazy IPA at the Fall Brewing Company. Mosey over to hippy-dippy Ocean Beach where sun-kissed vibes are the order of the day at the Ocean Beach Brewery, or strike out for the lovely gardens and outdoor games at Stone Brewing’s huge Liberty Station complex. Heck, if you fancy taking an immersive deep-dive into the best the ‘capital of craft’ has to offer, you can even go on a guided tour of multiple San Diego microbreweries. Or, as it used to be called, a bar crawl.
Sunset Stroll
The clue’s in the name: Sunset Cliffs just south of Ocean Beach is one of San Diego’s finest spots for watching the sun go down over the Bay. Take a flask of your favorite mocktail (non-alcoholic drinks only up here we’re afraid) and enjoy the peace and relative solitude as the skies turn various shades of fiery orange, mustard yellow and burnt sienna over a petrol-blue sea. It’s the perfect setting for #humblebrag Insta shots and also (if you squint against the fading light) a pretty decent whale-watching spot, especially between December and April, when gray whales migrate en masse from Alaska to the warm calving grounds of Baja’s lagoons.
Balboa Park
Balboa Park is a treat at any time, but arguably lovelier still at night when its buildings are beautifully illuminated (if not necessarily open). The park’s most extraordinary architectural marvels were designed for Expos in the early 20th Century. Ogle the ornate Spanish Renaissance-style facade of the San Diego Museum of Art, featuring sculptures of Velázquez, Murillo and Zurbarán, pause for a pic in the Casa del Prado’s atmospheric cloisters, and listen out for the chime of the California Building’s eye-popping bell tower. There’s live music and theater at the Victorian Spreckels Organ Pavilion and Old Globe respectively, and you can unleash your inner kid on the old-fashioned carousel, a menagerie of brightly painted beasts that includes horses, giraffes, cats and a dragon!
It’s Showtime!
San Diego’s lively nightlife scene runs the gamut from rowdy dive bar rock shows to country music and top-flight comedy. Hit up the open mic night at the American Comedy Company for some of the freshest new talent in California, grab dinner and a show at the legendary House of Blues, or bust some moves and get involved in raucous singalongs at the non-stop party that is The Shout! House’s Dueling Pianos show. You’ll find some of the music world’s biggest names dropping by Petco Park and Snapdragon Stadium on their world tours, while the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach has hosted gigs by the likes of BB King and the Black Eyed Peas.
Save on attractions in San Diego
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Stu caught the travel bug at an early age, thanks to childhood road trips to the south of France squeezed into the back of a Ford Cortina with two brothers and a Sony Walkman. Now a freelance writer living on the Norfolk coast, Stu has produced content for travel giants including Frommer’s, British Airways, Expedia, Mr & Mrs Smith, and now Go City. His most memorable travel experiences include drinking kava with the locals in Fiji and pranging a taxi driver’s car in the Honduran capital.
