I’ve been telling individuals for a very long time that they are experiencing San Diego all incorrect.
If you pull right into a seashore lot and see nothing however Arizona and Nevada license plates, congrats, you’ve got gone full vacationer — we locals are chuckling behind your again.
There are pockets of San Diego that not often see outsiders. Fitting in LA’s huge shadow, many do not understand how large a metropolis it’s, not to mention the county.
Vacationers are inclined to flock to Coronado, La Jolla, and Del Mar, however not often do they ever head south to a area often called South Bay.
My hometown of Chula Vista has by no means been often called a hotspot, however it’s come a great distance, particularly as the town’s first-ever resort opened doorways final yr — a lot to locals’ chagrin.
But now it is able to pop off with much more new sights, vibrant tradition, and constant rankings as one in all America’s most secure cities.
San Diego’s New Day Trip
For the primary time in historical past, San Diegans and Chula Vistans can journey between every metropolis by ferry as an alternative of navigating the chaos of each the 5 and 805 freeways.
Like I mentioned, Nevada and Arizona plates…want I say extra?
After an thrilling ribbon-cutting on June 1, the primary jaunt throughout the San Diego Bay departed the Chula Vista Marina into Fifth Avenue Landing behind the world-renowned conference middle in downtown San Diego, famously internet hosting Comic-Con.
But probably the most thrilling facet is vice-versa — vacationers with the ability to hop aboard the ferry to Chula Vista to expertise one in all California’s most underrated cities.
It’s not your common small-town suburb; almost 300,000 inhabitants reside right here (together with yours really).
Beholding the closest on line casino to downtown, Seven Mile Casino, aforementioned Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center, and a thriving third Avenue strip of classy eating places, breweries, meals vehicles, and cafes, you are lacking out if you happen to do not take a look at Chula Vista lower than 10 minutes from the bustling Gaslamp.
You can e-book tickets right here for the Flagship Ferry’s historic trip here. Prices are $15 one-way from San Diego.
Note: Ferries are usually not wheelchair accessible for this route.
Make certain you double verify travel alerts and tourist fees earlier than your journey too.
Gaylord Still Has Rooms To Fill
“Why Chula Vista?” was a standard query when it was introduced shovels would hit the dust to construct the gargantuan Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center now towering over the bayfront.
I want I had a greater reply, however I used to be within the camp supporting it. There’s no such factor as dangerous press, and a lift to the native economic system by no means hurts — particularly if it means my taxes can lastly cease disappearing into potholes that by no means get fastened.
Fast ahead greater than a yr, and the Gaylord hasn’t taken off as anticipated. High costs don’t assist, and neither does the placement: in contrast to San Diego’s northern seashore cities, there’s no actual seashore on the Gaylord.
And even when there have been, realizing South Bay luck, it’d in all probability include the identical micro organism warnings plaguing components of Coronado recently.
It will be busy, however not as busy appropriately, even as soon as providing an affordable Resort Pass to entice guests and locals for a staycation to struggle off the lowly critiques.
I visited as soon as — I believed it was a masterpiece. But I see why it is off-radar for the same old San Diego vacationers, being far faraway from every other motion, although the brand new ferry offers one more reason to present it a shot, even when simply to attempt one in all its many eating places.
A Buzzing Marina With Aquatic Thrills
Near the Gaylord, probably the most up-and-coming spot in Chula Vista, Bayside Park is now dwelling to a towering resort and a newly reopened Kayak Cafe, tag-teaming with Chula Vista Watersports.
Formerly, Chula Vista was largely off-limits for thrill-seekers until you constitution a ship, however now you’ll be able to hire kayaks, get pleasure from an eco-tour, or perhaps a paddleboard lesson (see ya quickly?).
Both Kayak Cafe and CV Watersports maintain excellent Google critiques up to now, as extra guests expertise the delights of South Bay with so many gems hidden in plain sight, together with their website on J Street’s Marina Pier beginning June twentieth.
Insider tip: order the nachos and thank me later.
As for an additional thrilling glow-up, the long-vacant Vogue Theater has lastly been offered and set to be revamped as an leisure venue, absolutely to place downtown Chula on the map once more, and that comes after the World Cup watch occasion anticipated to attract 25,000 individuals.
Chula Vista Couldn’t Feel Safer
I’m not simply saying this as a result of I reside a stone’s throw from the police station; I’m saying it as a result of it is true.
At all hours, Chula Vista feels remarkably secure from the far corners of East Lake with a few of the prettiest mountain views within the county to bar-hopping Third Ave after a taco run.
The numbers again it up too.
Our Safety Index displays San Diego, which is seeing a rating of 84/100:
Chula Vista was ranked the twenty third most secure metropolis fin the complete nation for 2026 in an insightful WalletHub study and it is lengthy been the declare to fame that it is the ‘second most secure metropolis’ statistically in California.
