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Entertainment Overview

Many people come to San Diego for the beach, but the city's club scene has developed an increasingly strong following in recent years. The larger nightclubs tend to get busiest on weekends, but San Diego's many swank lounges, quirky dive bars, and funky beach bars pull in lively crowds just about every night of the week. The Gaslamp, along with neighboring downtown and the emerging East Village (where the new baseball stadium opened in 2004), is where you'll find the most popular -- and expensive -- bars and clubs, many of them cultivating a see-and-be-seen vibe. The beach areas offer a more casual atmosphere. The dance clubs and bars of Pacific Beach and Mission Beach appeal to a casually dressed, college-age crowd. Ocean Beach has no dance clubs and is preferred by bikers, drinkers, and patchouli-scented fans of reggae and Grateful Dead-style jam bands.

The Uptown district around Hillcrest is the heart of San Diego's gay nightlife and home to a few coffeehouses where conversation is the entertainment. Coffeehouse culture is still prevalent throughout the county and there's usually someone playing an acoustic set any given night.

San Diego's music scene centers around rock. Hard rock, alternative rock, and indie rock dominate the music listings. Despite that fact, some of the county's best known musical artists play a softer style of music: Jewel got her start in the city's coffeehouses and Grammy-winning gospel group Nickel Creek calls San Diego home. Nevertheless, local boys Ratt, Blink-182, and hard rockers P.O.D give testament to the fact that rockers can make it out of San Diego.

Check the Reader, San Diego's free alternative newsweekly (it comes out every Thursday), for the lowdown on nightlife. San Diego CityBeat is another free paper that has a great nightlife section. And be sure to consult San Diego magazine's "Restaurant & Nightlife Guide" for further ideas. Also, the San Diego-Union Tribune publishes a weekly (Thursday) entertainment insert, Night and Day.