San Diego practicalities.

Prices in shops and on menus are shown before tax, and the tax is added at the till. The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) publishes the combined sales and use tax rate for the City of San Diego as 7.75% in its city and county rates table, effective 1 October 2026; the exact rate follows the address of the sale, and CDTFA's own lookup settles any specific address. The full table is on cdtfa.ca.gov.

Tipping is custom, not law, and it is how service staff are paid. The usual working range in restaurants is 15 to 20 percent of the pre-tax bill for table service, a dollar or two per drink at a bar, and a few dollars for the taxi driver and the hotel porter. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, and the Trolley takes contactless taps.

San Diego is on Pacific Time, the West Coast clock, three hours behind the East Coast. Event times on this calendar are Pacific, and the This Weekend page turns over on Pacific Time too. Comic-Con's badge sales run to Pacific times as well: the Open Registration waiting room and sale are published in PST, so convert before you set an alarm elsewhere.

No statistics here, because the honest version is qualitative: San Diego's coastal climate is mild for most of the year, with dry summers and the year's rain falling mainly in winter. Late spring and early summer mornings often start under low coastal cloud that burns off by midday, the pattern locals call May Gray and June Gloom, and a layer for the morning is the whole fix. Evenings cool down off the ocean even in summer, so the jacket earns its place in the bag for Gaslamp nights and ballgames alike.

Two brief, plain notes. California is earthquake country: tremors are a background fact of the state rather than a trip-planning factor, and the sensible preparation is knowing your hotel's evacuation route and keeping shoes and a phone by the bed. Wildfire risk is the seasonal one: in the hot, dry autumn, Santa Ana winds can raise fire danger inland, and smoke can reach the coast on the worst days. If a fire is active during a trip, follow the county's official alerts and be ready to move outdoor plans; events here are updated when organisers move dates.

The legal drinking age in California is 21, and bars and shops check ID, visitors included; carry photo ID you are comfortable having checked at a door. Venues set their own door policies on top of the law, and Gaslamp clubs in particular are commonly 21 and over for entry regardless of whether you drink.

The ordinary big-city rules apply, stated plainly: stay on lit, busy streets at night, keep the phone and wallet put away between uses, use the Transportation Plazas and the app pickups at the airport rather than rides offered inside the terminal, and let the hotel hold the valuables you do not need for the night. Downtown and the Gaslamp are busy late, which is its own comfort.

For the trip in, the getting there page covers the airport shuttle, the bus and the Trolley; for the stay itself, the hotels page compares the four areas to sleep in.