When people start thinking about retiring in San Diego, it’s tempting to start with the house.
How many bedrooms? How much square footage? Single story? View? Yard? What can we get for our budget?
But after living in San Diego County for more than 30 years—and now helping people move here for their own next chapter—we think there’s a better place to start:
What do you want your life to look like?
Because choosing where to live in San Diego County can have just as much impact on your day-to-day life as choosing the house itself.
First, understand just how big “San Diego” really is
This is something that’s hard to understand until you’ve lived here.
When someone from Carlsbad, San Marcos or Oceanside is traveling and gets asked where they live, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll simply say, “San Diego.”
And technically, they’re in San Diego County. But living in North County can feel very different from living in the City of San Diego.
North County encompasses a collection of cities and communities including places like Del Mar, Solana Beach, Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista, San Marcos and Escondido. Each has its own personality, geography and lifestyle.
For more than 30 years, we raised our daughters in San Marcos. TK commuted south into San Diego for work every day.
And here’s the funny thing: on the weekends, we rarely went into San Diego.
After commuting all week, the last thing TK wanted to do on Saturday was get back in the car and drive south again.
So North County became our world.
It’s where we raised our family, ate out, shopped, spent time outside and built our friendships.
Years later, after we became empty nesters and downsized, we had the opportunity to actually live within the City of San Diego. It was the first time we really experienced San Diego the way someone who lives there does.
And we loved that chapter, too.
But it reinforced something we now tell people considering a move here:
Don’t think of San Diego as one place.
Get to know the San Diego you’ll actually live in
If your experience with San Diego is mostly vacations, you may picture the San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld, downtown, beaches and maybe a trip up to LEGOLAND.
Living here is completely different.
Your life becomes much more local.
Where will you go for dinner on a Friday night?
Where will you walk in the morning?
Will you want to ride your bike to the coast? Meet friends for coffee? Shop at local boutiques? Hike? Play pickleball or golf? Catch a sunset at the beach?
Where do your kids and grandkids live?
How much driving are you comfortable doing?
Those questions matter a lot more than whether a particular house has the perfect kitchen.
What do you want an ordinary Tuesday to look like?
This may be one of the best questions to ask yourself before deciding where to retire.
Vacation life is one thing. Tuesday is real life.
If your ideal Tuesday includes walking along the beach in the morning, meeting friends for lunch, playing pickleball in the afternoon and watching the sunset before dinner, that tells you something about where you should look.
If you picture hiking, biking, running, outdoor dining, farmers markets, local events and weekends exploring beach towns, North County may deserve a closer look.
Outdoor living is a huge part of life here.
We’re so accustomed to doing things outside that when it rains, none of us quite knows what to do with ourselves.
People are walking, cycling, hiking, golfing, playing pickleball, sitting outside at restaurants and heading toward the coast for sunset.
And because North County has grown tremendously since we first moved here more than three decades ago, you don’t necessarily have to leave the area to find what you need.
TK’s sister lives in Ventura, and whenever she visits she comments on how new everything feels here.
There’s been an incredible amount of growth—but North County still feels more low-key to us than living farther south in San Diego.
You don’t have to live on the beach to have a coastal lifestyle
This is another distinction that’s worth understanding.
There’s living on the coast—and then there’s living close enough to the coast that it becomes part of your everyday life.
Ocean Hills Country Club is a good example.
We’re technically in Oceanside, but when we take people to Inspiration Hill during a community tour and look west toward the ocean, they’re often surprised by what they’re seeing.
That’s Carlsbad.
OHCC sits in an unusual little pocket of Oceanside tucked between Carlsbad and Vista, less than five miles from the coast.
In many ways, we live our everyday lives more in Carlsbad than Oceanside.
That’s why we sometimes suggest that buyers coming from out of the area stay in Carlsbad while they’re exploring OHCC. It gives them a better sense of many of the restaurants, shopping, beaches and places that may become part of their normal routine if they move here.
And being a few miles inland has advantages of its own.
We’re close enough to enjoy the coastal influence and breezes without necessarily having the experience people sometimes associate with living directly along the coast.
It’s a bit of a sweet spot.
Think about your radius, not just your address
This is one of the things we’d encourage any potential buyer to do when exploring San Diego County.
Look at a map—but then get out and experience it.
Drive from the neighborhood you’re considering to the places you’d actually use.
Find the grocery store. Have dinner nearby. Drive to the beach. See where you’d meet your kids. Visit the local villages and downtown areas.
And pay attention to traffic and how much time you’re spending in the car.
Your mailing address doesn’t necessarily tell you where you’re going to live your life.
From our part of North County, we can head to the coast, spend an afternoon in Carlsbad, catch the COASTER south rather than drive, or head north toward Orange County and Los Angeles.
And when we want a bigger adventure, mountains, hiking, desert and countless weekend destinations are within reach.
Our recent trip to Sequoia was a good reminder of something we really value at this stage of life: we love being able to go explore.
But we also love coming home and realizing we don’t have to go very far at all to have a full life.
Then start looking at houses
Once you’ve figured out the lifestyle, then the real estate questions become much easier.
Maybe you realize you don’t want a big yard anymore because you’d rather spend your weekends traveling.
Maybe being within a few miles of the coast matters more than having another 500 square feet.
Maybe you want amenities and activities right outside your door.
Maybe you’d rather have privacy and acreage.
Maybe you want to walk to restaurants.
Maybe you want a community where it’s easy to meet people because you’re starting over socially in a new place.
There’s no universally right answer.
And that’s really the point.
Could Ocean Hills Country Club fit the life you’re picturing?
For us, Ocean Hills Country Club ended up bringing together many of the things we value at this stage of our lives: an active lifestyle, community, outdoor living, easy access to the coast, proximity to family and a home that’s easier to leave when we want to travel.
But OHCC isn’t going to be the right answer for everyone.
That’s why we encourage people to figure out what matters to them before they fall in love with a particular house.
If you’re considering retiring in the San Diego area, we’d be happy to help you get your bearings—not just show you houses.
Wondering if Ocean Hills Country Club fits your next chapter?
You don’t need to know which house you want yet. Start by figuring out whether the lifestyle, location and community feel right for you. Our free OHCC Fit Guide will help you think through the questions that matter most.
