January 21, 2026
Across the bay from downtown San Diego is Coronado. Coronado is Spanish for crowned and its nickname is The Crown City. It is a pleasant place to stroll around with a long sandy beach and vibrant shopping district along Orange Avenue.
Coronado is most well known, however, for its iconic beachfront Victorian hotel, The Hotel del Coronado, which has featured in numerous movies including the 1959 comedy classic, Some Like it Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon.
The hotel was also where L. Frank Baum did most of his writing, including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He is said to have based his design for the Emerald City on the hotel and to have based The Yellow Brick Road on Orange Avenue.
There is definitely a strong surf culture in Southern California. Coronado is no exception, with plenty of surf shops and Volkswagens (the surfer’s automobile of choice) to go around.
Mal and Lauren 