Travelers can welcome spring by giving their mind, body and spirit a deep spring cleaning in San Diego. The laid-back city offers visitors plenty of opportunities to recharge, reset and declutter internally for the year. From healthy ingredients to nourish one’s body and clean products to revitalize the outside to wide open gardens and outdoor activities to reset the mind, there is no shortage of ways to do some spring cleaning in San Diego.
Step 1: Clean the Mind
Visitors can begin their spring detox journey by clearing their minds at one of San Diego’s beautiful and calming gardens. The Japanese Friendship Garden in Balboa Park resides on 12 acres of serene land with plants and flora native to Japan and San Diego. The garden offers sound meditation on the second Saturday of every month, using therapeutic frequencies to gently balance the body and soothe the mind by lowering brainwaves to alpha and theta states. The Self-Realization Fellowship Meditation Gardens in North County’s Encinitas offers a diversity of colorful plants, meditation nooks, koi ponds and spectacular ocean vistas, providing a uniquely inspirational setting to sit quietly, meditate and be present in nature.
Travelers can also head to San Diego’s beautiful La Jolla neighborhood for a relaxing yoga class at Trilogy Sanctuary, an eclectic rooftop vegan café and wellness studio. The Yin restorative class focuses on healing the body and mind through deep relaxation and release of mental, emotional and physical stress. Yin yoga postures gently stretch and rehabilitate connective tissues. This class is accompanied by sound healing, using instruments like crystal bowls to energetically unwind and relax the body.
Step 2: Reset the Body
Those looking to clean from within should head to San Diego’s laid-back Ocean Beach neighborhood for Peace Pies, a café serving raw, vegan, gluten and soy-free salads, wraps and other entrees like a loving lasagna consisting of zucchini noodles layered with hemp seed pesto, cashew alfredo, marinated veggies and topped with marinara and cashew parm. The Plot in North County’s Oceanside also offers delicious, high-quality and sometimes boundary-pushing food that is wholly plant-based. Menu highlights include vegan sushi rolls, like the crunchy roll made with spicy chickpea tuna, avocado and cucumber rolled in nori and topped with crunchy tempura and teriyaki, and the Okinawan sweet potato gnocchi with roasted baby carrots, charred pickled turnips and carrot puree.
Guests can nourish their skin at Shop Good in North Park and Del Mar. As a clean-beauty advocate specializing in non-toxic makeup, wellness and skincare products and a variety of facial treatments, the studio offers detoxifying facials customized by holistic estheticians who focus on addressing internal stressors that influence the skin’s health and a person’s well-being. LIVV Wellness Lounge in Little Italy also nourishes the body, but from within. Their IV therapy has many benefits to overall health, delivering much-needed nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and amino acids directly to the bloodstream, where it is absorbed 100%.
Getting the blood flowing and the heart pumping is also an excellent way to cleanse the body. AquaVie Fitness + Wellness Club at The Westgate Hotel in the heart of downtown San Diego offers guests an urban oasis of serenity in downtown San Diego, complete with a fitness studio, sauna, wellness classes and a Junior Olympic-size heated lap pool, hot tub and relaxing lounge area.
Step 3: Recharge the Spirit
Spending time in nature can help reduce stress and elevate the mood, which is probably why San Diego locals are known for their positive spirit. Travelers can uplift their moods while raising their heart rate at one of the city’s many hiking and biking trails. Located on the cliffs above Torrey Pines State Beach in La Jolla, Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve offers a spectacular blend of coastal wilderness, canyons, parks and hiking trails where visitors and locals can feel the healing power of the earth and ocean. Another way to ignite the spirit is by hopping on a bike to explore. Stretching over twelve miles, Mission Bay Bike Path follows the interior of the beautiful bay, allowing bikers to take in the natural beauty of the ocean and inlets while surrounded by clear blue skies.
Yu Spa also offers a unique wellness experience where visitors can escape to a world of well-being. Located in San Diego’s Pan-Asian Convoy District, the Korean day spa provides a variety of services, including body scrubs and massages, dry and wet massages, admission for sauna and jjimjilbang, consisting of red clay and Himalayan salt saunas, an ice room and a common rest area.
For more information on San Diego’s offerings, including exciting vacation packages and valuable coupons for attractions, restaurants and more, visit the San Diego Tourism Authority’s website at www.sandiego.org.
Content provided by San Diego Tourism Authority.
