I love November in San Diego. The crowds have died down, the weather is usually still warm and sunny (thanks, Santa Ana’s), and there is so much fun stuff to do.
It’s prime time for lots of fun events, from Día de los Muertos celebrations, Fleet Week and Veterans Day events, Thanksgiving & Turkey Trots to the Bay Wine & Food Festival.
One thing to know before you plan: Sunday, November 1 is the busiest day of the month. The Komen walk, the Carlsbad Village Street Faire, the Fall Back Festival, the Día de los Muertos Mercado and the Food + Wine Festival’s opening night all land on it.
In this article, you’ll find all you need to know about the best events in San Diego in November, from expected weather to some of the best things to do.
🍂 San Diego In November At A Glance
Weather: highs easing from 72°F at the start of the month to 67°F at the end, lows from 59°F down to 52°F — mild days, cool nights
Rain: the first rain of the season, but most days stay dry — the chance of a wet day rises from about 7% to 12% across the month
Ocean temp: 65°F falling to 62°F — wetsuit weather for most people
Daylight: about 10.5 hours, and the clocks go back on November 1 — sunset moves from 4:57 pm to 4:42 pm by month’s end
Crowds: quiet all month apart from Thanksgiving week, when rates jump
What to pack: jeans and layers, a light jacket for evenings, sunscreen year-round
Don’t miss: Día de los Muertos in Old Town, Fleet Week and the Veterans Day parade, the San Diego Food + Wine Festival, and the holiday displays opening at the end of the month
Best Things To Do In San Diego In November
Día de los Muertos
San Diego’s biggest Día de los Muertos celebration runs in Old Town, and it catches visitors out every year: the busiest part happens on Halloween weekend, before November has even started. If you’re here for it, plan around Saturday and Sunday, then come back Monday evening for the part that actually stays with you.
Read our full guide to Día de los Muertos celebrations in San Diego here.
Old Town Día De Los Muertos
When: September 1 – November 2, 2026
Where: Old Town San Diego State Historic Park and the surrounding streets
Website: Old Town San Diego
I love going to Old Town in the fall. Día de los Muertos started early this year, with Fiesta de Reyes going all out with their decorations since September 1st. Greg and I went there and loved it. The bright orange marigolds, the beautiful Catrinas and fun dances and musical performances are simply stunning.
But the main events take place between October 31 and November 2, 2026.
More than 40 community altars go up across Old Town, each one built for somebody real, and the State Park runs free 45-minute guided tours that explain what you’re looking at — the marigolds, the water, the photographs, the food left out for the journey. Book those ahead; they fill.
The weekend Mercado takes over San Diego Avenue and Harney Street on Saturday and Sunday, with sugar skull painting, face painting, mariachi and folklorico. The Catrina contest is Sunday, and it’s worth staying for: the costumes are extraordinary, and this is not a Halloween crowd in fancy dress.
The part to build your visit around is Monday evening. At 5 pm, a candlelit procession leaves Immaculate Conception Church and walks to El Campo Santo cemetery, the 1849 burial ground on San Diego Avenue. It’s quiet, it’s slow, and it’s the moment the whole weekend has been leading to. Free.
Veterans Day & Fleet Week
San Diego is a Navy town, and November is when that’s most visible. Fleet Week runs for the first half of the month, and this year it’s the biggest schedule in its history — 18 events, after last year’s was cut back by the federal shutdown. Most of it is free.
Fleet Week San Diego
When: Sunday, November 1 – Sunday, November 15, 2026
Where: Broadway Pier, Naval Base San Diego, Chula Vista and around the bay
Website: Fleet Week San Diego
The two events worth planning around are Meet the Fleet at Naval Base San Diego, which opens to the public on Saturday, November 7, and the public ship tours at Broadway Pier from Friday, November 13 to Sunday, November 15. Standing on the flight deck of a working warship, being walked through it by the sailors who live there, is not a museum experience and doesn’t feel like one.
Around those: a Navy Band Southwest concert at Chula Vista’s Bayfront Park on November 1, student STEM days mid-month, the Fleet Week Football Classic on November 14, and Military Family Day closing it out on the 15th. Check the schedule before you go, since ship tours depend on which ships are in port and can change at short notice.
San Diego Veterans Day Parade
When: Wednesday, November 11, 2026 | 10 – 11:30 am
Where: Harbor Drive, in front of the County Administration Building
Website: USS Midway Museum
The largest Veterans Day parade on the West Coast, run by the USS Midway Museum, with marching bands, historic military units, vintage vehicles and veterans’ groups marching along the waterfront. This year commemorates 35 years since Operation Desert Storm. Free, and no ticket or reservation — just turn up on Harbor Drive.
Get there by 9:30 for a spot near the Midway, where the backdrop does half the work for your photos. The route is flat, wide and stroller-friendly, and the harbor breeze is colder than the forecast suggests, so bring a layer.
Fleet Week Boat Parade
When: Wednesday, November 11, 2026, after the parade
Where: San Diego Bay
Website: Fleet Week San Diego
The waterborne sequel to the Harbor Drive parade: military and civilian boats run the bay while the crowds are still downtown. The easy move is to stay put after the parade and watch from the Embarcadero, or walk to Seaport Village and find a bench. If you have your own boat, you can enter it.
North County VetFest, Escondido
When: Wednesday, November 11, 2026; parade start time not yet published
Where: Maple Street Plaza and Grand Avenue, Escondido
Website: North County VetFest
North County’s own Veterans Day event, now in its seventh year, run by American Legion Post 149 and Brothers of 6 Charities. A parade down Grand Avenue, then a festival on Maple Street Plaza. Free. If you’re staying inland or you want the small-town version rather than the downtown spectacle, this is the one — and downtown’s parade finishes early enough that ambitious people do both.
Thanksgiving
This year, Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, 2026, and San Diego’s version involves less snow and more running. Thanksgiving week is also the one time all month that hotel rates climb, so book it early or come the week before.
Turkey Trots
Five races, all on Thanksgiving morning, all done in time for lunch:
- O’side Turkey Trot — Oceanside, 5K waves at 7 and 8 am, walk at 8:15, kids’ races from 10. A flat beachside course and the biggest of the lot.
- Encinitas Turkey Trot — 10K at 7:30, 5K at 8, starting on Coast Highway 101. Costume contest with cash prizes; proceeds support veterans’ families.
- North County Turkey Trot — 4S Ranch Sports Park, 10K at 7:15, 5K at 7:30, kids’ 1K at 8:45. Raises money to get local kids into youth sports.
- Coronado Turkey Trot — Tidelands Park, 8 am, benefiting the diabetes program at Rady Children’s Hospital. It sells out every year, so register rather than turning up.
- Father Joe’s Villages Thanksgiving Day 5K — Balboa Park, San Diego’s oldest Thanksgiving race, with strollers and dogs welcome.
If you’re visiting with family and only one of you runs, Coronado is the pick: Tidelands Park has the view, and the rest of the group can walk the bay path while you race.
Free Thanksgiving Dinner for Military at Kansas City BBQ
Kansas City BBQ, the iconic Top Gun movie location, has been offering a free Thanksgiving Dinner to active-duty Military every year since 1983. Make your reservations now to guarantee a spot!
San Diego Events In November
Komen More Than Pink Walk
When: Sunday, November 1, 2026 | walk starts 8 am
Where: Balboa Park
Website: Komen San Diego
Thirty years of this walk in San Diego. The site opens at 6:30 am, the opening ceremony is at 7:20, the walk steps off at 8, and there’s a celebration afterward at 9:45. It’s a walk, not a race, and Balboa Park on an early November morning is about as good as a Sunday gets here.
If you’re visiting rather than walking, know that Balboa Park parking is gone by 7 am that day and several roads close. Either come for the walk or come after lunch.
Carlsbad Village Street Faire
When: Sunday, November 1, 2026 | 8 am – 4 pm
Where: Carlsbad Village, around Carlsbad Village Drive
Website: Carlsbad Village Street Faire
The largest one-day street fair in the country: 900 booths and around 100,000 people across Carlsbad Village, twice a year. Antiques, a global food court, a beer garden, kids’ rides, and more craft stalls than any human can process in one morning.
The parking advice matters more than the shopping advice. Free shuttles run every 15 minutes from The Shoppes at Carlsbad and the Poinsettia Coaster station, and there’s free bike valet. Drive into the Village itself and you’ll spend your morning looking for a space instead of eating your way down Grand Avenue.
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Fall Back Festival
When: Sunday, November 1, 2026 | 12 – 4 pm
Where: Davis-Horton House, 410 Island Avenue, Gaslamp Quarter
Website: Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation
Held on the day the clocks go back, which is the kind of joke you can only make once a year. The Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation turns the block around San Diego’s oldest surviving house into a children’s street faire: blacksmith demonstrations, a Kumeyaay drum circle, stagecoach photos, a root beer float bar, and a pie-eating contest that is the real reason anyone’s child agrees to come.
Free to attend, with an optional $10 food-and-fun ticket. It’s the 26th year, it runs four hours, and it’s the rare downtown event aimed squarely at under-tens.
San Diego Food + Wine Festival
When: Sunday, November 1 – Sunday, November 8, 2026
Where: Venues across the county, with the big tastings on the Embarcadero
Website: San Diego Food + Wine Festival
Note the new name. What you may remember as the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival is now the San Diego Food + Wine Festival — same week in November, same sprawl of dinners, tastings and chef events across eight days.
The Grand Tasting on Saturday, November 7 (11 am – 3 pm) is the one most visitors book: hundreds of wineries, breweries and local restaurants in one place, and you should arrive hungry and leave your car at home. Sunday’s Grand Fiesta closes the week in the same format.
The smaller events are where it gets interesting. This year’s lineup includes a Día de Muertos gala at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar on opening night, a Baja culinary expedition that crosses the border for the day, and Icons + Legends on the Friday. If you only have one evening, a small event beats the Grand Tasting — you’ll actually talk to the people making the food.
Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas!
When: Wednesday, November 4 – Thursday, December 31, 2026
Where: The Old Globe, Balboa Park
Website: The Old Globe
Twenty-nine years running, and it’s as much a San Diego institution as the Zoo at this point — local kids grow up on it. It opens in the first week of November, well before anyone has admitted it’s the holidays, which is exactly when tickets are easiest to get. Book early for the weekends closer to Christmas; they go.
¡Cómo El Grinch Robó La Navidad!
When: Thursday, November 19 – Sunday, November 22, 2026
Where: The Old Globe, Balboa Park
Website: The Old Globe
I am so excited about this. New this year, and a genuine first: the world premiere of the complete Spanish-language production of the Grinch. Four performances only, over one weekend. In a city where a third of households speak Spanish at home, it’s surprising this took 29 years — and four performances will not be enough.
Coronado Island Film Festival
When: Wednesday, November 4 – Sunday, November 8, 2026
Where: Venues across Coronado, including the Village Theatre
Website: Coronado Island Film Festival
Five days of screenings, panels and industry events on Coronado, with the kind of scale where you can end up talking to a director in the queue for coffee. Passes and single tickets both work; the single tickets suit anyone treating it as an excuse for a day on the island.
Take the ferry from downtown rather than driving. Parking in the village during the festival is its own small drama, and the crossing is the nicest fifteen minutes of the day.
Del Mar — Bing Crosby Season
When: Friday, November 6 – Sunday, November 29, 2026
Where: Del Mar Racetrack
Website: Del Mar Thoroughbred Club
Summer racing at Del Mar is a scene. The fall meet, named for Bing Crosby, who helped found the place, is the version locals prefer: smaller crowds, cooler weather and better odds of getting near the rail. The season closes with the FanDuel Racing Turf Festival from November 26 to 29, which means Thanksgiving Day racing by the ocean.
Dress code is relaxed compared with summer, but the grandstand gets cold once the sun drops behind the grandstand roof. Bring the jacket you left in the car in July.
San Diego Beer Week
When: Friday, November 6 – Sunday, November 15, 2026
Where: Breweries, bars and restaurants countywide
Website: San Diego Brewers Guild
Ten days of collaborations, one-off releases, tap takeovers and brewery dinners across the county, from North Park to North County. There’s no single venue and no wristband — you build your own week from the Guild’s event list, which is the point.
One change worth knowing: the Guild’s Capital of Craft festival has moved to September, so Beer Week is now the taproom events rather than one big tent. If you want the festival, that’s a different trip.
Skating By The Sea At Hotel Del Coronado
When: Friday, November 20, 2026 – Sunday, January 3, 2027
Where: Windsor Lawn, Hotel del Coronado
Website: Hotel del Coronado
An ice rink on the beach, with the Pacific behind it and the Del’s red turrets above it. It is unapologetically a photo op, and it’s also genuinely lovely at dusk. Sessions run 90 minutes, skates are included, and you book a time slot in advance — walk-ups don’t work on weekends.
Book the last slot before sunset and follow it with the Frostbite Lounge, where the fire pits and drinks are. This year the rink sits inside the hotel’s wider holiday program, “A Holiday Through Time.”
Where to Stay in San Diego in November
November is the best-value month of the year to book San Diego. The weather still behaves, the crowds are gone, and hotel rates sit at their lowest until spring — with one exception: Thanksgiving week, when everything climbs. Book that week well ahead, or come in the first three weeks and have the place to yourself.
Where you stay depends on what brought you. For Día de los Muertos, Old Town puts you in the middle of it. Gaslamp Quarter are best for Fleet Week, the Veterans Day parade and the Food + Wine Festival, all of which happen within a few blocks of the waterfront. Coronado is the pick if you’re coming for the Del and the ice rink, and North County — Carlsbad, Oceanside or Encinitas — suits the village faire and the turkey trots. Use the map below to compare hotels and current rates across San Diego.
San Diego November Weather
November is San Diego’s quiet stretch of good weather. Highs ease from around 72°F at the start of the month to 67°F by the end, and lows slip from 59°F to 52°F — jeans and a jacket in the evening, shirtsleeves by lunchtime.
It’s also the month the rain comes back, though “rain” here means a few wet days rather than a wet month. The chance of rain on any given day rises from about 7% at the start of November to 12% at the end, and most visits go by without seeing a drop.
The bigger adjustment is the light. The clocks go back on November 1, and sunset moves from 4:57 pm to 4:42 pm over the month. Sightseeing days end earlier than visitors expect, so front-load the beaches and the parks and leave the evenings for dinner, theater, and the holiday displays that start going up mid-month.
The ocean cools from 65°F to 62°F. Surfers are out all month in wetsuits; swimmers mostly aren’t.
What Should You Wear In San Diego In November?
Even though it’s November, we still recommend you travel to San Diego with a suitcase full of light clothes.
You won’t need a big heavy jacket or gloves. It’s more like a short-sleeved T-shirt and jeans kind of weather. Plan to pack a couple of T-shirts, shorts, shoes, long dresses, jeans, a pair of shoes, and flip-flops for during the day. There’s no harm in bringing a cardigan or light jumper either, in case you get chilly after dark.
Since the UV rays will be out, don’t forget your sunscreen, a cap or sun hat, and a pair of sunglasses.
Clearly, November is looking to be a fantastic month in San Diego, with events for everyone.
You could be in the city for Thanksgiving or simply passing through as a tourist, no matter, you won’t run out of things to do in San Diego in November.
San Diego in November FAQs
November is mild and mostly dry. Highs ease from around 72°F early in the month to 67°F by the end, with lows dropping from 59°F to 52°F. It’s warm enough for shirtsleeves in the middle of the day and cool enough for a jacket after dark.
It’s one of the best-value months of the year. Hotel rates are at their lowest until spring, the summer crowds are long gone, and the events calendar is full: Día de los Muertos, Fleet Week, the San Diego Food + Wine Festival, Thanksgiving, and the start of the holiday season.
The water cools from about 65°F to 62°F over the month, which is wetsuit territory for most people. Surfers are in the water all month. Swimmers tend to swap the ocean for a heated hotel pool.
A little. November is the start of the wetter season, and the chance of a wet day rises from about 7% to 12% across the month. Rain usually comes in short spells rather than all day, and plenty of visits see none at all.
This year’s super El Niño is expected to bring heavier than usual rainfall, though.
Not really, with one exception. Thanksgiving week fills up, and hotel rates climb with it. The rest of the month is one of the quietest stretches of the year, which is exactly why it’s worth booking.
Early. The clocks go back on November 1, so the sun sets at about 4:57 pm at the start of the month and 4:42 pm by the end. Plan outdoor activities for the middle of the day, and save the evenings for dinner, shows and holiday lights.
Last Updated on September 28, 2026 by Maria Haase
