Where is Vista, California and What is that Area Like?

I get that question quite a bit so I thought I would take a moment to tell you about this incredibly lovely area located just minutes from the gorgeous beaches at Carlsbad and Oceanside, CA. It’s a surfers Paradise with amazing natural wonders everywhere. All of San Diego County is a major tourist destination. We have some of the most beautiful landscapes and natural wonders in the world. This area in Northern San Diego County is especially gorgeous.

"The mostly industrial town of Vista, California is nestled in the rolling hills between Carlsbad and San Marcos, California in Northern San Diego County. With a balmy Mediterranean climate, Vista’s neighbors include the tourist destination of Oceanside, California as well as the affluent neighborhood of Carlsbad, California. Just 7 miles from the beach in Oceanside, the ocean climate model helps to keep Vista cooler than some other Southern California towns." (This is the City's own description).

People coming here from other parts of the U.S. or the world are frequently surprised at the diverse options for climate and lifestyle in the area. Within a few minutes drive from downtown San Diego you can experience a wide range of climates. Near the coast we have a mostly Mediterranean type of climate with an early morning marine layer that typically burns off by mid-morning. Travel eastward and you begin to enter desert communities that are warmer with far less rain due to mountains that prevent the marine layer from coming further inland.

What kinds of recreational fun is available in Vista and San Diego County?

There is much culture and history all over San Diego County but also many options for outdoor activities. The coastline offers the best views with world-class surfing, gorgeous beaches, astounding wildlife (whales migrate past San Diego in the Spring and Fall traveling between Baja and Alaska for feeding and mating). Boating, beach camping, coastal and inland hiking, off-road experiences of every kind, picnic and other quality family time opportunities are everywhere.

I swear to you that as long as you live in San Diego County, that you will discover new and amazing sites and places around every corner. I've lived here for well over a decade and I still continue to find amazing places and views that I have never seen before. Sometimes when I find myself with a few moments in a new neighborhood I walk around with my camera. We have architectural structures from many of the famous architects. As San Diegans we embrace our history and thankfully so did the early people who settled and built the city. You can find examples of San Diego pride everywhere.

The County of San Diego is a convenient drive to other world-class tourist destinations such as; Mojave Desert, Death Valley, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Sedona, The Grand Canyon, Big Bear Lake (skiing, boating, camping), the infamous Salton Sea, Borrego-Anza Desert State Park (off-roading with dune buggies, camping, hiking, photographic opportunities abound), Borrego Springs, The San Diego Zoo, Lego Land, SeaWorld, Safari Park, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Disneyland, Santa Barbara, Malibu, Ventura, and the list is really endless. We're also only an 8-hour drive from San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Napa wine country and the state capital, Sacramento. You have many options for fabulous road trips.

Vista, California is also home of the fabulous Moonlight Amphitheatre and Moonlight Stage Productions. You can check out their latest seasons productions on their website. Nothing beats a live show under the stars in the fresh air of Northern San Diego County;

According to the folks at Alta Vista Botanical Gardens, "Alta Vista Gardens has developed a new standard for botanical gardens. While holding true to traditional scientific approach to botanical gardens, and providing an interactive, living classroom for North San Diego County students, the gardens take a new approach to creating a completely new interpretation of what a botanical garden can become."

Architecturally speaking, San Diego abounds with amazing examples from all eras of American history. Adobe bricks (mud bricks) are made of earth with a fairly high clay content and straw. They are a perfect building material in a Mediterannean climate such as San Diego and Vista. Adobe bricks are only sun-dried, not kiln-fired. When used for construction they are laid up into a wall using an earth mortar. Pretty much every coastal city in California has some example of adobe architecture that is preserved like the Rancho Guajome Adobe here in Vista.

There is no shortage of free parks and picnic areas all over San Diego County, as you might expect. But some of these are really quite exceptional and that is the case with Brengle Terrace Park in Vista, California. In addition to the location of the Moonlight Amphitheatre it also offers the picnic grounds, tennis courts, ball, soccer and basketball fields one might expect in such a family friendly area.

Brengle Terrace Park, (like many parks in San Diego County), has some great examples of no-to-low water/maintenance gardening. As homeowners we love to tour these because it gives us great ideas for our own yards. The coastal areas of San Diego do get more water than the inland areas but like everywhere else, weather patterns have been shifting recently so that normal amount of rainfall we receive here has been changing.

Still, as Californians we try to conserve water, air, the environment and everything else. We spend so much time in the outdoors that you cannot help but be concerned and keep a conservationists attitude. Along with the opportunities that the California lifestyle brings comes the responsibility of preserving it all for our children and future generations. Most Californians feel privileged to get to live here.

I could write books about the things to do up in Los Angeles (only 1.25 hour drive from Vista, CA), and many people have. I try to make it to something cultural in Los Angeles at least once a month. While the traffic is every bit as horrible as everyone expects, when you live here you become familiar with back ways to get places including the surface streets. You also become familiar with rush hour traffic patterns so that you get better at planning your routes and times of travel. The shopping and site seeing is of course, world class, and you never know when you might bump into one of those "stars that fell from the sky".

In addition to the beaches, mountains and deserts for outdoor activities, we have many museums, parks and other cultural past times. The parks are mostly free of charge and the museums have monthly free days or big discounts for residents. Combined with the possible outdoor activities, you really do not have to spend money to find entertainment anywhere in San Diego County.

Being so close to Santa Ana/Anaheim, California (Vista is about an hours drive from Disneyland), you get to visit the park regularly. As residents of Southern California there are also yearly discounted park passes you can purchase so that you can see the park in all of the different seasons and holiday celebrations. I haven't been to the park in about 5 years (though I do travel to Anaheim for volunteer work pretty regularly) so I am due to go up soon. I think I may visit the park around Christmas time this year to photograph the decorations, since I have never been at that time of the year to the Magic Kingdom.

Petco Park is home for the San Diego Padres, and whether or not you are a sports fan, you can't live here without being appraised of the teams performance on a pretty much daily basis. This area of downtown San Diego is known as the "East Village" but having lived in the much larger city of San Francisco, this makes me laugh. Downtown San Diego is nowhere near large enough to have villages although we do have neighborhoods. You will always find many tourists down in this area since it has the big hotels and a neighborhood known as "The Gaslamp District". As an older person, I don't spend much time in the Gaslamp anymore, other than when friends visit from out of town, but it is very popular for tourists and young people. We do have many military bases in this area that brings a huge influx of new young people every year. Add to that our world class universities (UCSD is always in the top 20), and it is no wonder everyone wants to live here.

The waterfront area of downtown San Diego houses an amazing Maritime Museum with ships from every era. The Pacific Ocean was the only way to travel to San Diego before the first train tracks were laid in the late 19th century. San Diego was a seaport long before it was a city. A quick study of the history of the area and you quickly learn that it was the first World War and the introduction of the airplane for military purposes that is largely responsible for building San Diego into a major metropolitan area. Still, with a city this large I am astounded how careful development has proceeded. Somehow the city has managed to preserve some of the most important historical elements for modern visitors to discover.

There's no end to the culinary options in San Diego or even in the city of Vista, CA as well. We have many award-winning micro-breweries and wineries. You won't have a problem finding good food and good drink anywhere in San Diego County.

I have a hobby as a part-time actor and have the opportunity to work on television and film projects both at a student level (we have many great film Schools such as the Dodge Film School which is a part of Chapman University in Orange, CA), or at a professional level.

I worked on this film as a background actor which was set in ancient Egypt. We filmed this in the Mojave Desert, just north of San Diego County and the City of Vista. You can see lots of dune buggy tracks in the background which they had to remove in post production. This area is a tourist Mecca and includes the famous Joshua Tree National Park. It is easy to get work as a background actor in California although it doesn't pay really well for film. We do have our very own movie studio here in San Diego and for a time I worked on several union television series, (Wicked Games and Veronica Mars), that were filmed here in San Diego. That gig paid amazingly well because filming often went into "golden time" which is 3 times your normal hourly rate. Because we worked with some very famous and difficult actors there was usually unlimited overtime for anybody that wanted to work.

You can spend a lifetime auditioning for commercials, game shows, movies, student films, private films, etc. and many people do. Have lunch anywhere in Hollywood and you'll see at least a couple of people working as waiters who have been auditioning in Hollywood for decades. The search for fame and stardom is addictive, like gambling. You have to be able to keep it all in perspective. Far greater than 99% of the people who come to Hollywood to pursue a career in film never make it any further than background acting. But they stay, just like the people who live in the vicinity of gambling casinos continue to invest there.

What is the cost of living like in Vista, California?

There is no doubt that like every other major metropolis in the world, that San Diego is one of the more expensive places to live. But it is far from the most expensive place to live. And everything is relative when it comes to the cost of living and the average wage. In my limited experience though, I find the Vista, San Marcos, Carlsbad area to be more affordable than neighborhoods closer to downtown San Diego.

According to the datausa.io website, $59,833 is the median household income in Vista, CA. Thankfully many of us earn quite a bit more than the median. There are amazing job opportunities in this area.

The median age of residents is 32.8 years old, the poverty rate is only 15.4% and the median property value is $423,500 which is significantly lower than the city of San Diego which has a median property value of $600,300. You may think that all sounds abhorrent but with the low mortgage rates it really brings your monthly payment inline with your median take home pay. According to the City of San Diego, if your household earnings are $80k/year then you can afford a home here.

Rents in the area fluctuate greatly which you might not expect. Some neighborhoods are more affordable than others. If you go further from the metropolitan areas then rents do go down but beware that commuting in San Diego, Los Angeles or Riverside counties is extremely challenging. We are continually rated among the top 10 worst traffic cities in the U.S. I always advise anyone looking for housing in San Diego county, to use tools and websites such as Zillow.com that will allow you to set-up alerts the second a new listing is posted for either a rental or property for sale. A general rule of thumb when searching for rental property in San Diego County is that if it has been listed for more than a few hours then there are already applications pending. The realtors won't tell you this on the phone since they get paid every time they show a property. They'll wait until you get there, look at the property and tell them you like it. Then they'll tell you that you can put in an application but there are already so many applications ahead of you. You have to be one of the very first people, (if not the very first), to see the property. Have the money in hand along with a background check and credit information.

I will periodically update this article with information when I have time. If you want more information about Vista and the Carlsbad/Oceanside area there are tons of websites and web pages on social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc) where you can see images and get all of your additional questions answered. You are also welcome to e-mail me here with any specific questions about what it is like to live and work in Vista, California and San Diego County.