Carmel Valley

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Carmel Valley San Diego

If you're working in high tech or biotech, you may be working in Sorrento Valley, and if you are, Carmel Valley is a great choice for where to live. This video will give you an overview of the area.

A LOCAL'S TAKE ON CARMEL VALLEY

I used to think that Carmel Valley was the most boring place in San Diego. In my mind it was the definition of suberbia...... and I wasn't completely wrong. Carmel Valley is most definitely suberbia, but it's got some really cool things going on too.

I live in Carmel Valley now and love that it's very central - I'm about equidistant between Oceanside and downtown. I also love how clean it is, the streets are wide and there is plenty of parking. This is a drastic contrast to most of the more central San Diego neighborhoods.

One of the biggest things that draws people to CV are the schools which are very highly ranked. It's also very convenient to Sorrento Valley which is the center for high tech and biotech in San Diego. It's also very convenient to many of the top hospitals in SD.

There are 3 dog parks in Carmel Valley and about a million people parks. Torrey Pines beach is only 10-15 minutes away and Del Mar is just a bit further than that.

Traffic is something to think about when considering Carmel Valley. It's situated right at the "merge" which is where the 5 and the 805 freeways merge together going north, or separate going south. This is a bottleneck for traffic in San Diego and traffic south and north both get really backed up after work. One nice thing about living in Carmel Valley is you'll usually be able to take the 56 bypass which will help you bypass some of the traffic, but the 56 does also get backed up as well.

Now, all that being said, Carmel Valley is a wonderful place, especially if you have a family. If you enjoy night life or hustle and bustle, this is not the place for you. Carmel Valley is suberbia after all. The other drawback of Carmel Valley is that there are no big box stores in the area. All of them are at least a 20 minute drive away. I'm also just going to throw out there from my own perspective, that there is a need for more good burger joints in the area....and a frozen yogurt shop.

Del Mar Highlands Towncenter

This is the primary shopping center in Carmel Valley and there is much debate if it's Carmel Valley or Del Mar.......Google Maps has it as Carmel Valley and the zip code is 92130, so I consider it Carmel Valley - Del Mar is the west side of the 5. My favorite part of this shopping center is Skydeck which is a food hall located above Jimbos grocery store. There's a great bar in the middle called Understory where you can order food from any of the restaurants around it. There's also a movie theater and a kids play area as well as lots of restaurants and other shops.

There are no less than 5 grocery stores in Carmel Valley and in the Del Mar Highlands Towncenter we have Ralphs.
One Paseo

One Paseo is the newest shopping center in Carmel Valley. It's got great restaurants and high end boutiques. There is lots of outdoor space with seating and space for kids to roam. There are also office buildings and apartments connected to the shopping center. One Paseo often has events that are family friendly. It also has one of my favorite shops in San Diego - Pigment - which is a gift and plant store filled with fun colors.

There are no grocery stores in One Paseo, but there is a very cool store called The Butchery which is, as the name states, a butcher, but also a gourmet market with all kinds of fun stuff perfect for entertaining or feeding your family.
Pacific Highlands Ranch

Pacific Highlands Ranch (or PHR) is a large planned community on the eastern edge of Carmel Valley. It has it's own shopping center, The Village at Pacific Highlands Ranch, which most importantly has Trader Joes. PHR also has one of the dog parks, a great human park, hiking trails and some good restaurants. It's as close as one can get to Pleasantville in San Diego as possible.

One of my favorite things about PHR is that you can often see hot air balloons floating by in the evenings. They're even low enough sometimes that you can hear them stoke the fire and see the flames. It's pretty cool.