San Diego knows how to celebrate New Year’s in style, no question. Would you think any different in such a cosmopolitan and fun-loving city?

Party Time

We’re talking festive nighttime cruises out on San Diego Bay, special champagne dinners at many of San Diego’s world-class restaurants, and beery salutes at its spectacular craft breweries.

There are parties of all description going down all across the city, of course, from bars and nightclubs to casinos and performance venues (including the National Comedy Theatre’s much-loved New Year’s Eve Spectacular). The Sofia Hotel, we must point out, is auspiciously situated for sampling the festivities, given our unbeatable Downtown location.

Family Fun

If you’re looking for some family-friendly activities to mark the occasion, you’ve got endless options. During the day on New Year’s Eve, for example, consider swinging by the fantastic museums of Balboa Park—from the San Diego Museum of Man to the San Diego Air & Space Museum—to cram a few more bits of learning into 2016, and meantime enjoy one of the loveliest urban greenspaces in America.

Or check out, on New Year’s Eve, the last day of the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s “Seas ‘n’ Greetings,” which includes the quite delightful tradition of a Scuba Santa.

The San Diego Zoo, meanwhile, is open every day of the year, so you can ring in the New Year with its mindboggling menagerie of animals from all around the world. Drop by New Year’s Eve to see how the cheetahs and giant pandas are bidding adieu to 2016—or come the next day for insights into how harpy eagles and Tasmanian devils welcome in 2017. (The Zoo’s holiday Jungle Bells installation, by the way, runs through January 2.)

Keep the Holiday Festivities Alive

The fun, of course, doesn’t end once the clock strikes midnight at the front end of the New Year. There are plenty more holiday happenings going down in the coming weeks, including the “Salute to Vienna” New Year’s Concert over at the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Music Center on January 2 and the launch on January 5 of the 11-day Memorial Park Carnival.

New Year’s at the Sofia

Here at the Sofia Hotel, we’d love to host you for New Year’s Eve celebrations this year. Grab a delectable dinner at our restaurant, Currant American Brasserie, then go soak up the revelry in the Gaslamp Quarter: You’ll have a gorgeous guestroom and some merry staff to welcome you back for the first round of shuteye in 2017! And if you’re traveling a bit farther afield for the night’s fetes, check out MTS’s extended New Year’s Eve schedule for public transportation.

Happy New Year from everyone at the Sofia Hotel! We can’t wait to see you here at one of Downtown San Diego’s most venerable hotels in 2017…