This Year's Coronado Holiday Season Runs Down Orange Avenue to the Del

Coronado's November and December dates land almost entirely along one route. It runs down Orange Avenue to the beach in front of the Hotel del Coronado. The film festival, the ice rink, the fireworks and the parade all sit on it. Two businesses opened along it this fall. The bayside end of the island, around the Ferry Landing, is in a holding pattern instead. The Port approved a lease option in June, and construction on a new restaurant shell began last December, but neither will change your December.

That gives you a useful way to plan the weeks between now and Jan. 3. Most of the evenings worth reserving are a short walk or ride from each other, and the bay end is the part to come back to next year.

The Calendar, in Order

That's a little over two months, and nearly every date sits within walking distance of the Del or Orange Avenue. The film festival starts first.

November Opens With the Film Festival

The Coronado Island Film Festival is in its 11th year. It runs Nov. 4–8 with more than 140 films, according to the Coronado Times lineup announcement. It begins on Wednesday evening, Nov. 4, with the Leonard Maltin Industry Tribute Gala at the Hotel del Coronado: a champagne reception, a red carpet, dinner, the awards and an after-party.

Screenings start Thursday, Nov. 5, with I Play Rocky, Peter Farrelly's film about Sylvester Stallone's push to star in the movie he wrote. The festival closes Sunday, Nov. 8, with Paper Tiger. James Gray directed it, and it stars Miles Teller, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson. The festival's badge page puts the opening-night film at the Village Theatre, with an after-party at The Tavern. Badges come in Marquee and Emerald tiers, and even badgeholders need reservations for screenings.

The program goes well beyond awards contenders:

• Centerpiece screenings of Danny Boyle's Ink and Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut
• A world premiere of Williston, directed by Adam Seidel and Jonathan Lipniki
• HAROLD!, a tribute to silent-film star Harold Lloyd with his granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd, Leonard Maltin and a fully restored Lloyd film
• The Conservation & Science of Possibilities program, presented with the Salk Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Wild Hope series, including The Right Whale: Tales of Resilience and Hope
• The Culinary Cinema Series, built around Top of the World, a film about Windows on the World, the restaurant atop the World Trade Center
• ShortsFest, with 15 curated short-film tracks
• Jury Awards on Saturday, Nov. 7, with $20,000 in cash prizes for filmmakers and screenwriters

Merridee Book, the festival's CEO and artistic director, described the point of it in the Coronado Times:

"The way we watch movies may evolve, but the feeling of discovering them together in a theater never will."

Tickets and the full schedule are at festival.coronadofilmfest.com.

Twelve Days Later, the Del Takes Over

Twelve days after the festival closes, the Hotel del Coronado opens its holiday season on Friday, Nov. 20. It runs through Jan. 3, 2027, under the theme "A Holiday Through Time." Themed Christmas trees trace the hotel's history from its 1888 opening to today. Most of the season runs the full Nov. 20 to Jan. 3 span:

• Skating by the Sea, the beachfront ice rink facing the Pacific
• Frostbite Lounge, private rink-side lounges with a fire pit and food and drink service
• Beachside Igloos, with plush seating and a private bonfire for s'mores
• Nobu on the Knoll, which the Del calls a first-of-its-kind Nobu and Stranahan's whiskey experience on the oceanfront lawn
• Lightshow Spectacular, with the Del's historic pine trees lit to festive music and a finale of snow flurries

The Del's own listing calls this year's light show "new." The Holiday Lodge in the historic Laundry building runs on select dates in November and December, with food, drinks, holiday shopping and kids' crafts. The Crown Room hosts the sit-down dates: a Thanksgiving buffet on Nov. 26, Victorian Tea Dec. 18–22, a Christmas Eve buffet on Dec. 24 and Christmas Day brunch on Dec. 25. Each one is booked through the Del's holidays page.

The First Week of December Brings Two Big Nights

The season's busiest stretch comes in the first week of December. On Wednesday, Dec. 2, the Del holds its Holiday Festival. The program includes performances by Coronado schools, skating, a skydiving Santa and the light show, with fireworks at 6:45 p.m. The hotel says the schedule depends on weather and may change.

Two nights later, on Friday, Dec. 4, the Coronado Chamber of Commerce holds the Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting. The parade runs through the downtown business district, and the tree lighting takes place at Rotary Park, 1002 Orange Ave. The Chamber organizes it with the city and Discover Coronado, and the San Diego Tourism Authority's listing puts attendance at around 17,000. Last year's parade was the 50th, which the Coronado Times marked as a golden milestone. The Chamber hasn't yet posted this year's start time, route or theme. Last year's details may not carry over, so check its page before you settle on where to stand.

Two New Stops on Orange Avenue

The parade route and the walk to the Del both run along Orange Avenue, and that corridor gained two businesses this fall.

By the Sea opened in August on the second floor of 1300 Orange Ave. The Union-Tribune reported that it took over the long-closed Boardwalk Beach Club space above the Tavern. The Coronado Times described it as an upscale room serving Greek- and Italian-inspired seafood and hand-crafted cocktails, opened after a multi-year renovation. The details include 100-plus-year-old wood beams, a stained willow ceiling and a preserved wooden tree. Owners Lara and Doug Hamm, who live in Coronado, told the paper they "wanted to create a space that truly felt like getting away on vacation." For a reservation on a festival night or before the parade, it sits right on the route.

Tate's on Orange is a classic-style barbershop at 841 Orange Ave., opened by the owners of Night & Day Café in the space that used to be Orange Avenue Beauty. The Coronado Times reported a grand opening set for Oct. 18, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The same owners still plan to expand Night & Day, and they told the paper they would return to that project after opening Tate's.

The Ferry Landing Comes Back in 2027

The bay end of the island is in a different phase. On June 25, 2026, the Board of Port Commissioners approved an option to lease with Port Coronado Associates for the Coronado Ferry Landing, according to the Port of San Diego. The center opened in 1987 under a 40-year lease that was set to expire June 30, 2026. If Port Coronado Associates meets the conditions, it gets a 35-year lease and a two-phase, two-year renovation. The Port estimates the project at $21.9 million, with work expected to begin in 2027. The plan covers common areas, plazas and landscaping, building systems and parking, and the ferry pier. The conditions have to be met before June 30, 2027. One of them extends current subtenant leases through that date in case the option ends early.

The vacant parcel next to Il Fornaio is being built out separately. The Union-Tribune reported that Maiden Coronado, run by Social Syndicate, is planned as a roughly 12,000-square-foot indoor and outdoor restaurant with a wraparound patio. Construction began in December 2025, with the landlord building the shell. That January report projected an opening in early 2027. The paper also noted that Maiden's sublease is separate from the lease for the Ferry Landing center as a whole. That early-2027 opening was a projection, not a set date.

The Del's pine trees stay lit through Jan. 3.

If this season has you looking at which Coronado blocks are within walking distance of the parade route and the Del, Yoanny Jose can share what that proximity looks like from one street to the next, privately and on your schedule. Request a Private Consultation.