San Diego Sparkle: The Del's Holiday Doings

The beach-close rink will return, along with other twinkly to-dos.

WINTER WHIMSY: While plenty of people have tied on a pair of blade-laden skates and zoomed down a frozen river, and plenty of revelers have taken a hard-surfaced lake in order to perform a few twirls and leaps, no one has ice-skated across an entire ocean (that is, outside of a sci-fi story, perhaps). That's because the ocean, for the most part, stays pretty darn flow-tastic, and its northerly ice floes don't arrive with a rink-ready set-up.

STILL, one could don their ice skates and try a few axels next to an ocean, if they know where to look and when. And if such an ice-skating Pacific lover is looking in the direction of the Hotel del Coronado right around the holidays, they're going to find an expanse of cold, ready-to-skate-upon water just steps from the sand and waves. That's because the historic hotel, which has its way-back roots in the San Diego of the 1800s, likes the nostalgic charms, and ice skating definitely qualifies on that front. Which means that each yuletide season The Del erects a...

ICE RINK... between the turreted structure and the vast water it has sat next to for well over a century. You can come take a twirl from Nov. 24, 2016 through Jan. 2, 2017, or you can go even deeper into the delight by booking a Skating by the Sea package, which includes one night in a Hotel del Coronado room, a quartet of passes to the rink, and fifty bucks towards eats and drinks (hot cocoa, perhaps, if you want to stay in the spirit of the season). You may not be able to skate across the ocean, but you skate upon ice right next to it, which is also swell, and even a touch sci-fi.

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