Step into Oz this season at the Hotel Del Coronado
Dante Ulanday - News Moderator 
The famous San Diego hotel that was part of the inspiration for one of the most recognizable American cultural touchstones is hosting its own series of Oz-inspired holiday magic this year.
The “Tinsel Trail to Oz” at the Hotel Del Coronado is a free, self-guided tour down a Yellow Brick Road featuring themed Christmas trees standing throughout the hotel grounds, honoring the hotel’s connection to the beloved children’s books and films.
The Hotel Del Coronado occupies many places in local history, but one of its lesser-known roles is the part it played in L. Frank Baum’s best-known work, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” and at least two of its sequels.
Baum, a New York state native who later lived in South Dakota, would spend winters at the Hotel Del with his wife Maud and his mother-in-law, Matilda Joslyn Gage, a suffragist who was famous in her own right for her feminism and who served as the model for one of Baum’s witches — Glinda the Good.
Eventually, the serene shores would become his backdrop to the Oz universe. It was at that hotel that Baum would complete the second and third books of the Oz series, “Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz” and “The Road to Oz.”
Baum is also credited with designing the original chandeliers in the hotel’s Coronet Room.
During the Tinsel Trail, guests can read more about Baum’s connection to the hotel and how it shaped the story of Oz. Key stops on the journey include “The Road to Oz” Tree, standing two stories tall and adorned with 10,000 lights and 2,000 ornaments, and “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” Tree at the hotel’s iconic beachfront ice-skating rink.
Along with the tour of trees, a Yellow Brick Road will be open in the Garden Courtyard, where guests can stroll, sip with Dorothy, and see four twelve-foot Christmas trees, presumably bedecked in the best styles Oz has to offer.
The event is open to the public daily, except for the trees in the Crown & Coronet Rooms and certain days in December when the Gardens will be closed. A full schedule for availability is on the Hotel Del’s website.
The event will run from Nov. 21 to Jan. 1, 2026.
