Moving from San Diego to San Antonio

San Antonio is the jewel of Texas, featuring a bustling and liberal population, intense cultural heritage, and a rich city life filled with job opportunities and entertainment venues. From SeaWorld to Six Flags, San Antonio has a plethora of different kid-friendly activities and locations. Adults will love San Antonio for its vibrant sports scene, its spicy culinary tradition, and its low cost of living compared to other metropolitan hubs.

Compared to San Diego, San Antonio moves at a slower pace. Likewise, while the US military presence in San Diego is centered around the Navy, San Antonio is an Air Force hub with a handful of Army bases around the city limits.

The economies of the two cities are also very different. Whereas San Diego has a substantial research and high technology sector catering to the defense industry, San Antonio is built around servicing tourists, active duty military customers, and petrochemicals.

Benefits of moving from San Diego to San Antonio

San Antonio is a great city, and it offers several distinct benefits in comparison to San Diego. However, you’ll need to investigate carefully to make sure that these differences are applicable to the life you want, as San Diego is also a great place to live.

Lifestyle

San Antonio’s lifestyle is Texan, but with a heavily Mexican twist. If you love the air conditioning and folksy wholesomeness of Texas, San Antonio will be a great place for you. On the other hand, if you prefer a less car-centric city than elsewhere in Texas, San Antonio might also be up your alley.

Compared to San Diego, life moves at a slightly slower pace in San Antonio. Exhausting Californian trends like a penchant for intense exercise or trendy yoga classes are not as present in San Antonio. If you like to lift weights or play football, you’ll find that San Antonio has more venues for your interests.

Similarly, San Antonio has no semblance of other fixtures of California life like going to the beach or ubiquitous smoking of marijuana. Instead, there are a plethora of local bars and churches which account for substantial portions of social life.

Overall, San Antonio is a more musically-inclined city than San Diego. You’ll find no shortage of live music, especially by folk music groups, mariachi groups, and traditional American rock and roll bands.

There are also a plethora of concerts each year in San Antonio, and the city is a popular destination for touring artists of all stripes. If you prefer electronic music or club music, San Antonio doesn’t have as much to offer in comparison to San Diego, but you’ll still be able to get your fix.

Especially for Catholics, there are many more churches and religious groups catering to your interests in San Antonio than in San Diego, and people take religion more seriously in general. If you’re another denomination of Christian, you’ll also be able to find your choice of several churches, some of which might not be represented in San Diego. On the other hand, if you’re Muslim or Buddhist, you may have to settle for whatever you can find in San Antonio.

Cost of Living

San Antonio is notable because its cost of living is significantly lower than San Diego's. The lower cost of living in San Antonio is the most evident in housing prices. You may pay 70% less rent or mortgage in San Antonio than you would in San Diego, which is great for price-sensitive consumers. San Antonio is less dense than San Diego, so homes are larger.

You should be aware that the distance between your house and your workplace will likely be larger in San Antonio than it was in San Diego, however. Food and entertainment are also generally much less expensive in San Antonio.

Climate

San Antonio’s climate is more humid than San Diego’s, and it doesn’t have any ocean winds to keep things breezy. As a result, summers feel hotter, and there’s more temperature variation from season to season. If you’re a person who loves the heat, San Antonio is the better choice between the two cities.

Food

For foodies, San Antonio has a lot to offer that San Diego doesn’t. San Antonio is one of the only cities in the US which has the distinction of being a Creative City of Gastronomy in the eyes of the United Nations cultural body UNESCO. Many of San Antonio’s best restaurants are centered around the riverway in the downtown of the city, with its shady paths lined with outdoor tables next to the water.

In terms of cuisines, San Antonio has many American, French, German, and Mexican restaurants. You can also find pockets of Central American and Caribbean cuisine that will delight your taste buds. San Antonio’s Mexican food is even better than San Diego’s. In San Antonio, you’ll also be in the Tex-Mex capital of the world.

However, in San Antonio, you’ll have access to fewer Korean restaurants, sushi bars, and poke restaurants than you would in San Diego.

Critically, food portions tend to be larger in San Antonio than in San Diego. You’ll also find that there are more BBQ and soul food restaurants, but fewer vegan or vegetarian restaurants than in San Diego.

Don’t let that mislead you into thinking San Antonio isn’t into organic food, however. San Antonio’s food scene is intensely local, and it most likely has more places serving organic food and locally-grown food than in San Diego.

Jobs

San Antonio’s job offerings are very different from San Diego. Overall, if you have an advanced degree in engineering, it may be easier for you to find jobs in San Antonio than in San Diego. If you work in the finance or automotive sectors, you’ll also find more jobs in San Antonio.

If you work in the defense industry, you will be able to easily transition from San Diego to a similar job in San Antonio. Given that San Antonio is a major military area, there are plenty of jobs with defense contractors, military servicing agencies, healthcare, and other adjacent industries.

For people seeking to enter into the petrochemical industry, San Antonio has a huge number of opportunities. Renewable energy companies are also starting to sprout up in the area as a result of the low rent.

There are also many jobs in the tourism industry in San Antonio, much like in San Diego.   

Sports

San Antonio’s sports scene is significantly better than San Diego’s if you are a fan of college-level sports. San Antonio has the Spurs in the NBA, the Roadrunners in Division 1 football, and the Missions in Pacific Coast League baseball.

Local universities like UT San Antonio have several other Division 1 teams. If you’re more interested in lower-tier play, Trinity University has a bevy of Division 3 teams.

Cost of Moving from San Diego to San Antonio

The average cost of a move from San Diego to San Antonio is $3,314.46. Most of the cost results from the long distance that movers need to drive to get from the southern tip of California to the center of Texas. The cost of your move may vary for a handful of reasons, so if you want to get a closer idea of your costs, fill out the Instaquote above.

How to Move from San Diego to San Antonio

Moving from San Diego to San Antonio isn’t difficult, but you’ll have a hard time if you hire local movers instead of movers who are experts at interstate moves.

Our moving experts can handle every phase of the moving process, starting with making estimates about costs and finishing with positioning your furniture in your new home. We’re also competent at special shipping and handling requests for oversize or sensitive items.

To get started with your move, reach out to us after filling in the quote above.