Your Guide To A Fall Day In Julian

Only about an hour drive from San Diego, the beautiful town of Julian is tucked away in the Cuyamaca Mountains.

Known for their beautiful trails, ‘San Diego’ snowy days, agriculture and apple-flavored everything, Julian is the perfect day trip to embark on this fall!

Feel like you don’t know enough about this town to spontaneously hop to it? Don’t worry, Type As 😉 , we’ve put together a quick guide to get you on this sweet day-cation in no-time!

Your Guide To A Day In Julian

If you haven’t heard of the town Julian and you are local, you have most likely had one of their famous apples and apple pies. The town is lined with orchards and pie shops, attracting tons of tourists.

Julian Apple Days Festival

In fact, apples are such a big thing up here, they even have their own weekend! The annual Julian Apple Days Festival has grown over the years, and is now the talk of the town!

The festival is filled with apples (duh), foods, games, activities, and even a Mr. & Mrs. Apple King & Queen, who get crowned at the festival!

The weekend of Saturday, September 23rd to Sunday, September 24th is when you can catch all the fun.

Apple Picking

When the infamous Apple Days Festival isn’t happening, apple-picking is still one of the staple things to do in Julian. There are seven different orchards that offer “U-pick apples,” some of which are organic!

The main apple picking season is late July through early October, but some orchards close early when their crops are all out.

Peacefield Orchard, which is an all-organic farm, brings their guests on farm tours, as well as educates them about the right type of apples to pick and which are the sweetest.

They are convinced the sweetest apples are the ones that you will find worms in (eeeeek)! They even have their guests do a taste test and determine it for themselves!

This orchard is one of the first to close during the apple season, which is common with organic farms. Since they are not using any bug repellent, a large amount of their apples get affected by the bugs, which means there are less apples to be picked.

Peacefield only takes reservations, so plan accordingly if you would like to visit!

The main type of apples Peacefield grows is Granny Smith apples (ideal for apple pie!)

One of the largest orchards in Julian is Volcan Valley Apple Farm. They are not an organic farm, but they allow walk-ins. They cater to a lot more people as they have over 50 rows of trees to find apples in!

Pro Tip: Right across from this orchard is a winery, Volcan Mountain Winery. Start your day at the winery, and take a glass of wine to-go. You can stroll through the apple orchard while sipping on your wine.

The winery has two different types of white apple wine, so you get the full apple experience. They also have local apple ciders and juices that you can sip while picking apples too.

Jonathan Apples are the majority of the trees, which are classic red apples!

Cider And Cooking Tips

Along with apple picking, some other local apple activities include visiting Julian Hard Cider, famous for their hard apple cider.

We’ve been told that many of the local cider companies will go to the nearby orchards and pick up all the apples from the ground. They test them to see if they are still juicy, and use them for their cider. Julian as a town is very eco-friendly, and they do not like to see apples go to waste!

Since tourism is big here, a lot of people will come, pick a couple of apples, and throw them on the grounds of the orchards. Luckily for the cider companies, they get these for their product, and no apples get left behind!

If you find yourself wondering what to do with all of your apples, stop by the Chamber of Commerce, or most of the big shops in town to get an apple cookbook with favorites from the apple-loving locals.

Wine Tasting

The main street in Julian is very small, but filled with local shops. In fact, it reminds me of Seaport Village (for all you locals).

There are old diners, specialty food shops, candied apples sold on the street, gold mining tours, and historic buildings to take photos with!

One of my favorite stops was another chance to have wine, because wine not? Orfila Winery (located in Escondido), has a wine tasting room in Julian. This is a perfect place that not too many people go to, if you want to relax and have a glass of wine in-between activities.

They also have meats and cheeses available to snack on.

Produce Perusing

Wynola Flats Produce, a small shop on the side of the road just before you hit the main street in Julian, has to be added to your list!

Here, you can find all local products, fruits, veggies, pumpkins, jams, jellies, honey, tomatoes sauce, apple butter, candies, chocolates, and so much more.

They also make fresh squeezed apple juice, which is beyond delicious.

A really neat thing about this place is their cooler. In the back of the shop, they have section for chilled items like fresh salad mix. This fridge is actually an old-working railroad cooler train car.

A true authentic antique, this shop is a must see gem, and you will most likely need lots of road trip snacks for the drive back!

Julian Pie Company

And here we have it. Probably the number one reason most people make the trip to Julian (and rightfully so): The Julian Pie Company!

From the second you park your car, the smell of sweet, fresh apple pie fills the air. They have seasonal favorite pies (like pumpkin-apple pie currently), in addition to their classics.

Dutch apple has always been a favorite with the crumb topping.

They also have a natural apple pie with no sweetener added. This one allows the sweetness of the apples to stand out.

They sell whole pies for take out or in-shop eating, in addition to slices of pie which can be enjoyed there or taken to go as well!

Bonus: Next to the pie shop is a famous bread and sandwich shop called Dudley’s. Pop on over while you are here for countless unique flavors of homemade breads like Jalapeno Cheddar, Irish Potato and so much more (yes, we’re drooling)!