Old Poway Park & Railroad — Attraction in Poway

We love Old Poway Park. We went this most recent time for the Christmas in the Park Festival.

For the festival: It was all decorated for the holiday season and was beautiful. They had lots of food vendors. We had the meat pies, which look small but filled us up. We had mini donuts, really sweet , couldn't eat more than one, but Ube flavor was my favorite, yum! They also had craft fairs, one run by adults and businesses, another run by kids selling their crafts, which ranged from cookies, to melted wax crayon names to wood burned boxes. It was really fun to see these young entrepreneurs. I wish I had brought more cash!

At the park in general: The classic steam train still runs and is really fun for younger kids. For adults it's just a nice leisure ride around the park. Festival days there are usually long lines for buying train tickets, but when it's not a festival, no lines.

There is a heritage museum and a train museum that are pretty cool. The train one has a bunch of model trains in it, really impressive!

There's a big field for playing, with lots of trees, so be mindful of what toys you bring. But also, it means there's lots of shade and some park benches. Next to the open grassy area is a baseball field too. Near the museums and train, there's a beautiful gazebo area and fountain with seating.

If not a festival day you can eat at one of the many restaurants right across the street or at The Hamburger Factory.

When not a festival day, ample parking...

My husband and I took our just-3 year old grandson to the Christmas events in the park. I can't rave enough about it. We've gone to other events there that we have enjoyed, but this was simply the best! We arrived at 2:30 to ensure a train ride. The Train and Trolley are always the first place he wants to go. The petting zoo was fun, even more fun when we saw a goat head but a toddler in the tummy. Didn't hurt her, just startled her as she lay on her back! We enjoyed watching all the connecting of the trolley to the train, and other preparations. The volunteers are all friendly and patient in answering questions, and teaching. naturally, we ate their, I had Phillipino, my always favorite, and my husband Mexican. Little guy shared with me. He enjoyed the crafts and story time areas, and I particularly appreciated all the youth participating. Sets a great example for the kids. The carolers and dancers on the stage are a favorite of mine, but not so interesting for the little guy so we moved on. We left at 5 as everyone was pooped, but could have spend hours more! ...

What a disappointing meal and they destroyed the atmosphere of the Hamburger Factory!. I've been going there since before they remodeled it in the old day's. My wife had the French Dip that had no flavor and the Swiss cheese that was supposed to be on it wasn't but a tiny piece on one end of it. I had the maple bacon bourbon hamburger, was very disappointed, asked for med rare and was served a very well done burger. My onion rings were so over cooked you could literally scratch you mouth, no kidding. Iced tea was ok, but that's real hard to screw up. The new management has totally changed the inside of the establishment, very little of the old memorabilia, pictures, old west stuff is just about all gone, NO JOHN WAYNE at all, shame on them. We will never set foot in there again and never have a good word to say about what they did to a decades old wonderful establishment that so many people went to for so long. The waitress was very pleasant but I don't...