Julian Farm and Orchard — Attraction in San Diego Country Estates

All pumpkin patches are tourist traps, you can buy a grocery store pumpkin but then your kid will ask all season when you're going to the pumpkin patch. So you take your kid and just kind of power through. It's a family farm and their profits go towards running it which is fine, the prices are on par with what you'd pay for other places in this area which can still be expensive. We did the all inclusive orange wrist band that includes hayrides, a rock wall, axe throwing, face painting and a craft. It was $79 for 3 of us. The farm and surrounding land itself is pretty and is definitely better than the asphalt parking lot pumpkin patches in San Diego. We didnt pick any berries or flowers but theyre nice to walk through. Theres a few food vendors and a beer/wine vendor. Nothing is really monitored and the petting zoo got overun with people. The biggest issue is that it gets really crowded and theres not enough workers. (It's a weekend activity expect crowds). There's poorly behaved people leaving food and garbage in places they shouldn't. One guy literally said "oh look a garbage" and tossed his garbage on a picnic table. But that unfortunately happens everywhere with crowds. The porta potties got full and half of them were closed by 2pm and the ones that were open were out of toilet paper. At one point a worker walked up to a closed one that was locked, unlocked it and used it themselves while the 8 of us in line waited for the one other one with no toilet paper. The activity table is $ store foam picture frames that you put stickers on and for an additional fee you can buy a pumpkin and put foam stickers on it. Theres face painting, a small haybale mini maze, and tractor ride. The guy by the axe throwing area was sitting on a chair under an umbrella while little kids ran around in front of the people throwing axes. Tim the guy who verified the waivers was friendly, polite and took his job seriously. We didn't do the rock wall but they seemed to be pretty attentive to making sure no one fell off. The activities are decent for kids ages 2-12. I wish there was more transparency with their pumpkin pricing, there wasnt posted pumpkin prices that I saw. We spent $33 on one big pumpkin and 4 mini pumpkins. Overall typical pumpkin...

What a blast!! This place has something for everyone. I don't usually leave reviews, but thought I would for this place on our drive back to San Diego, as we had such a wonderful time.

General admission is only $10 which lets you come onto the farm and also includes a few other FREE things to do- great if you have young children/kids, as there's a hay bale maze, playground area, swings, etc. For another $5 you can add on the Petting Zoo/Animal Sanctuary and visit the goats and other animals. For $20 you get all of the above AND a trailer/hayride pulled by an old vintage tractor, which lets you see the entire farm and lets you off along the way.

We purchased the Unlimited Activity Armbands for only $25 which was perfect for our family...we went on the hayride, did axe throwing, visited the petting zoo, and the kids LOVED the rock climbing wall. It seemed that there were hundreds and hundreds of people on the farm, so we did wait a few times in line, but it was well worth it. And since it was unlimited, we did our fair share! All of the employees were super nice and accommodating and worked very hard at their stations.

For an extra fee, there were also Apple Cannons!....which we will probably do next time...we watched people doing it and it looked fun.

We had already eaten in town before we got there, but if you're hungry there's a food truck, snow cones, a tap truck and apple cider slushees! In addition to a gift shop.

We grabbed a few pumpkins on the way out- some regular orange ones to carve and also some heirloom varieties for Fall decorations. They seemed to be priced very well as the quality of all the pumpkins are very fresh and beautiful.

We cannot wait to come back. Thank you, Julian Farm & Orchard! You made our trip to Julian...

We booked a tour for our family of 5 for the U-Pick Apple Tours. When we arrived at the farm, we saw the notice at the gate that no apples are available for U-Pick. We asked before we checked in for the tour whether there will be any apples for pick up for the tour guests, and we were assured that since we reserved our tour in advance, there were apples reserved for the tour guests like us to pick up.

However, when we went on the tour, we were told that all apples were gone and none was available for the U-Pick. We were very disappointed, especially the kids, who were so excited for their first time apple pick up but end up having nothing to pick up. The tour guide explained that all the apples were gone due to the storm two weeks ago, and that all the other apple orchards are closed due to this reason. Since this happened two weeks ago, the farm could have noticed us and canceled the tours, instead of having us paid for the tour, driving two hours to the orchard, and found out that there are no apples for pick up. I don't think this is what a good business would have done to their customers. The farm did not deliver what they charged for.

More ridiculously, the guide said that their farm was the only farm still open after the storm two weeks ago to "make the weekend trip happen for us." EXCUSE ME??? When all the other orchards have the common sense that they cannot charge for what they cannot offer, you guys keep the orchard open and having us paid for nothing?? I emailed them to request a refund a week ago, but haven't got any reply so far.

I also attached a picture of the ridiculously small and rotten apples left on the branches. That's what awaited us after two hours drive and being charged for the...