From wine by the water in Huntington Beach to avocado everything in Carpinteria and a final feast in Palm Springs, we’re eating our way through Southern California this fall.
by scott leonard
Southern California doesn’t give us much of a traditional autumn. Leaves aren’t exactly changing color outside our windows, nobody’s digging the heavy sweaters out of storage, and there’s a decent chance we’ll still be going to the beach in October.
So maybe it’s time to create our own fall tradition. Fill up the tank, grab someone who’s willing to share dessert and hit the road.
Over the next three months, food and wine festivals will pop up from San Diego to Orange County, up the coast to Carpinteria and out to the desert. Some are easy day trips. Others practically beg you to book a room and stay for the weekend.
A few might even introduce you to a part of Southern California you haven’t visited in years. Here are 10 delicious excuses to get out of town.
SAN DIEGO COUNTY
San Diego Restaurant Week | September 13–20
We’re starting close to home — at least for some of us.
San Diego Restaurant Week gives us eight days to eat our way around the county, with more than 120 restaurants spread across 30+ neighborhoods.
The fun is in venturing beyond the places you already know. Pick a neighborhood you’ve been meaning to explore, head toward the coast or finally make that reservation you’ve been talking about forever. For San Diego locals, it’s a chance to rediscover what’s nearby. Coming from farther away? Pick a few restaurants, make a day of it and let someone else worry about what’s for dinner.
Not every good road trip has to start with a full tank. Sometimes an empty stomach will do.
FULLERTON
SipTember | September 27
Head north to Fullerton, where there’s wine, a little Pride and a very good reason to linger awhile. LGBTQ Center OC’s SipTember is at Fullerton Museum, bringing the 21+ crowd together for an afternoon of wine, conversation and community while supporting the center’s work.
But don’t make the festival your only stop. Downtown Fullerton has restaurants, bars and shops within an easy stroll, which makes this one particularly easy to stretch from an afternoon of wine into dinner and drinks.
Really, that’s how the best day trips happen. You leave home for one thing and come back having discovered three more.
DEL MAR
Del Mar Wine + Food Festival | September 30–October 4
This is where the day trip starts turning into a weekend.
The Del Mar Wine + Food Festival stretches across five days with chef dinners, wine experiences, special events and a huge Grand Tasting weekend at Surf Sports Park.
You could pick one event and head home afterward. But with the Pacific coast right there and five days of food and wine happening around you, restraint suddenly seems a little overrated.
Book a room, stay near the water and give yourself permission to turn dinner into a mini vacation.
You’re already there. You might as well enjoy it.
LAGUNA BEACH
Taste of Laguna | October 1
There are worse ways to spend an October evening than eating your way through Laguna Beach.
Taste of Laguna brings more than 30 restaurants and chefs together at the Festival of Arts grounds, along with live music, dancing and drinks.
Come up early and give yourself time to enjoy Laguna. Walk the beach, browse the galleries, have a cocktail and then head to the festival hungry. By that point, you’ve managed to fit a beach day, an art walk and a food festival into one afternoon.
Just don’t schedule anything ambitious for early the next morning.
CARPINTERIA
California Avocado Festival | October 2–4
Now we’re putting some actual miles on the car.
Carpinteria is roughly halfway between Ventura and Santa Barbara, making its 40th annual California Avocado Festival a perfect excuse for a coastal weekend away.
Downtown fills with food, music, arts and crafts, and more avocado creations than anyone reasonably needs. Admission is free, the beach is nearby and Santa Barbara is just up the road.
Get a hotel. Eat guacamole. Walk on the beach. Call it cultural enrichment.
LA JOLLA
La Jolla Art & Wine Festival | October 10–11
Eventually, the road brings us back down the coast.
More than 170 juried artists show their wares at La Jolla Art & Wine Festival, while the Wine & Beer Garden provides wine, craft beer and spirits for the 21+ crowd.
This is an easy one to build a whole day around. Start with brunch, browse the festival, stop for wine, wander down toward the water and stay for dinner.
La Jolla is one of those places we can take for granted when it’s practically in our backyard, so consider this permission to behave like a visitor for the day.
No hotel required, although nobody’s stopping you.
PALM DESERT
Yum Food Fest & Night Market | October 10–11
By October, heading east starts sounding like a good idea again.
Yum Food Fest & Night Market takes over The Shops at Palm Desert with food vendors, entertainment, drinks and shopping in a casual night-market atmosphere.
The timing makes this especially tempting because October is when the desert starts calling us back. The brutal summer heat is finally easing up, dinner outside sounds appealing again and staying overnight means there’s a pool waiting the next morning.
Somewhere between dinner and that first poolside coffee, a food festival has quietly become a weekend getaway.
HUNTINGTON BEACH
California Wine Festival | October 16–17
By mid-October, we’re apparently not finished with the coast. Or the wine.
The California Wine Festival lands at Paséa Hotel & Spa for two days, beginning Friday evening with the Sunset Rare & Reserve Tasting, where harder-to-find wines are paired with bites from regional chefs and live music.
Saturday loosens things up with the Beachside Wine Festival, bringing hundreds of California wines, food, craft brews and music together within sight of the ocean.
This is another one where going home immediately afterward feels like poor planning. Stay the night, walk along the beach the next morning, find somewhere good for brunch and give yourself a few extra hours before heading home.
After all, if you’re going to spend an afternoon drinking California wine by the Pacific, you might as well commit to the assignment.
SAN DIEGO
San Diego Food + Wine Festival | November 1–8
After zigzagging around Southern California, we’re returning to San Diego hungry and thirsty.
The San Diego Food + Wine Festival fills eight days with chefs, winemakers, spirits, special dinners and events celebrating the flavors on both sides of the border.
The week builds toward its Grand Tasting and Grand Fiesta, but don’t overlook the smaller experiences along the way. Part of the fun is choosing something you might not ordinarily try and remembering just how ridiculously good we have it when it comes to eating in San Diego.
If you live in the area and you’ve got friends coming from LA, OC or Palm Springs, now it’s your turn to play tour guide.
PALM SPRINGS
Palm Springs Food & Wine Festival | November 13–15
We’re ending this road trip exactly where you’d expect us to: Palm Springs.
The Palm Springs Food & Wine Festival takes over Downtown Park for three days of tastings, wineries, restaurants and chef demonstrations.
By mid-November, the weather is cooperating, the pools are waiting and nobody needs much convincing to spend a weekend in Palm Springs.
Check in Friday. Eat and drink your way through the festival. Sit by the pool. Wander downtown. Stay one more night because you can.
Then head home, loosen the belt a notch and congratulate yourself.
You didn’t overindulge.
You were traveling.
One last road-trip rule: If you’re drinking, don’t drive. Hand over the keys, call a rideshare or stay the night. Besides, we’ve already given you plenty of excuses to book the hotel.