Gilroy and San Juan Bautista

Gilroy sits at the southern tip of the Santa Clara Valley, where Highway 101 squeezes between the hills on its way to the Salinas Valley. For decades it called itself the Garlic Capital of the World and on a warm day you can still smell the processing plants on the edge of town. Today most visitors come for two things: the big outlet center beside the freeway and Gilroy Gardens, a nonprofit theme park built around thousands of trees.

Fifteen miles farther south, in San Benito County, San Juan Bautista feels like a different century. Its Spanish mission and grassy plaza are ringed by adobe and wood buildings from the 1800s, most of them now part of a state historic park. Put the two together and you get a day that mixes shopping or rides with real California history, all within about an hour of Palo Alto. This guide covers each stop, the seasons that matter and the current status of the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Getting there and traffic

Gilroy is about 45 miles from Palo Alto, straight down US 101 through San Jose and Morgan Hill. Allow about an hour. For San Juan Bautista, continue south on 101 and exit at Highway 156 east, about 60 miles and 1 hour 15 minutes in all. The towns are roughly 20 minutes apart.

• Southbound 101 through south San Jose and Morgan Hill slows badly on weekday afternoons. Northbound traffic back toward the Peninsula is heavy on Sunday evenings in summer.
• Highway 156 carries beach traffic toward Monterey on summer weekends.
• Caltrain runs a few weekday trains south of San Jose to Gilroy, but they are timed for commuters and the outlets and Gilroy Gardens are a drive from the station. A car is much easier.

If you are visiting without a car, you can compare rental cars from San Jose airport, which is on the way south.

Gilroy Premium Outlets

Gilroy Premium Outlets, run by Simon, spreads across several blocks on Arroyo Circle on the west side of 101 at the Leavesley Road exit. It is the largest outlet center within easy reach of Palo Alto. Its store directory lists factory and outlet shops from brands such as Nike, adidas, Under Armour, J.Crew Factory, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors and Kate Spade. Brands come and go, so check the center's directory for the stores you care about before you drive down.

• Hours: the center's site has listed 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on regular days. Holiday hours differ, so confirm on the site.
• Layout: the center is split into sections on both sides of local streets. Move the car between them rather than walking along busy roads with bags.
• Black Friday: Thanksgiving falls on November 26 in 2026, so expect huge crowds and traffic on Friday, November 27.
• Best time: weekday mornings are quiet. Weekend afternoons are busy all year.

For shopping closer to home, see our guide to shopping in Palo Alto, including Stanford Shopping Center.

Gilroy Gardens and its season

Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park lies west of town on Hecker Pass Highway. It is a nonprofit educational park founded in 2001 with gentle rides, a few roller coasters, summer water play and more than 10,000 trees in six gardens. The stars are the Circus Trees, living sycamores, boxelders and other trees grafted and trained into loops, zigzags and lattices by the horticulturist Axel Erlandson in the mid 20th century. They are truly strange and worth the visit on their own.

The park is seasonal and its calendar changes through the year. According to the Gilroy Gardens site in late October 2026:

Buy single-day tickets and parking online in advance for the best price. The rides are aimed at younger children, roughly preschool through the tween years, so it is a better fit for families with small kids than for teens. Our family day trips guide has more ideas.

The Gilroy Garlic Festival

The Gilroy Garlic Festival began in 1979 and for decades drew huge summer crowds to Christmas Hill Park, raising money for local schools and nonprofits. After a mass shooting at the 2019 festival that killed three people, the event stopped. Local news reported that it did not return in person until 2025, when it came back in a smaller, ticketed format at the Hecker Pass Outdoor Events Center next to Gilroy Gardens.

The 2026 festival ran in late July with daily ticket allotments of about 4,000, up from roughly 3,000 the year before, according to Hoodline. The festival's site says 12,000 people attended in July 2026 and lists the next edition for July 23, 24 and 25, 2027. Expect the classics: the Pyro Chefs flaming scampi and calamari in Gourmet Alley, garlic fries, pepper steak sandwiches, garlic ice cream, live music and an arts and crafts market. Tickets are limited, so buy early once sales open in 2027.

Mission San Juan Bautista

Mission San Juan Bautista was founded on June 24, 1797, the 15th of California's 21 Spanish missions. Its church, completed in 1812, is the largest of the mission churches and the only one with three aisles. It has served as a parish church without interruption since then. The mission faces a long, grassy plaza on one side. On the other, the land drops away to the valley floor along the San Andreas Fault, which runs right below the old cemetery wall. Film fans know the place from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, shot here in 1957, though the dramatic bell tower in the movie was added by the studio.

The mission is an active Catholic parish. Its tours page lists the museum, gift shop and garden as open Wednesday to Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It also lists self-guided admission of $10 for adults, $7 for seniors 60 and over and $5 for veterans, with children under 5 free. That page has not been fully updated in some time, so call 831-623-4528 to confirm hours and prices before you go. Mission admission is separate from the state park. The mission closes on several holidays, including the day before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Day.

San Juan Bautista State Historic Park

The plaza and the buildings around it form San Juan Bautista State Historic Park, part of a National Historic Landmark district. In the 1800s this was the town square of the largest town in central California and a key stop on the road between north and south. Stagecoaches stopped at the Plaza Hotel, which was built in part from an older adobe barracks.

• Plaza Hotel: the old stage stop, with rooms set up as they looked in its heyday.
• Zanetta House and Plaza Hall: a two-story home with a hall upstairs that once hosted town dances and meetings.
• Plaza Stables: a big barn full of carriages and wagons.
• Castro-Breen Adobe: home of the Mexican-era official José Castro, later bought by the Breen family, survivors of the Donner Party.
• Smaller sites: a blacksmith shop, a historic jail and an early settler's cabin.

According to the state park page, the park is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and museum entry costs $3 for adults. It closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Dogs are not allowed. Guided walking tours are available by advance reservation at 831-623-4881. The address is 19 Franklin Street. Our pages on the Spanish and Mexican era and El Camino Real explain how this mission town connects to the Peninsula's own past.

A sample day

1. 9 a.m. Leave Palo Alto and drive straight to San Juan Bautista.
2. 10 a.m. Visit the state historic park when it opens, then cross the plaza to the mission.
3. 12:30 p.m. Lunch on Third Street, the town's small main street of cafes and antique shops.
4. 2 p.m. Drive back to Gilroy for an afternoon at the outlets, or an evening at North Pole Nights in December.
5. Evening. Head home after the commute traffic thins out.

Frequently asked questions