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America’s Seaplane City is not a nickname many towns could claim. The base sits right on the Lake Dora waterfront beside Wooton Park, aircraft land on the water through the week, and a child growing up in Tavares learns to glance skyward at the sound of an engine. The Dora Canal runs out from here, the county seat has been here since 1880, and almost everything memorable about the place happens on water or above it.
It is a genuinely unusual childhood and it points in one direction: outward and upward, at things moving past. Rather less of it involves standing still while something living decides whether to come over and investigate you.
That takes seventy minutes to reach and rewards the trip. Cattle out over the pasture, and alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits crowding the rail for the optional feed bought at the gate or online. There is a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride through the trees and a playground beneath old oaks. Admission is $18 for anyone 2 and older, free below that, and takes in every part of the property. Nothing here flies off anywhere.
Coni and Bob Keyes opened this place in 1988 on shaded land down in Kissimmee. For nearly thirty years it was where children across the middle of the state first stood beside a cow, arriving by school bus, for someone’s party, or because a parent needed the house quiet for a few hours. Then the gates shut for seven years.
Today it runs at Lancaster Ranch Park with the City of Kissimmee’s backing, and very little about it was updated on the way through. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits are all where a child can reach them. The wagon ride still runs its loop of the pasture. The oaks still keep things bearable. New site, old idea.
The address is Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, about fifty-two miles and roughly seventy minutes southeast of Tavares, usually down US-27 or by way of Clermont. That is a long way, and we would sooner set the expectation properly than have you find out on the road.
Look at the hours before anything else. Wednesday through Friday we run 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM; Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Final admission is at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 2:00 PM on weekends. Mondays and Tuesdays we do not open. Midweek from Tavares that gives you three hours after seventy minutes of driving, which is a thin return. Saturdays and Sundays are the sensible choice from this far north. Wednesdays do carry Grandparents Day, with one grandparent free against each paid general admission.
Treat lunch as part of the plan. We have no cafe, only vending machines, and after that journey a real picnic at one of our shaded tables makes the difference between a stop and a morning. Water for everybody, sun hats, sunscreen, and shoes that close, because all of this happens outdoors on grass.
Then set off. You can book online first or simply pay at the gate; general admission takes no reservation. It is $18 a head from 2 years old, nothing below, and we take cards only, every major one, no cash. Ten to nineteen guests come in at $15 each; twenty and above at $12 each on a reservation, with one admission free per twenty paid. From Tavares a group or an annual pass is what makes the arithmetic work. Feed for the animals is an optional purchase at the gate, or added to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Fall brings the Pumpkin Zone and the fullest weeks of our year. Said plainly: this is not a pumpkin patch and no pumpkin here was grown here. Every paying guest chooses one from the Zone and takes it home, free with the ticket and nothing added at the gate. It is open every day we are open across the whole season instead of a run of weekends. The Halloween Candy Hunt is on 2 weekends around Halloween.
Birthdays are the other strong reason. A tent is $450 for up to 25 guests, anyone extra at $15, and there are four per day on Saturdays and Sundays with tables set out. Pick your date and time, settle up front, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. Guests get the run of the entire farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground do every bit of the entertaining. What it looks like and what everyone eats is up to you. For your guests: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and none of it is indoors.
Group bookings genuinely change the sums from this distance. Twenty guests or more come in at $12 each on a reservation, with one free per twenty paid, which is how most Lake County schools and church families reach us. Easter Egg Hunts arrive each spring, other events turn up across the year, and everything goes on our Special Events page and out over Facebook and Instagram first.
Our address is Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741 — about fifty-two miles and roughly seventy minutes southeast of Tavares. Most people run down US-27, or cut through Clermont toward the 192 corridor.
It is a long drive and we will not pretend otherwise. Come at a weekend if you can, since the extra hour of opening is what makes seventy minutes each way sit comfortably. Have a look at your maps app first, as both routes change quite a bit with the hour.
Eighteen dollars a head for everybody from age 2, and nothing at all below that. The one ticket takes in every animal, the wagon ride and the playground, with no extras once you are through and no charge to park. Cards only, all the major ones, and no cash anywhere on the property.
Groups drop the rate: $15 each between ten and nineteen guests, $12 each from twenty upward on a reservation, and one free admission for every twenty paid. There is an annual pass covering a year of unlimited visits from the day you buy it, which is worth doing the sums on at this range. Animal feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online — and it is what the children actually came for.
Not at Green Meadows, seventy minutes southeast, and we would rather say so before you set off. We do not grow pumpkins and we are not a patch. Our fall version is the Pumpkin Zone, and a pumpkin from it goes home with every paying guest, included with entry.
What earns the journey is the setting — open pasture, heavy shade and animals in every photograph, in a month that seldom looks like fall in Florida. The Zone is open every day we are open instead of a run of weekends, and the Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween. Dates are published on the Special Events page and are announced first on Facebook and Instagram.
We do. Choose a date and time, pay in advance, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It is $450 for up to 25 guests, extras at $15 each, with four running per day on Saturdays and Sundays and tables already in place.
The farm entertains for you, which counts double when guests are driving a distance. Everybody has the whole property, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground fill the time without a single arrangement from you. Tents come bare, so the decorating and the catering are your business. Do let guests know pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online. Weekend tents get taken early in autumn.
A proper lunch rather than snacks, and more water than seems sensible. We run no cafe, just vending machines, and after seventy minutes in the car that is a poor thing to discover. Shaded tables are set out for it, and a full meal in the open with cattle beyond the fence turns the trip into a morning rather than an errand.
Everyone should be dressed for a farm instead of a day out — shoes that close, hats, sunscreen. Old oaks cover nearly all our ground so it holds cooler than you would expect, though the weather here answers to nobody. If it looks doubtful before you leave Tavares, call (407) 994-2775 first; at this distance we would far rather be straight with you than have you drive it for nothing.
For one short visit, honestly, it is a lot of car. Seventy minutes each way against a three-hour midweek window does not add up well, and we would rather say that plainly than have a family arrive feeling short-changed.
It works properly 2 ways. Come at a weekend, arrive at opening and give it three or four unhurried hours with a picnic in the middle. Or come as a group, where twenty guests or more brings the rate to $12 a head with one free per twenty paid. On either footing the drive stops mattering, and most Tavares visits we see arrive on one of those 2 footings.
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