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Altamonte Springs has spent decades becoming the place people in Seminole County go when they want something to do. The mall, the cinemas, Uptown Altamonte, the restaurants at Cranes Roost with the lake and the boardwalk laid out neatly beside them. It is convenient, it is comfortable, and on a July afternoon it is unarguably the sensible choice.
The side effect is that a great many family outings here happen at seventy-two degrees under a ceiling. There is nothing wrong with that, but children who spend most of their entertainment indoors miss a particular category of experience entirely — the sort where something warm and alive decides, on its own, to come over and take food out of their hand.
That happens forty-five minutes south, in the open air. Cattle graze across the pasture. Alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits crowd the rail for the optional feed sold at the gate or online. There is a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride through the trees, a playground under old oaks, and shaded picnic tables. Admission is $18 for anyone 2 or older, free below, and it takes in the whole farm. No screens, no ceiling, no thermostat.
The farm opened in 1988 when Coni and Bob Keyes set it up on shaded land in Kissimmee. For nearly three decades it was one of the fixed points of a Central Florida childhood — school groups on weekday mornings, birthdays on weekends, and a great many parents who simply wanted everybody out of the house. Then it closed, and seven years passed before it returned.
It works again at Lancaster Ranch Park with the City of Kissimmee’s help, and remarkably little changed on the way through. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits are within a child’s reach. The wagon ride still loops the pasture. The old oaks still do the cooling, which matters when there is no other cooling available. New site, same idea.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-five miles and about forty-five minutes south of Altamonte Springs, usually down I-4 or FL-417. That is a reasonable run by Seminole County standards and comfortably a morning rather than a day.
Pick the day first. Our hours are 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Wednesday through Friday and 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on weekends, with the gates shut Monday and Tuesday. Final admission is at 1:00 PM Wednesday to Friday and at 2:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday. Weekday mornings are the quietest of the week and suit very young children particularly well. Wednesday also carries Grandparents Day, when one grandparent joins free alongside each paid general admission, right through the year.
Bring lunch with you, which is the part that surprises most first-time visitors from a town with as many restaurants as yours. We have no cafe, only vending machines. Pack a picnic and plenty of water and take one of the shaded tables kept for it. Closed shoes, hats and sunscreen for everybody, since the whole visit is spent outdoors on pasture.
Then drive south. Tickets are available online beforehand or at the gate on arrival, with no reservation needed for general admission. Entry is $18 a head from age 2, free below, and we take every major credit card and no cash at all. Parties of ten to nineteen pay $15 each and twenty or more pay $12 each with a reservation, which brings one free admission per twenty paid. Ask about the annual pass if this looks like becoming a regular thing. Feed for the animals is optional, sold at the gate or added to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Fall opens the Pumpkin Zone and it becomes the fullest stretch of our calendar. Worth stating up front: we are not a pumpkin patch, and no pumpkin here was grown here. The Zone simply means every paying guest chooses one and takes it home, free with admission. It is open every day we are open right through the season rather than on a handful of weekends. The Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween, and those are the days worth building a celebration around.
Birthday parties need next to nothing from you, which is the appeal. Fix a date and time, pay in advance, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It is $450 covering up to 25 guests, with anyone beyond that at $15 each, and four are available each day on Saturdays and Sundays with tables ready. Every guest gets the whole farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground do all the entertaining. Decorating and catering are yours to sort. Worth saying on the invitation: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the celebration is outdoors throughout.
Group bookings work well from Seminole County, and we take a fair number from schools and community organizations. Ten to nineteen guests pay $15 each and twenty or more pay $12 each on a reservation, with one free admission per twenty paid. Easter Egg Hunts arrive each spring and other seasonal events surface across the year, all listed on our Special Events page and shared first through Facebook and Instagram.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-five miles and about forty-five minutes south of Altamonte Springs. Most families run down I-4 or take FL-417 round instead.
It sits comfortably inside a morning rather than taking a whole day. Leave around nine thirty, spend a couple of unhurried hours here, and you are home with the afternoon still ahead. Worth checking your maps app before you go, since I-4 through this stretch is famously variable.
Admission is $18 per person for everyone aged 2 and above, with under-2s free. One ticket covers the whole farm, meaning every animal, the wagon ride and the playground, and nothing further is charged inside or for parking. Bring a card, as we accept no cash anywhere.
Groups pay less each: $15 from ten to nineteen guests and $12 from twenty upward on a reservation, plus one free admission per twenty paid. There is an annual pass giving unlimited visits across a year from purchase, which suits families who find themselves coming back. Animal feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online — and it is the part children remember.
Not here. Green Meadows is a petting farm, not a pumpkin patch, and we grow no pumpkins on the property. Each fall the Pumpkin Zone opens, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin from it and takes it home free with the ticket.
Altamonte does most of its outings indoors, under a roof and a thermostat. This has neither, which is the point of it — open air, animals at the rail and a pumpkin to carry out at the end. It is open on all of our open days rather than weekends alone, and our Halloween Candy Hunt falls on 2 weekends either side of Halloween. Dates are published on the Special Events page and are shared first on Facebook and Instagram.
We do. Choose the date and time, pay up front, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It costs $450 and includes up to 25 guests, with further guests at $15 each, and four are available each day on Saturdays and Sundays, all with tables set out.
Because guests can roam the entire property, the entertaining sorts itself before you plan anything at all. The animals, the wagon ride and the playground carry it among themselves. Tents turn up undecorated, so the styling and the menu belong to you. Do let guests know that pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and that everything takes place outdoors. Weekend tents disappear early through autumn.
A picnic, chiefly, which does surprise people coming from a town with this many places to eat. We have no cafe, only vending machines. Shaded tables are kept for exactly this, and lunch outdoors with cattle beyond the fence makes a pleasant change. Bring plenty of water as well, particularly across the summer.
Otherwise dress everyone for farm ground rather than a day out: closed shoes, hats and plenty of sunscreen. Old oaks shade most of our ground so it stays cooler than you would expect, though the weather here answers to nobody. If the sky looks doubtful before you leave Altamonte, call (407) 994-2775 and we will tell you honestly whether to come.
They tend to get the most, honestly. Under-2s come in free, nothing here is loud or timed, and nothing needs explaining before a small child enjoys it — an animal walks over and takes food, which requires no introduction at all.
The ground is flat and largely shaded, there are picnic tables for feeding and changing, and there is no route to follow, so losing interest halfway through and wandering off is entirely fine. Weekday mornings are quietest of all. A sturdy stroller copes with pasture; a lightweight one with small wheels will find it harder going.
Know Before You Go
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