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Apopka children grow up around growing things whether or not anyone points it out. This was Fern City before it was the Indoor Foliage Capital of the World, and greenhouse nurseries still stretch across the northwest corner of the county. Kids here know what a propagation bench looks like. They have some instinct for the fact that a living thing needs water, shade and somebody paying attention.
What most of them do not get is the animal version of that lesson, which lands differently because animals answer back. A fern does not walk over to see whether you brought anything. A goat does, immediately and with no manners at all, and a donkey will decide on the spot whether you are worth leaning on. Children work out something about care and consequence from that which no amount of watering quite delivers.
Our farm is roughly fifty minutes south of Apopka and it is a working one: cattle in the pasture, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits within reach, a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride out through the trees, and a playground for the point at which the fence loses its hold. Admission is $18 for 2 and over, free under 2, and it covers everything. It is a longer drive than most of this list, and it is a proper morning when you get here.
2 people started this in 1988. Coni and Bob Keyes opened Green Meadows on shaded ground in Kissimmee, and across nearly three decades a remarkable number of Central Florida children had their first encounter with livestock right here. School groups, birthday parties, and a great many ordinary weekends. Then the farm closed, and seven years passed with nothing filling the space it left.
It is running again at Lancaster Ranch Park, with the City of Kissimmee’s backing, and the reopening kept faith with the original. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits are all close enough to touch and feed rather than observe from a distance. The wagon ride still goes out through the pasture. The oaks still do most of the work of keeping everybody comfortable. New ground, same farm.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-eight miles south of Apopka and about fifty minutes behind the wheel, most simply via FL-429 and the Turnpike. It is one of the longer runs we ask families to make, which is worth factoring in when you choose the day.
The distance makes the choice of day matter more than usual. We open Wednesday to Friday, 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM, closed Monday and Tuesday. Last entry is 1:00 PM Wednesday to Friday and 2:00 PM Saturday and Sunday. Midweek gives you a three-hour window at the far end of a fifty-minute drive, so weekends generally suit Apopka families better unless you can leave early. Wednesdays do carry Grandparents Day, with one grandparent free alongside each paid general admission.
Pack lunch rather than planning to buy it. There is no cafe here, only vending machines, and with the drive you have made it makes far more sense to eat at one of our shaded tables than to hurry home hungry. Water for everyone, sun hats, sunscreen, closed shoes. Nothing about the ground here is difficult, but it is a farm.
Tickets can be bought online beforehand or at the gate on arrival. Admission is $18 per person from 2 years upward, with under-2s free, and we are card-only with no cash accepted anywhere on site. Groups of 10 to 19 pay $15 each; 20 or more pay $12 each with a reservation, which brings one free admission per 20 paid. At this distance the annual pass earns its keep quickly if the first visit goes well. Animal feed is an optional extra, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Fall opens the Pumpkin Zone and it quickly becomes the fullest part of our week. For a town that grows things for a living, the distinction is worth drawing: we are not a pumpkin patch and we do not grow pumpkins here. What the Zone does is simpler — every paying guest chooses a pumpkin and takes it home, free with admission, nothing extra to buy and nothing weighed. It is open every day we are open through the season rather than on a run of weekends. Our Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween each year.
Birthday parties are straightforward to arrange. Settle on the date and time, pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A tent is $450 covering up to 25 guests, with anyone beyond that at $15 each, and four are available daily across Saturday and Sunday, tables included. Guests roam the entire farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground handle the entertaining and no activity schedule is required of you. Decorations and catering are yours to bring. Tell your guests that pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, paid for at the gate or online with your tickets. Weekend tents fill early through the fall.
Around all of that the year keeps moving. Easter Egg Hunts land in spring, smaller events appear throughout, and everything is listed on our Special Events page and shared first via Facebook and Instagram. School field trips and larger groups are genuinely welcome on the rates above, and given the distance from Apopka a group booking often makes better sense than several separate family trips. Paying ahead speeds up entry considerably.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-eight miles south of Apopka and about fifty minutes on the road. FL-429 down to the Turnpike is usually the cleanest route.
It is one of the longer drives on our list, so treat it as a planned morning rather than a spontaneous one. Weekends give you a four-hour window at this end, which suits the distance better than the midweek three. Check your maps app before setting off, because the route can vary quite a bit by hour.
Admission is $18 for everyone 2 years and older, with under-2s admitted free. One ticket covers the whole property, the animals, the wagon ride and the playground included, and nothing else is charged once you are inside. Bring a card, as we take no cash at all.
Groups pay less per person: $15 each between 10 and 19 guests, $12 each from 20 upward with a reservation, plus one free admission for every 20 paid. There is also an annual pass giving unlimited visits for a year from purchase, which is worth serious thought at this distance if the first trip goes well. Feed for the animals is optional, sold at the gate or included when you book online.
Not at Green Meadows, and in a town built on horticulture that is worth being precise about. No pumpkins are grown here and we are not a patch. The Pumpkin Zone opens each fall instead, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin there and takes it home free with entry.
Apopka spends its year growing plants people look at. A morning here is the opposite — animals close enough to hand-feed and a pumpkin to carry out at the end of it. The Zone is open every day we are open, not only on weekends, and the Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween. Exact dates go on our Special Events page and are shared first on Facebook and Instagram.
We would be pleased to host it. Agree a date and time and pay ahead, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It costs $450 and takes up to 25 guests, with additional guests at $15 each, and four tents run each day on Saturdays and Sundays, all set up with tables.
The farm entertains your guests for you, which counts for more when people are driving in from a distance. Everyone has the run of the property, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground fill the time on their own. Bring your own decorations and food, since the tent arrives plain. Worth passing on to guests: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the day is entirely outdoors. Fall weekend tents are claimed quickly.
A picnic above everything else. We have no cafe, only vending machines, and with fifty minutes of road at either end nobody wants to be rationing snacks. Shaded picnic tables are kept for exactly this, and lunch with cattle grazing behind you is a fair reward for the journey. Bring more water than you think you need, especially in summer.
Otherwise, dress everybody for a farm rather than an outing: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen. Mature oaks cover most of our ground so it is cooler here than the forecast suggests, though the weather still does as it pleases. If it looks doubtful before you leave Apopka, call us at (407) 994-2775 first. We would far rather be honest than have you drive fifty minutes for nothing.
Honestly, it depends what you want from the morning. If you are after twenty minutes of animals it is a long way to come. If you want an unhurried couple of hours outdoors with a picnic, a wagon ride and children who set their own pace, the distance stops mattering fairly quickly.
2 things help. Come at a weekend, when we stay open until 2:00 PM and you get a four-hour window rather than three. And come with other people, since group rates from 10 guests upward bring the cost down and turn one long drive into an outing worth organizing. A good many Apopka visits arrive as church groups, homeschool circles or several families driving down together.
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