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Auburndale punches well above its size in youth sport. Lake Myrtle Sports Complex carries nine baseball diamonds and eleven soccer fields, hosts regional and national events, and is home to the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. If you have children in this town there is a fair chance a good many of your Saturdays involve a folding chair, a cooler and a schedule somebody else set.
All of which is excellent, and none of it is restful. There is a specific kind of family morning that a tournament weekend leaves no room for: one with no fixtures, no bracket and nothing at stake, where a seven-year-old is not being evaluated by anybody. Younger siblings in particular tend to spend the season as spectators at other people’s events.
We are forty-five minutes northeast and we run on nothing at all. Cattle graze out in the pasture. Alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits come to the fence for the feed you collect at the counter. A Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride crosses the trees and a playground sits under the oaks. Admission is $18 for anyone 2 and up, with under-2s free, and it covers everything. Nothing starts at a set time and nothing finishes until your family decides it has.
Coni and Bob Keyes opened Green Meadows in 1988 on shaded ground in Kissimmee, and for the better part of thirty years it was where children across Central Florida had their first proper encounter with livestock. Schools came by the busload, birthdays happened under the trees, and a great many parents used it simply as a way to get everyone outdoors. Then it closed, and seven years passed with nothing quite replacing it.
The farm reopened at Lancaster Ranch Park with the City of Kissimmee behind it, and what returned was the original rather than a reworking of it. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits are all within reach of a child’s hand. The wagon ride still heads out across the pasture. The oak canopy still handles the temperature. New ground, same farm running on it.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-three miles and about forty-five minutes northeast of Auburndale, most easily along I-4 or US-92 across to the 192 corridor. Auburndale was a citrus and railroad town long before it was a sports one, and the countryside on the way over is a decent reminder of it.
Our hours matter more from this distance than they do closer in. We open Wednesday through Friday, 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, and close on Monday and Tuesday. Final admission is at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and 2:00 PM Saturday and Sunday. Midweek that leaves a three-hour window at the far end of a forty-five minute drive, so weekends usually work better for Auburndale families unless you can get away early. Wednesday does carry Grandparents Day, with one grandparent admitted free alongside each paid general admission.
Bring the cooler you already own. There is no cafe on the property, only vending machines, and having driven three-quarters of an hour nobody wants to be hunting for lunch afterward. We keep shaded picnic tables for the purpose. Plenty of water, hats, sunscreen and closed shoes rather than sandals, since the ground here is pasture rather than a paved path.
Then head over. Book online ahead of time or pay on arrival. Admission is $18 per person from 2 years upward, with under-2s free, and we take all major credit cards and no cash at all. Groups of 10 to 19 pay $15 each and 20 or more pay $12 each with a reservation, which brings a free admission for every 20 paid. At this distance an annual pass is worth asking about if the first visit lands well. Animal feed is an optional few dollars, sold at the gate or included when you book online.
Plan Your Visit
The Pumpkin Zone opens with the fall and becomes the busiest thing on our calendar. To be clear about what it is: not a pumpkin patch, and not a crop we grow. Every paying guest chooses a pumpkin from the Zone and takes it home free with the ticket, with no separate charge and nothing weighed. It is open every day we are open across the whole season instead of a short weekend run. Our Halloween Candy Hunt is held on 2 weekends around Halloween each year.
Birthday parties need almost nothing from you. Choose your date and time and pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. Tents are $450 and cover up to 25 guests, with anyone beyond that at $15 each, and four run each day on Saturdays and Sundays with tables provided. Every guest gets the whole farm rather than a corner of it, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground do the entertaining and you organize nothing. Decorations and the food are yours to bring. Worth mentioning to guests: 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 rates suit a team or a squad rather neatly, and we see a fair number of end-of-season outings. It is $15 per person between 10 and 19 guests and $12 per person from 20 upward with a reservation, including a free admission for every 20 paid. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring, other seasonal events appear across the year, and everything goes on our Special Events page and out first via Facebook and Instagram. Paying ahead moves a large group through the entrance considerably faster.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-three miles and about forty-five minutes northeast of Auburndale. I-4 or US-92 across to the 192 corridor are the usual routes.
It is one of the longer drives on our list, so treat it as a planned morning. Weekends give you a four-hour window at this end rather than the midweek three, which suits the distance better. Have a look at your maps app before setting off, since I-4 through this stretch is unpredictable.
Admission is $18 per person for everyone aged 2 and over, with children under 2 free. That single ticket takes in the whole farm, meaning all the animals, the wagon ride and the playground, and nothing further is charged at the gate or for parking. We are card-only and accept no cash whatsoever.
Groups work out cheaper per head: $15 each between 10 and 19 guests, and $12 each from 20 upward with a reservation, which also includes a free admission for every 20 paid. That covers a team comfortably. There is an annual pass as well, giving unlimited visits for a year from purchase, worth considering at this distance if you take to the place.
Not here, and the plain answer saves a wasted drive. We do not grow pumpkins and this is not a pumpkin patch. Our fall version is the Pumpkin Zone, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin from it and carries it home free with admission.
Auburndale families spend a good deal of the year on the sidelines at Lake Myrtle. This is an outing with no scoreboard attached and nothing to win — feed the goats, pick out a pumpkin, go home. The Zone is open on every day we trade, not only on weekends, and the Candy Hunt takes place on 2 weekends around Halloween. Dates are published on the Special Events page and go out first on Facebook and Instagram.
Very much so, and we would encourage it from this distance. Group rates start at ten people: $15 each between 10 and 19 guests, and $12 each from 20 upward when booked with a reservation, which also includes one free admission for every 20 paid. A squad and its families usually clears twenty without much trouble.
Reserve ahead and pay in advance if you can. It moves a large party through the entrance far quicker on the day, which matters when there are thirty people standing about. There is open ground rather than a fixed route, so a big group spreads out naturally, and the shaded picnic areas give everybody somewhere to sit down and eat together properly.
Lunch, and probably the cooler you already take to games. There is no cafe here, only vending machines, and after forty-five minutes of driving that is not what anybody wants to discover. Shaded picnic tables are set aside for it, and eating outdoors with cattle grazing behind you is a fair reward for the trip. Bring more water than you think you need, especially in summer.
Beyond that, dress for a farm rather than a day out: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen for everyone. Mature oaks cover most of our ground so it runs cooler than the forecast suggests, though Florida still does as it likes. If the weather looks doubtful before you leave Auburndale, call us at (407) 994-2775 first rather than driving down and hoping.
It depends what you want from the morning. If you are after a quick look at some animals, forty-five minutes each way is a lot of car. If you want an unhurried couple of hours outdoors with a picnic, a wagon ride and children choosing their own pace, the distance stops registering fairly quickly.
2 things make it work better. Come at a weekend, when we stay open until 2:00 PM and you get four hours rather than three. And come with other people — group rates from ten guests upward bring the cost down and turn one longer drive into an outing worth organizing properly.
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