Hear from Our Customers
Almost everybody staying around Lake Buena Vista is here for a week or so, and almost everybody hits the same wall somewhere around day four. The children are overstimulated, the adults are footsore, and the thought of another early start and another set of turnstiles is more than anyone can face. That is precisely the day we are useful.
We are about twenty minutes south of the Lake Buena Vista hotels, which makes us one of the shortest drives you will make all week. Admission is $18 per person for anyone 2 and over, with under-2s free, and that is the entire cost of the visit. There is no schedule, no reservation window and nothing to plan the night before. You turn up when we open and leave when your family has had enough.
What is here is a genuine farm rather than an attraction dressed as one. Cattle graze out across the pasture. Goats, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, chickens and rabbits come to the fence for the feed you pick up at the counter. A Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride runs out through the trees, and there is a playground under old oaks for afterward. We close at 1:00 PM midweek and 2:00 PM on weekends, so the rest of the day, and the evening, is still entirely yours.
Coni and Bob Keyes opened this farm in 1988 under the oaks in Kissimmee, and for close to thirty years it was where Central Florida children met their first cow. It was never built for visitors. It was built for the families who live here, which is why it looks and feels nothing like the rest of what is on offer in this part of the state. Then it closed, and seven years passed before it came back.
It reopened at Lancaster Ranch Park with the City of Kissimmee’s backing, and almost nothing about it was modernized in the process. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits live close enough for a child to reach out and touch. The wagon ride still goes out into the pasture. The oak canopy still does the cooling. If you are looking for the version of Florida that existed before the interstate, this is a fair sample of it.
You will find us at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twelve miles and about twenty minutes south of the Lake Buena Vista hotel corridor, straight down toward 192. It is close enough that a rental car or a rideshare both work without much thought.
Check the day first, because our hours are shorter than you will be used to around here. Our gates are open 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday, with Monday and Tuesday closed. The last admission is at 1:00 PM Wednesday through Friday and 2:00 PM on weekends. There is no evening opening. Arrive near ten and you will get the best of it, with the animals at their liveliest and the heat still reasonable.
Bring a picnic from wherever you are staying. We have no cafe, only vending machines, which surprises visitors more than anything else about us. There are shaded picnic tables where you can eat properly, and it saves both the cost and the wait of eating out. Water for everyone, sun hats, sunscreen and closed shoes, since this is farm ground rather than a paved walkway.
Buy admission online beforehand or simply at the gate; there is no advance booking requirement. It is $18 per person from age 2, with under-2s free. We are entirely cashless and take all major credit cards, which is worth knowing if your group is splitting the cost. Traveling with a larger party? From 10 to 19 guests it is $15 each, and $12 each from 20 upward with a reservation. Animal feed is optional, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, because that is what the children will actually want.
Plan Your Visit
Fall brings the Pumpkin Zone, which becomes the fullest stretch of our calendar. A note for anyone mid-vacation and weighing it up: we are not a pumpkin patch and we grow no pumpkins on the property. Every paying guest simply chooses one from the Zone and takes it home, included in admission. The Zone is open every day we are open through the season rather than on set weekends, which helps when your free morning is a Thursday. The Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween.
Birthday parties are mostly booked by families who live locally, but we are glad to host a celebration for anyone. Pick your date and time, pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It is $450 for up to 25 guests, with additional guests at $15 each, and four tents run each day on Saturdays and Sundays with tables provided. Guests get the run of the whole farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground do the entertaining. Decorating and catering stay with 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 everything is outdoors.
We also take school field trips and larger group visits on the rates above, which occasionally suits a visiting party or a family reunion staying nearby. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring and other seasonal events appear across the calendar, all posted on our Special Events page. Paying in advance for a group moves everybody through the entrance considerably faster on the day.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly twelve miles and about twenty minutes south of the Lake Buena Vista hotel corridor. It is a straightforward run down toward 192 and one of the shorter drives you will make from your hotel all week.
A rental car is the simplest option, though the distance is short enough that a rideshare is perfectly reasonable both ways. Check your maps app before you set off, as the 192 corridor can be slow at certain hours. Aim to arrive close to opening at 10:00 AM, since we close early.
Admission is $18 per person for everyone aged 2 and over, and children under 2 are free. That covers the whole farm, meaning every animal, the wagon ride and the playground, with nothing extra charged at the gate and no parking fee. There is no requirement to book ahead; you can buy online beforehand or simply pay when you arrive.
One thing to know in advance: we are entirely cashless. We take all the major credit cards but no cash at all, which catches out a fair number of visitors. If you are traveling with a larger party, group rates start at ten people, coming in at $15 each between 10 and 19 guests and $12 each from 20 upward with a reservation.
It is the visit we hear the most positive feedback about, precisely because it asks so little. There is nothing to plan, nothing to wait in line for and nothing timed. Children set their own pace entirely, which after a few structured days tends to be exactly what everybody needs.
It also finishes early by design. We close at 1:00 PM Wednesday to Friday and 2:00 PM on weekends, so a farm morning leaves your afternoon and evening completely free. A good many families use it as a rest day that still gets everyone outdoors rather than sitting by the hotel pool.
Not here, and it is worth knowing before you build a morning around it. Green Meadows is a petting farm, not a pumpkin patch, and nothing is grown on our land. What we open each fall is the Pumpkin Zone, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin there and takes it home free with the ticket.
At roughly twenty minutes away this is the closest thing to a rest day the area offers, and a pumpkin in the suitcase is a better souvenir than most. The Zone is open on every day we trade, not only on weekends, and the Halloween Candy Hunt falls on 2 weekends either side of Halloween. Exact dates go on our Special Events page and go out first on Facebook and Instagram.
A picnic, above all. There is no cafe on site, only vending machines, and it is the thing visitors most often wish they had known. We keep shaded picnic tables for exactly this, and eating outdoors with cattle grazing nearby is a pleasant change from a food court. Bring plenty of water as well, particularly between May and September.
Otherwise dress everybody for a farm rather than a day out: closed shoes rather than sandals, hats and sunscreen. Mature oaks cover most of the property so it is cooler here than most outdoor options in the area, though Florida still has a say. If the weather looks doubtful, call us at (407) 994-2775 before setting off, since everything we do is outdoors.
It handles a spread of ages better than most things you will do this week. Toddlers are content at the fence for a surprisingly long stretch, and the under-2s come in free. Older children gravitate toward the wagon ride and the playground once the animals have had their turn, and there is enough open ground that nobody feels penned in.
Adults get shade, picnic tables and no schedule to manage, which is not something every family attraction in this area can claim. Weekday mornings are the quietest if you have a very young child; weekends have more going on and stay open an hour longer.
Know Before You Go
Other Services we provide in Lake Buena Vista