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Leesburg is the largest city in Lake County and it behaves like it. Venetian Gardens spreads out along the lakefront with its canals and islands, the historic downtown has been standing since the railroad arrived, and once a year Bikefest brings one of the biggest motorcycle gatherings in the Southeast through the middle of it all. For a family, there is a great deal here without leaving town.
There is one gap and it is a specific one. Nowhere in a city of this size can a five-year-old walk up to a cow, put a hand on it and have the animal turn round and take food off their palm. Parks cannot do it, lakes cannot do it, and no amount of downtown does it either. It requires an actual farm that lets the public in, and those are rarer than they ought to be.
Ours is seventy-five minutes southeast. Cattle out over the pasture, and alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits along the rail waiting on the optional feed sold at the gate or online. A Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride goes out among the trees and a playground sits beneath old oaks. Admission is $18 from 2 years upward, free below, and takes in every part of it.
Coni and Bob Keyes set this farm up in 1988 on shaded ground in Kissimmee. For the better part of thirty years it was the place children across the middle of Florida first stood next to livestock, arriving with a class, for a birthday, or because a parent wanted a few hours outdoors. Then it closed, and for seven years nothing filled the space.
It is running again at Lancaster Ranch Park with the City of Kissimmee behind it, and what came back was the original rather than an updated version. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits are within reach of a child’s hand. The wagon ride still goes out over the pasture. The old oaks still hold the temperature down. Broader ground, the same idea running across it.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly fifty-eight miles and about seventy-five minutes southeast of Leesburg, usually down US-27 the whole way. It is a long haul and the rest of this page treats it as one.
Hours first. Wednesday to Friday we open 10:00 AM until 1:00 PM; Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. Final admission is at 1:00 PM Wednesday through Friday and at 2:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday. Monday and Tuesday we are closed. From Leesburg the midweek arithmetic is poor — an hour and a quarter each way for three hours here — so weekends are what we would suggest. Wednesday does carry Grandparents Day, with one grandparent free alongside each paid general admission, if that changes the calculation for you.
Bring lunch and plan on eating it here. We have no cafe, only vending machines, and at this range that is worth knowing before you set off rather than after. Shaded tables are kept for picnics. Take plenty of water, hats, sunscreen and closed shoes, since the whole visit is out in the open on grass.
Then drive down. Tickets can be bought online beforehand or at the gate on arrival, with no reservation required for general admission. Entry is $18 per person from age 2, free below, and we accept every major card and no cash at all. Parties of ten to nineteen pay $15 each and twenty or more pay $12 each on a reservation, which also brings one free admission per twenty paid. 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 the farm reaches its fullest weeks. Said plainly: we are not a pumpkin patch, and no pumpkin here was grown here. The Zone is where every paying guest chooses one and carries it home, included with admission. It is open every day we are open across the whole season rather than on set weekends. The Halloween Candy Hunt lands on 2 weekends either side of Halloween.
Birthday parties are simple to arrange. Fix the date and time, pay in advance, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It is $450 for up to 25 guests with anyone beyond that at $15 each, four running per day on Saturdays and Sundays with tables in place. Every guest has the whole farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground do all of the entertaining while you organize none of it. Decorating and catering remain yours. One for the guest list: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the entire day happens outdoors.
Group bookings are what make this distance sensible, and a fair number of Lake County schools, churches and community groups reach us that way. Ten to nineteen guests come in at $15 each and twenty or more at $12 each on a reservation, with one free admission per twenty paid. Easter Egg Hunts arrive each spring and other seasonal events appear through the year, all published on our Special Events page and announced first over Facebook and Instagram.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly fifty-eight miles and about seventy-five minutes southeast of Leesburg. US-27 runs most of the way before you cut across toward the 192 corridor.
It is a long drive and we would rather be upfront than have you discover it. Weekends are worth prioritizing because the extra hour of opening is what makes an hour and a quarter each way work. Check your maps app before setting off, as US-27 varies considerably through the day.
Eighteen dollars per person for everybody 2 and older, with children under 2 free. One ticket takes in the entire farm — all the animals, the wagon ride and the playground — with nothing else charged once you are inside and no parking fee. Bring a card, since we take no cash at all.
Groups pay less each: $15 from ten to nineteen guests and $12 from twenty upward on a reservation, plus one free admission for every twenty paid. There is also an annual pass giving a year of unlimited visits from the date of purchase, which at this range makes sense from about the third trip onward. Feed is an optional few dollars, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online.
Not here. Nothing orange is grown on this land and is not a pumpkin patch. Our fall version is the Pumpkin Zone, and a pumpkin from it goes home with every paying guest, free with the ticket.
Leesburg is the largest city in Lake County and still has nowhere a child can put a hand on a cow. That is the gap this fills, and in fall the pumpkin comes with it. The Zone is open every day we are open rather than on a handful of weekends, and the Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween. Dates go on our Special Events page and are announced first on Facebook and Instagram.
We do, and from Leesburg it is the arrangement that makes most sense. Rates start at ten guests: $15 each from ten to nineteen, and $12 each from twenty upward with a reservation, which additionally includes one free admission per twenty paid. School groups, church families and community organizations all come out to us on those terms.
Reserve ahead and pay in advance if you can, as it moves a sizeable party through the entrance considerably faster on the day. There is open ground here rather than a fixed route, so a large group spreads out naturally, and the shaded picnic areas give everybody somewhere proper to sit and eat together.
Lunch, and rather more of it than a short trip would need. We run no cafe, just vending machines, and after seventy-five minutes on the road that is not what anybody hopes to find. There are shaded tables set aside for picnics, and a full meal outdoors with cattle beyond the rail makes the journey feel worthwhile.
Otherwise dress the family for a farm, not a day out: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen throughout. Old oaks cover nearly all our ground so it runs cooler than the forecast suggests, though Florida has never taken instruction from anyone. If the weather looks doubtful before you leave Leesburg, call (407) 994-2775 first rather than driving it on hope.
For a quick look at some animals, no, and we would rather say so. An hour and a quarter each way against a short midweek window is a poor trade, and we have no interest in a family making that drive and feeling it was not worth it.
It works on 2 footings. Come at a weekend, arrive at 10:00 AM 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 it to $12 a head with one free per twenty. Most visits we see from this far north arrive one of those 2 ways, and both of them work well.
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