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Maitland has an unusually long relationship with wildlife. The first meeting of the Florida Audubon Society was held here in March 1900, and the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey has been rescuing and releasing raptors on the shore of Lake Sybelia since 1979. Children who grow up in this city often know more about hawks, owls and eagles than most adults do, and they learn it properly, through observation and respect.
That kind of learning has a natural limit, though, and it is a limit every raptor handler will tell you about: you look, you do not touch. A morning at a farm is the exact opposite proposition. Here the animals come to the fence expecting something, and the whole point is contact. A goat will take feed from a five-year-old’s palm with no ceremony whatsoever. A donkey will lean in and stay leaning.
That contrast is what makes the drive worthwhile for a Maitland family. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits, all within reach, plus a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride out through the pasture and a playground for afterward. Admission is $18 for ages 2 and up with under-2s free, and one price covers all of it. It is a different lesson from the one Maitland already teaches so well, and the 2 go together rather neatly.
This farm began in 1988 when Coni and Bob Keyes opened it on a shaded stretch of Kissimmee ground. For close to three decades it was a fixed point in Central Florida childhood, the place a school trip went, the place a birthday happened, the place a parent took a restless child on a Saturday. Then it shut its gates and the region went seven years without it.
We are open again at Lancaster Ranch Park, with the City of Kissimmee’s support, and the reopening was careful rather than clever. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits live within reach of a child’s hand. The wagon ride still rolls out through the pasture. The oak canopy still does the cooling. The ground is new; almost nothing else is.
You will find us at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-two miles south of Maitland and about forty-five minutes on the road. FL-417 is generally the better route south, avoiding the worst of I-4. It is the longest drive of the northern suburbs, which is worth knowing when you plan the morning.
Choose the day carefully, because the drive is long enough to matter. We are open Wednesday through Friday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, closed Monday and Tuesday. Last entry is 1:00 PM Wednesday through Friday and 2:00 PM Saturday and Sunday. Midweek gives you a three-hour window, so aim to leave Maitland by half past nine. Wednesday is also Grandparents Day, with one grandparent admitted free alongside each paid general admission.
Pack a picnic before you go. We have no cafe on the property, only vending machines, so bring lunch and plenty of water and settle at one of the shaded tables. Sun hats, sunscreen and proper shoes for everyone. With a forty-five minute drive at either end, lunch here rather than at home turns a trip into a proper morning out, and eating with cattle in view is no hardship.
Then come down and see us. Tickets can be bought online ahead of time or at the gate. Admission is $18 a person from age 2, with under-2s free, and we accept all major credit cards but no cash. Groups of 10 to 19 pay $15 each and groups of 20 or more pay $12 each with a reservation, plus one free admission for every 20 paid. Given the distance, an annual pass makes sense for families who take to the place. Animal feed is an optional few dollars, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Fall opens the Pumpkin Zone and fills the farm. Note for the invitations: we are not a pumpkin patch, and we do not grow pumpkins here. The Zone is where every paying guest chooses one and takes it home, free with the ticket — no separate charge, nothing weighed at the gate. It is open every day we are open right the way through the season, so there is no single weekend everyone has to squeeze into. The Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween, and those are the days the costumes appear.
Birthday parties involve remarkably little planning. Choose a date, settle the payment, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A tent is $450 and covers up to 25 guests, with additional guests at $15 each, and four are available each day on Saturdays and Sundays, tables included. Every guest gets the whole farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground do the entertaining while you do none of it. The decorating and the menu are entirely up to you. To note 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 entire celebration is outdoors. Come fall, the weekend tents go first.
Beyond that the calendar keeps turning. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring, smaller seasonal events appear through the year, and everything is posted on our Special Events page and shared first on Facebook and Instagram. School field trips and larger groups are welcome on the same group rates, and paying in advance gets everybody through the entrance and out to the animals considerably faster.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, roughly thirty-two miles south of Maitland and about forty-five minutes on the road. FL-417 is usually the better route, as it avoids the worst of the I-4 corridor.
It is the longest drive of the northern Orlando suburbs, so plan the morning rather than deciding on the spur of the moment, particularly midweek when we close at 1:00 PM. Set off by half past nine and you will still have a full morning at the farm.
Admission is $18 per person for everyone aged 2 and over, and children under 2 are free. That one ticket covers the whole farm, meaning every animal, the wagon ride and the playground, with nothing extra charged once you are inside. We are entirely cashless, so bring a card; all the major ones are accepted.
Groups are cheaper per head: $15 each for parties between 10 and 19, and $12 each at 20 or more with a reservation, which also carries one free admission for every 20 paid. There is an annual pass covering unlimited visits for a year from purchase, which is worth a look given how far you are coming. Animal feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online — and it is well worth it.
Not here, no. Green Meadows is a petting farm, we grow no pumpkins, and calling us a patch would be stretching it. The Pumpkin Zone is our fall version, and a pumpkin from it comes home with every paying guest at no extra cost.
Maitland has a long habit of watching wildlife from a respectful distance. A morning here runs the other way — you choose your own pumpkin, you hand-feed the goats, you get close. The Zone is open every day we are open rather than on a run of weekends, and the Halloween Candy Hunt takes place on 2 weekends around Halloween. Exact dates go on the Special Events page and are shared first on Facebook and Instagram.
We would be glad to have you. Booking is straightforward: choose the date and time, pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A tent costs $450 and includes up to 25 guests, with anyone beyond that at $15 each, and four are available each day on Saturdays and Sundays, all set up with tables.
The farm does the entertaining, which matters when guests are driving a distance. Every guest has the run of the property, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground fill the time without a planned activity in sight. The tent is deliberately plain, so bring decorations and food and make it your child’s. Flag for guests that pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, available at the gate or online with your tickets. Weekend tents fill early in the fall.
Lunch, first and foremost. There is no cafe here, only vending machines, and it catches out visitors who assumed otherwise. We keep shaded picnic areas for exactly this purpose, and with a forty-five minute drive each way it makes far more sense to eat here than to hurry home. Bring plenty of water as well, especially in the summer.
Otherwise dress for a farm rather than an outing: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen throughout. Mature oaks cover most of the ground so it is cooler than you would expect, though the weather still has other ideas. If the forecast looks doubtful before you leave Maitland, call us at (407) 994-2775. We would far rather be honest than have you drive down for nothing.
It is a genuinely different thing rather than a substitute. Maitland’s own conservation work is about observing wild animals at a respectful distance, and it does that superbly. What a farm offers is contact: domesticated animals who expect to be fed, who come to the fence, and who a small child can touch without any risk to either party.
Practically, that means a morning here is hands-on from the moment you buy the optional animal feed at the gate. Children spend most of their visit at the rail rather than watching from a path. If your family already enjoys the birds of prey, this tends to land as the natural companion outing rather than a repeat of the same idea.
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