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Mount Dora carries more nicknames than most places earn. The New England of the South, for the Victorian houses and the lakefront. The Festival City, for a calendar that seems never to have an empty weekend. It sits on a plateau a hundred and eighty-four feet up, which counts as a mountain in this state, and it has a working freshwater lighthouse at Grantham Point and the oldest continuously operating hotel in Florida on its shoreline.
It is a wonderful town for a child and a busy one. Festivals, crowds, the antiques trade, the visitors who arrive for all of it. What is harder to find between the events is a morning with nothing scheduled at all, where nobody is putting anything on.
That is what sits sixty-five minutes southeast. Cattle grazing over pasture; alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits pressing at the rail for optional feed bought at the gate or online. A Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride out among the trees, a playground in the shade. Admission is $18 for 2 years and older, free beneath, and it covers the whole place. There is no lineup, no schedule and nothing being put on for anybody.
The farm began in 1988 under Coni and Bob Keyes, on shaded ground in Kissimmee. Across nearly thirty years it was where children throughout this half of the state met livestock properly for the first time, coming by school bus, for parties, or simply because somebody wanted them outside. Then it closed and stayed closed for seven years.
It is going again at Lancaster Ranch Park with the City of Kissimmee’s help, and the reopening changed as little as possible. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits sit where a child can reach them. The wagon ride still works its circuit of the pasture. The oaks still handle the temperature. Different ground, same farm on it.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, about forty-eight miles and roughly sixty-five minutes southeast of Mount Dora, generally down US-441 through Apopka or across via Clermont. Of the Golden Triangle towns you are the closest to us, though it is still a real drive.
The hours come first. We are open 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM from Wednesday through Friday, and 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on weekends, with Mondays and Tuesdays closed entirely. Final admission is at 1:00 PM Wednesday through Friday and 2:00 PM Saturday and Sunday. From Mount Dora a midweek visit means sixty-five minutes for a three-hour window, so weekends are the better proposition unless your morning happens to line up. Wednesday carries Grandparents Day, one grandparent free alongside each paid general admission.
Pack a picnic before setting out. No cafe operates here, only vending machines, and having driven this far a proper lunch under the trees is what turns the visit into a morning. Bring plenty of water, hats, sunscreen and shoes that close, as none of the day happens under a roof.
Then head down. Book online ahead or pay on arrival, whichever suits; general admission needs no reservation. Entry is $18 per person from 2 years up, free below, cards only and no cash accepted anywhere. Ten to nineteen guests pay $15 each and twenty or more pay $12 each with a reservation, plus one free admission per twenty paid. At this range the annual pass is worth pricing up. The 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 becomes the fullest part of our calendar. To be clear about what it is and is not: not a pumpkin patch, and not grown here. Every paying guest chooses a pumpkin from the Zone and takes it home included with the ticket. It stays open every day we are open across the season instead of a narrow weekend window. The Halloween Candy Hunt happens across 2 weekends either side of Halloween.
Birthday parties take almost no organizing. Name the date and time, pay in advance, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It costs $450 for up to 25 guests with extras at $15 each, four available per day on Saturdays and Sundays, tables already out. Everyone invited roams the entire farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground handle the entertaining and you arrange none of it. The look of the day and the catering fall to you. Do let guests know: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the celebration happens outdoors throughout.
Group visits suit this distance, and we take a good many from Lake County schools and community groups. Ten to nineteen guests are $15 each, twenty or more are $12 each on a reservation, and every twenty paid earns one free. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring with further seasonal events across the year, everything posted on our Special Events page and released first via Facebook and Instagram. Paying beforehand clears a big party through the gate a good deal quicker.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, about forty-eight miles and roughly sixty-five minutes southeast of Mount Dora. US-441 down through Apopka, or across by Clermont, are the 2 usual ways.
You are the nearest of the Golden Triangle towns to us, though it remains a proper drive. Weekends give four hours at this end rather than three, which the distance rather asks for. Glance at your maps app before departing, since both routes shift a good deal with the hour.
Entry is $18 a person for everyone from age 2, with under-2s admitted at no charge. That ticket covers the whole farm — all the animals, the wagon ride and the playground — and there is nothing further to pay inside, parking included. Cards only; we take no cash.
Bigger parties pay less per head: $15 each from ten to nineteen guests and $12 each from twenty upward on a reservation, with one free admission per twenty paid. An annual pass covering a year of unlimited visits is worth considering if you think you will return. Animal feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online — and it is the part children remember longest.
Not at Green Meadows, and the straight answer is worth more than a hopeful one. We grow no pumpkins and would not call ourselves a patch. Each fall the Pumpkin Zone opens, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin there and takes it home free with admission.
Mount Dora was originally named Royellou, after a postmaster’s three children. It is a town that has always taken children seriously, and a morning here is built entirely around them — feed the animals, choose a pumpkin, leave with it. The Zone is open every day we are open rather than on a run of weekends, and the Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween. The dates go on our Special Events page and are shared first on Facebook and Instagram.
We would be glad to. Choose your date and time, pay up front, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. It runs $450 covering up to 25 guests, further guests at $15 each, with four available each day on Saturdays and Sundays and tables laid out ready.
Because every guest has the whole property, the entertaining is settled before you have arranged anything at all. The animals, the wagon ride and the playground share it out among themselves. Tents arrive plain, so the styling and the food are entirely yours to decide. Say on the invitation that pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online. Weekend tents fill early once fall comes.
A picnic above all else. There is no cafe on the property, only vending machines, which does catch people out. Shaded tables are kept for exactly this, and lunch in the open with cattle grazing beyond the fence is one of the better half hours available anywhere in the county. Bring generous water, particularly through the warmer months.
Beyond that, dress the whole party for a farm rather than an outing: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen. Old oaks cover most of our ground so it stays cooler than you might expect, though Florida makes its own arrangements. If the sky looks doubtful before you leave Mount Dora, call (407) 994-2775 and we will give you a straight answer.
It spreads across ages better than most family outings do. The very youngest stay at the rail with a bag of feed for far longer than anybody expects, and the under-2s are free. Older children make for the wagon ride and the playground once the animals have had their turn, and there is enough ground to walk that nobody feels penned in.
Adults tend to come out of it well too, which is not true of everywhere built for children. Shade, somewhere to sit down, and nothing at all being timed. Bring grandparents on a Wednesday and one comes in free with each paid admission, which makes a three-generation morning straightforward to put together.
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