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Children who grow up in Orlando grow up surrounded by wonder that somebody built on purpose. Costumed characters, painted skies, engineered surprises — all of it marvelous, and all of it arranged in advance by somebody else. What a lot of Orlando parents tell us they are quietly looking for is the other thing: a morning where nothing has been arranged, where the moment their child remembers happens entirely by accident.
That moment usually looks like this. A little one holds out a handful of feed with their arm stretched as far from their body as it will go, and a goat walks over and takes it, gently, and the child laughs in surprise because nobody told them it would tickle. Nobody scripted that. It happened because a real animal chose to walk over. Our cattle graze out in the pasture, our alpacas and donkeys come to the fence when they feel like it, and the Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride rolls out through the trees whether or not anyone is watching.
The other thing families take home is the pace. At our petting zoo, children decide everything — which animal to visit, how long to stay at the fence, whether the wagon ride is worth a second turn — while the grown-ups sit down under the live oaks and let them. Admission is $18 for ages 2 and up, with under-2s free, and that single price covers the whole morning: the animals, the wagon ride, the playground, all of it. You arrive at ten, you leave when your children are ready, and everyone goes home calm instead of worn out.
Our story starts in 1988, when Coni and Bob Keyes opened a small petting farm beneath the oak trees in Kissimmee. For the better part of three decades it was where children across Central Florida had their very first meeting with a cow, a donkey or a rabbit. Parents who visit us today often arrive holding a memory of their own — a school trip, a birthday, a photograph in a shoebox somewhere with a fistful of lettuce in it. Then, for seven years, the region went without us entirely.
We are open again, on new ground at Lancaster Ranch Park, with the City of Kissimmee’s help in bringing us back. What we were careful not to change is the part that mattered. Our animals — cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits — are still close enough to meet, pet and feed rather than admire from behind glass. The wagon ride still winds out through the pasture. The oaks still do most of the work of keeping everyone cool. It is the same gentle idea it always was, with a good deal more room to wander.
You will find us at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741 — roughly 25 miles and about a thirty-minute drive south of downtown Orlando, down FL-417 or I-4 toward the 192 corridor. Families reach us easily from Lake Nona, Hunter’s Creek, Dr. Phillips, Winter Park and the International Drive hotels. Wherever in Orlando your morning starts, we are almost certainly nearer than you imagine.
Choose your morning first. 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, and closed Monday and Tuesday. We stop admitting at 1:00 PM from Wednesday to Friday and 2:00 PM on weekends. Weekdays are our quietest and gentlest, which suits toddlers beautifully. Wednesdays are worth circling: every Wednesday is Grandparents Day, and one grandparent joins you free with each paid general admission. In a city where so many households have grandparents helping with the school run, that is a morning worth building around.
Notice, too, that our gates close early on purpose. Anyone who has spent a Central Florida summer knows the afternoon storm rolls in around the same time most days, and our whole visit is finished before it arrives. Bring a picnic, because we have no cafe on site — only vending machines — and we have shaded picnic spots where you can eat with the animals a few steps away. Bring water, hats, sunscreen and closed shoes. And if the clouds look uncertain before you set off from Orlando, give us a call at (407) 994-2775 and we will tell you honestly whether to come.
Then simply come and see us. Tickets are available online in advance or at the farm, and admission is $18 per person for ages 2 and up, with children under 2 free. We accept all major credit cards but we are entirely cashless, so please leave the cash at home. Larger parties are welcome at $15 per person for 10 to 19 guests and $12 per person for 20 or more with a reservation, which includes one free admission for every 20 paid. Plenty of Orlando families keep an annual pass here — unlimited visits for a year, and worth asking about if you think you will be back. The animal feed is optional, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online. That is where every good morning here begins.
Plan Your Visit
The Pumpkin Zone opens each fall and turns into the fullest stretch of our year. A word on what it actually is, because Orlando is a town that knows the difference between a thing and a themed version of it: we are not a pumpkin patch and we do not grow pumpkins on the property. Instead, every paying guest picks out a pumpkin from the Zone and takes it home at no extra charge. It is open every day we are open right through the season, not just on weekends. The Halloween Candy Hunt lands on 2 weekends around Halloween, which is when a single trip covers costumes and pumpkins together.
Birthday parties here are wonderfully uncomplicated. Set the date and time, pay ahead, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A party tent is $450 and includes up to 25 guests, with additional guests at $15 each, and we have four tents available each day on Saturdays and Sundays, all set up with tables. Every guest gets the run of the farm — the animals, the wagon ride and the playground are all part of the celebration, so the entertainment looks after itself and you are spared an activity schedule entirely. Decorate the tent, plan the menu, add your own touches. Do let your guests know that pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and that the whole celebration is outdoors, so everyone should dress for weather and fun. Weekend tents go quickly through autumn in particular.
The rest of our calendar keeps turning too. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring, and smaller seasonal events appear across the year, all announced on our Special Events page and shared first on Facebook and Instagram. We also welcome school field trips and large groups from across the Orlando area on the same group rates, and paying ahead makes entry considerably quicker on the day. Whatever brings you down to us — a birthday, a pumpkin, or an ordinary Wednesday — the animals are the same and so is the welcome.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741 — roughly 25 miles and about a thirty-minute drive south of downtown Orlando, depending on where you begin and what I-4 is doing that morning. Most families come down FL-417 or I-4 toward the 192 corridor.
If you are setting off from Hunter’s Creek or the southern end of Orange County, you are closer still. It is a short enough run that a farm morning works as an ordinary outing rather than an expedition — out by ten, home by early afternoon, with your day still ahead of you. Do check your maps app before you leave so you know what the traffic is doing.
General admission to our petting zoo is $18 per person for everyone 2 years and older, and children under 2 come in free. That one price covers the whole farm — all of our animals, the wagon ride and the playground — with nothing extra added at the gate. We accept all major credit cards and we are entirely cashless, so please leave the cash at home.
Bringing a crowd makes it easier still: $15 per person for groups of 10 to 19 guests, and $12 per person for 20 or more with a reservation, which also includes one free admission for every 20 paid. If you expect to be back — and Orlando families usually are — do ask about an annual pass, which covers unlimited visits on any operating day for a full year. Animal feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online — and it is the best money you will spend all morning, because feeding the goats is what most children want to do first and last.
Not here, and it is a fair question to ask before driving out. Green Meadows is a petting farm, not a pumpkin patch, and we grow nothing on the property. The Pumpkin Zone is what we open each fall, and a pumpkin from it comes home with every paying guest, free with the ticket.
For most Orlando families that turns out to be the more useful arrangement. Nothing extra to buy, no line at a weighing station, and the Zone stays open every day we are open instead of a few weekends. Our Halloween Candy Hunt lands on 2 weekends either side of Halloween. We publish the dates on the Special Events page and go out first on Facebook and Instagram.
Of course, and a great many of our birthday parties are Orlando families. Booking is refreshingly simple: choose your date and time, pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A party tent is $450 and includes up to 25 guests, with additional guests at $15 per person, and we have four tents available each day on Saturdays and Sundays, all complete with tables.
Because every guest enjoys the whole farm, the entertainment takes care of itself — the animals, the wagon ride and the playground are all included, which spares you planning a single activity. The tent itself is yours to make your own: decorate it, choose the menu, add whatever touches you like. 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 entirely outdoors, so ask everyone to dress for weather and fun. Weekend tents fill well in advance, particularly through the fall season, so reserve your date early.
Please bring a picnic. We have no cafe on site — only vending machines — which does surprise some first-time visitors. We keep shaded picnic areas for exactly this, and lunch under the trees with cattle grazing nearby turns out to be many families’ favorite half hour of the day. Bring plenty of water as well, especially between May and September.
Otherwise, dress everyone for a farm rather than a day out: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen. Most of our ground sits beneath mature live oaks, so it is far shadier than you might expect, though Florida remains Florida. And if the sky looks unsettled before you leave Orlando, give us a call at (407) 994-2775 — we are entirely outdoors, and we would far rather tell you to come another morning than have you make the drive for nothing.
It depends who is coming. Wednesday through Friday mornings are our quietest, which makes them ideal for toddlers, for anyone who would rather not share the fence, and for parents whose days off fall midweek — a great many Orlando households work weekends, and we are glad to be here when they are free. Wednesday carries an extra reason: it is Grandparents Day, and one grandparent joins you free with each paid admission.
Weekends bring more of a buzz, and they are when our seasonal events land, so choose a Saturday or Sunday if the Pumpkin Zone or a birthday party is what you are coming for. Whichever you pick, come early. We close at 1:00 PM on weekdays and 2:00 PM on weekends, which puts everyone back in the car well before the afternoon storm arrives — something every Central Florida family learns to plan around sooner or later.
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