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Wildwood has always been where routes meet. The railways came through and crossed here, the town’s name turns up in nineteenth-century rail charters alongside Lady Lake, and these days Florida’s Turnpike ends at Interstate 75 just outside town. An extraordinary volume of Florida passes within a mile of here every day without stopping for a moment.
Growing up in a place like that gives children a particular relationship with travel. Everything is somewhere else, and getting there is normal. What is rarer is a destination that repays the going rather than simply being on the way to something.
We are ninety minutes south and we would ask you to treat us as the destination, not a stop. Cattle graze over open pasture; alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits crowd the rail for the optional feed sold at the gate or online. A Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride heads out through the trees and there is a playground under old oaks, with shaded tables for a proper picnic. Entry is $18 from 2 years upward, free below, taking in the whole farm.
The farm was set up in 1988 by Coni and Bob Keyes on shaded land in Kissimmee. Over nearly three decades it became the place children throughout Central Florida first stood beside livestock, whether they arrived with a school group, for a party, or because somebody wanted them out in the air. Then it closed, and seven years passed with nothing quite taking its place.
It runs again at Lancaster Ranch Park, assisted by the City of Kissimmee, and the reopening was careful rather than clever. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits all remain where a child’s hand can find them. The wagon ride still makes its way across the pasture. The old oaks still block out most of the sun. More acreage, unchanged idea.
You will find us at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, some seventy miles and roughly ninety minutes south of Wildwood, generally down the Turnpike the whole way. Along with Lady Lake it is the furthest town on our list, and the sections below treat that honestly.
Weekends, essentially. We open 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM Wednesday through Friday and 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Saturday and Sunday, with Monday and Tuesday closed, and from Wildwood a three-hour midweek window against ninety minutes of driving each way does not add up. Last entry is 1:00 PM Wednesday to Friday and 2:00 PM on weekends. A Saturday or Sunday gives four hours here. Leave by about eight thirty and you will arrive at opening with the full stretch available.
Treat the picnic as essential rather than optional. No cafe operates on the property, only vending machines, and at this distance a proper lunch at one of our shaded tables is what separates a worthwhile morning from a long drive to look at some animals. Take plenty of water, hats, sunscreen and shoes that close, since every part of the day is outdoors.
Then head south. Tickets can be bought online in advance or over the counter on arrival; nothing needs reserving for general admission. Entry is $18 a head from age 2, free below, and we accept all major credit cards and no cash whatever. Ten to nineteen guests come in at $15 each, twenty or more at $12 each on a reservation, with one free admission for every twenty paid — and from Wildwood that group rate is what makes the whole thing work.
Plan Your Visit
Each fall the Pumpkin Zone opens and the farm reaches its busiest weeks. Clear from the start: this is not a pumpkin patch and nothing here is grown on site. Every paying guest chooses a pumpkin from the Zone and takes it home included with admission. It stays open every day we are open through the season instead of a narrow weekend window. The Candy Hunt falls on 2 weekends either side of Halloween.
Group bookings deserve particular mention from ninety minutes out. At twenty guests and above it is $12 per person with a reservation, including one free admission per twenty paid, which turns one long journey into something a school year group, a church family or several households together can properly justify. It is far and away the most common way families from this far north reach us, and we would encourage it.
Birthday parties are straightforward if you want one: $450 for a tent covering up to 25 guests, additional guests at $15 each, four available per day on Saturdays and Sundays with tables set out. Fix the date and time, pay ahead, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. Every guest has the whole farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground handle the entertaining. Pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the day is outdoors from start to finish. Easter Egg Hunts arrive each spring, with everything posted on our Special Events page.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, some seventy miles and roughly ninety minutes south of Wildwood. The Turnpike runs almost the entire way before you cut across toward the 192 corridor.
Alongside Lady Lake this is the longest drive of any town we cover, and it is worth being straightforward about that. Weekends are the only version we would suggest, since the additional hour of opening is what makes ninety minutes each way sit properly. Do check your maps app before departing.
2 things, honestly. The first is coming as a group: from twenty guests upward it is $12 a head with one free admission per twenty paid, which is how most school parties, church families and multi-household groups from this direction reach us and is much the best value.
The second is timing it for fall. Arrive at 10:00 AM and you get the Pumpkin Zone with a free pumpkin on every ticket, the Halloween Candy Hunt on its 2 weekends around Halloween, the coolest and most reliable weather of our year and four full hours on the property. A casual midweek visit from Wildwood we would not recommend, and we would rather say so.
Entry is $18 per person for everybody 2 and over, with children under 2 free. That one ticket covers the whole property, meaning all the animals, the wagon ride and the playground, and there is nothing else to pay inside, parking included. Bring a card; no cash is taken anywhere here.
Larger parties pay less per head: $15 each from ten to nineteen guests and $12 each from twenty upward on a reservation, plus one free admission per twenty paid. An annual pass covering a year of unlimited visits exists too, though at this distance it only makes sense for families planning several trips across different seasons.
We do, though not in the way a pumpkin patch would. Nothing is grown on this farm. What we open each fall is the Pumpkin Zone, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin there and takes it home free with their ticket.
It is open every day we are open across the whole season rather than on a handful of weekends, so a trip from Wildwood does not have to land on a particular Saturday. The Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween, with dates on our Special Events page and shared first on Facebook and Instagram.
Please do — it is the arrangement that suits this distance best by some way. Rates open at ten guests: $15 each between ten and nineteen, and $12 each from twenty upward with a reservation, which additionally carries one free admission per twenty paid. A class with its parent helpers usually clears twenty without difficulty.
Book ahead and settle the bill in advance where possible, because it moves a large party through the entrance considerably faster on the day. There is open ground here rather than a set route, so a big group spreads out and finds its own pace, and the shaded picnic areas give everybody somewhere proper to sit and eat together.
A full picnic and a great deal more water than a short outing would need. We run no cafe, just vending machines, and after ninety minutes on the road that is the last discovery anybody wants. Shaded tables are set aside for exactly this, and a proper meal outdoors with cattle grazing beyond the fence turns the visit into a morning that earns the driving.
Otherwise dress everyone for a farm rather than a day out: closed shoes, sun hats and sunscreen. Old oaks cover nearly all our ground so it runs cooler than the forecast suggests, though Florida has never taken direction from anyone. If the weather looks doubtful before you leave Wildwood, call (407) 994-2775 first rather than committing to the drive.
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