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Winter Park families are unusually good at the slow Saturday. There is the Saturday farmers market, the brick streets, an hour spent doing very little in Central Park, and the scenic boat tour that has been running through the canals at the same gentle speed for generations. Nobody in this town needs persuading that an outing can be quiet and still be worth the morning.
What Winter Park does not have, for all its lakes and canopy roads, is livestock. A child can grow up here entirely comfortable around a boat, a museum and a bookshop and still never have had a goat take food from their hand or felt how startlingly solid a cow is up close. That gap is worth a forty-minute drive, and it fills in a single morning.
Our farm sits south of you in Kissimmee, and it runs at the pace this town already prefers. Cattle out across the pasture, alpacas and donkeys drifting over to the fence, a Tractor-Drawn Wagon Ride that goes when it goes. Admission is $18 for ages 2 and up, under-2s free, and one ticket covers the animals, the wagon ride and the playground together. Arrive at ten, leave when the children are finished, and the afternoon back on Park Avenue is still yours.
Coni and Bob Keyes opened this farm in 1988, on shaded ground in Kissimmee, and for nearly thirty years it was where an enormous number of Central Florida children met their first cow. Some came on school trips, some for a cousin’s birthday, most simply because a parent wanted them outside for a few hours. Then the farm closed and stayed closed for seven years.
It is open again now at Lancaster Ranch Park, thanks in large part to the City of Kissimmee, and very little about the experience changed in the move. Cattle, alpacas, donkeys, pigs, goats, chickens and rabbits are all within arm’s reach rather than viewed from a distance. The wagon ride still heads out through the pasture. The oaks still handle the heat. There is simply more room than there was.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, around thirty miles south of Winter Park and roughly forty minutes on the road depending on I-4. Most families take FL-417 south, which avoids the worst of the through traffic. It is a longer run than a trip to the lakefront, and it is the sort of morning people repeat once they have done it once.
Start with the day. We 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 we close Monday and Tuesday. The gate stops taking arrivals at 1:00 PM midweek and 2:00 PM on weekends. Because our weekday window is a short one, a Winter Park family driving down midweek should aim to leave by half past nine. Wednesday is Grandparents Day, when one grandparent joins you free with every paid general admission, which is worth building the trip around.
Bring lunch. We have no cafe here, only vending machines, so pack a picnic and plenty of water and take one of the shaded tables. Hats, sunscreen and closed shoes for everybody. Given the length of the drive from Winter Park, it is worth treating the picnic as part of the plan rather than an afterthought, and there are few better places to eat outdoors than a table with cattle grazing thirty feet away.
Then come down. Buy online in advance or at the gate; admission is $18 per person from 2 years up and under-2s are free. All major credit cards are welcome and cash is not, as we are entirely cashless. Groups of 10 to 19 pay $15 each and 20 or more pay $12 each with a reservation, which includes one free admission for every 20 paid. Ask about the annual pass if you think you will make the drive more than twice. Animal feed is optional, picked up at the gate or added to your tickets online.
Plan Your Visit
Each fall the Pumpkin Zone opens, and it is comfortably the most popular thing we do. It is worth naming what it is not: not a pumpkin patch, and not a crop we grow. Every paying guest simply chooses a pumpkin from the Zone and takes it home, included in the price of getting in. The Zone is open every day we are open right through the season, so a Winter Park family with a slow Saturday habit can arrive without checking whether this is one of the weekends. The Halloween Candy Hunt runs on 2 weekends around Halloween, and those 2 are worth putting in the calendar.
Birthday parties are refreshingly uncomplicated. Settle a date and time and pay ahead, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. Tents cost $450 and include up to 25 guests, with additional guests at $15 each, and four are available each day on Saturdays and Sundays with tables set up. Every guest gets the run of the whole farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground handle the entertainment and you plan nothing at all. Decorate the tent and bring your own menu. A note for guests: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and the celebration happens entirely outdoors. Weekend tents fill early, particularly in October.
The rest of the year keeps its own rhythm. Easter Egg Hunts arrive in spring and smaller seasonal events appear through the calendar, all posted on our Special Events page and announced first on Facebook and Instagram. School field trips and larger groups are welcome on the group rates above, and paying in advance moves everyone through the gate a good deal faster on the day.
We are at Lancaster Ranch Park, 1881 Jack Calhoun Drive, Kissimmee, FL 34741, about thirty miles south of Winter Park and roughly forty minutes depending on how I-4 is behaving. Most families take FL-417 south instead, which usually runs cleaner.
It is one of the longer runs from the northern suburbs, so it is worth setting off early, particularly midweek when we close at 1:00 PM. Leave by half past nine and you will have a full morning here with the afternoon still ahead of you back home.
General admission is $18 per person for everyone aged 2 and over, with children under 2 free. One ticket covers the entire farm, meaning all our animals, the wagon ride and the playground, and nothing else is charged at the gate. Bring a card rather than cash, as we are completely cashless.
Group rates bring that down: $15 per person for parties of 10 to 19, and $12 per person for 20 or more booked with a reservation, which also includes one free admission for every 20 paid. An annual pass covers unlimited visits for a year from purchase, which is worth considering given the distance. Animal feed is an optional few dollars at the gate, or added to your tickets online — and it is the part children remember.
Not at Green Meadows. We run a petting farm, not a pumpkin patch, and nothing here is grown. What we open each fall is the Pumpkin Zone, and every paying guest chooses a pumpkin from it and takes it home free with admission.
Winter Park was founded by people who came south to avoid fall, which makes a deliberately autumnal morning something of a novelty locally. The Zone is open every day we are open, not just weekends, so it fits an unhurried Saturday rather than dictating one. The Halloween Candy Hunt falls on 2 weekends either side of Halloween, and the dates go on our Special Events page and out first on Facebook and Instagram.
We do, regularly. Booking is simple: pick your date and time, pay in full, and your tent is reserved for your celebration. A tent is $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 with tables provided.
The entertainment is built in, which is the real advantage when guests are driving a little way. Every guest can roam the whole farm, so the animals, the wagon ride and the playground fill the time without a single planned activity. The tent is plain by design, so bring decorations and food and make it yours. Worth raising with guests: pony rides and lettuce for the animals are optional extras, bought at the gate or added to your tickets online, and everything is outdoors. Weekend tents book up well ahead in the fall.
A picnic above all. There is no cafe here, only vending machines, which surprises people who assumed otherwise. We keep shaded picnic areas for precisely this, and given the drive from Winter Park it makes sense to plan lunch here rather than rushing home for it. Bring plenty of water too, especially through the summer.
Otherwise dress for a farm rather than a day out: closed shoes, hats and sunscreen. Mature oaks shade most of the property, so it is considerably cooler than you might fear, but Florida still has other ideas. If the sky looks doubtful before you leave, call us at (407) 994-2775 first. We would much rather tell you honestly than have you drive forty minutes for nothing.
For toddlers it usually is, provided you plan around the nap. Weekday mornings are our quietest, children under 2 come in free, and there is nothing loud or timed to overwhelm them. The scale is the point: this is a farm rather than an attraction, so a 2-year-old understands it immediately without anything being explained.
The practical arrangements help as well. The ground is flat and shaded, there are picnic tables for a proper sit-down, and the playground occupies older siblings while the youngest stays at the fence. Arrive at opening and you will be heading back north before the car nap becomes unavoidable.
Know Before You Go
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