Reasonably priced for a full-size Pasco County festival — $42 online gets a family of four through the gate — and the season pass is cheap enough that a second visit is nearly free, which is the detail most people miss.
Advance online: adults $12, children 3-12 $9, 2 and under free. Day-of at the gate: adults $14, children $11. Season passes $22 adult / $16 child. 10% off for groups of 10+ and active military.
Rough cost for a family of four: about $36.00 in admission alone at the posted starting rate, before pumpkins, food, parking or any add-on listed above. Most families end up well north of that once they are through the gate.
Dade City Farms runs the model most Florida families actually want: one moderate gate price, a real animal collection, and enough ground-level activity to fill a morning without an upsell at every turn. At $42 online for two adults and two school-age children, it lands well below the Central Florida festivals that ask $20-$25 a head, and the difference in what you get is smaller than the difference in price.
Petting zoos at Florida patches usually mean goats and a couple of sheep. Here the published list runs to Highland mini cows, camels and alpacas alongside the goats and sheep, which is a genuinely better draw and the thing most likely to hold a young child’s attention past the first half hour. Pair that with the tractor hayride and the giant corn bin and you have the spine of a solid three-hour visit; the yard games, tire playground and face painting fill the gaps.
Season passes are $22 for an adult and $16 for a child. Advance single tickets are $12 and $9. That means a pass costs less than two advance visits — an unusually short payback compared with most farms, where a season pass only makes sense on the third or fourth trip. If you live in Pasco, Hernando or north Hillsborough and there is any realistic chance of coming back on a cooler October weekend, buy the pass first rather than a single ticket you’ll regret.
The other lever is simply booking online. Gate prices are $2 higher per head across the board, which is $8 on a family of four — small, but there is no reason to donate it.
The whole season is about twelve operating days spread across six weekends, all 10am-5pm. That is a narrow target and it concentrates demand into the middle October Saturdays. Opening weekend on September 26-27 will be quieter, but late September in inland Pasco County is not autumn in any meaningful sense — it is high 80s or better with a real chance of an afternoon storm. If you go then, be there at 10am and be finished by one.
The last date, Sunday November 1, is the reverse trade: minimal crowds, but a patch that has been picked over for five weekends and a farm winding down.
The pumpkins were grown elsewhere and trucked in, as they are at every patch in Florida — the state cannot support a commercial fall crop. There is no corn maze on the published activity list either, which is worth knowing if that is the thing your family came for. What this farm sells is animals, a hayride and a well-priced few hours of unstructured play in a rural setting, and it sells them at a fair price.
The 10am opening on any weekend, and preferably the October weekends rather than the September 26-27 opener. Late September in Pasco County is still summer by any honest measure, and a 10am-5pm window with camels and a corn bin gets uncomfortable fast after midday. The final day, Sunday November 1, will be the quietest of the season — and the most picked-over for pumpkins.
Three to four hours. Between the hayride, the pony rides, a petting zoo with camels and alpacas in it, the corn bin and the tire playground, there is enough here that leaving after 90 minutes wastes most of what you paid for.
Weekends only, across roughly six weekends, which concentrates the entire season into about twelve days. The middle-of-October Saturdays will be the busiest; opening weekend and the November 1 closer will be the lightest.
The farm did not publish parking details. It is a working rural property on Lake Iola Road, so expect an unpaved field and expect it to be soft if it has rained — a general inference about Florida farm lots rather than something the farm has stated.
No accessibility information was published. Assume grass, dirt and uneven ground throughout, which is difficult for narrow stroller wheels and wheelchairs alike; call ahead if that matters to your group.
You want to be in and out in an hour with a pumpkin. Paying $42 for a family of four and staying 45 minutes makes this poor value, and free-entry patches exist closer to the cities. Also skip if heat is a problem for anyone in your group and you can only make the September opening weekend.
Dade City's historic downtown is the natural lunch stop on the way in or out, and it turns a farm morning into a full day without adding another admission fee.
Advance online tickets are $12 for adults and $9 for children 3-12, with under-2s free. At the gate it rises to $14 and $11. Season passes are $22 adult and $16 child.
Opening weekend is September 26-27, then every Saturday and Sunday through October, with a final day on Sunday November 1. Hours are 10am to 5pm.
If you go twice, yes, and by a clear margin — an adult pass at $22 costs less than two advance adult tickets at $12 each. It is one of the few season passes in Florida that pays for itself on the second visit rather than the third or fourth.
No. Florida's climate does not support a commercial fall pumpkin crop, so pumpkins at essentially every patch in the state are trucked in and arranged for display.
September 26 – November 1, 2026. Weekends (Sat-Sun). Hours: 10am-5pm.
Admission starts at $9 per person. Advance online: adults $12, children 3-12 $9, 2 and under free. Day-of at the gate: adults $14, children $11. Season passes $22 adult / $16 child. 10% off for groups of 10+ and active military.
17143 Lake Iola Rd, Dade City, FL 33523, in Pasco County. It is one of 11 patches we track in Tampa Bay.
We track 11 patches in Tampa Bay, 4 of which are free to walk into. At $9 a head this one sits below the regional median of $10.95, undercutting 3 of the 5 paid patches we track here.
Its season runs about 37 days against a regional average of 34, so it is broadly in line with the rest of the region.
There is 1 other patch we track in Pasco County. All Tampa Bay patches →
dadecityfarms.com
Checked August 2026.