Worth The Drive – Pumpkin Patch Edition

 

Don’t Kill Me!!! I bet you’re thinking “What’s The Point Now?” & to be honest, you’re somewhat right! Halloween is over and all of the Pumpkin Patches have left and/or are transitioning into Christmas Tree Farms!  If you didn’t know, YES!,  Christmas Tree Farms totally exist & that’s exactly why this post is STILL pretty much needed!

If you’ve followed me for a while, you may know that my family and I are known to explore all parts of Florida.  We don’t like to just stay where we are at.  It was the same when we lived in New York. Basically we exhausted all the places we could have in Brooklyn and Queens so we often traveled outside of those to explore and just try and explore new places.  So we do the same here now! Aside from my towns smaller Pumpkin Patches/Fall Festivals the bigger patches near us are in Fort Myers. About 45 mins away from us. We’ve exhausted all those as well LOL.

I’ve been to Fall Festivals in West Palm Beach, in Miami and some in between…All have been great but not worth the drive to visit again.  I’m all for dragging us all to new places but it has to be worth it.  I’d hate to drive 2 hours someplace & not want to go back.  So this year we headed to the one and only Hunsader Farm’s Pumpkin Festival , located in Bradenton, FL.  It’s always been on my list but we just never had the chance to go visit.  I did some digging about it before we headed out, and by digging, I mean I stalked their Facebook & Instagram! I checked reviews, photos, and tagged photos (those are the real reviews in my opinion) , they all seemed to line up and so we went.

Hunsader Farm’s Pumpkin Festival

How long do you expect to spend at a Pumpkin Patch? Me?, I thought maybe 2 hours top, if even that! We headed out at about 1:30pm (takes us about an hour and a half to get there).  We got there at 3pm (they close at 5pm), so I figured 2 hours would be more than enough…boy was I wrong!!!! For me, I can always tell if a place is great depending on the parking, if it’s packed, it’s good and you know the rest…There was a line of cars just waiting to get inside the parking!  Once we finally parked I had no idea where to go, this place was huge!!!!

 

There was so much to do and I immediately felt overwhelmed, but in a good way! There were free shows left and right, a pumpkin patch, a park, a petting zoo, food, snacks, pony rides, more snacks, a monster truck show, a train buggy ride, a small circus show, face painting…there was a whole other side that we didn’t even get to explore because we didn’t have enough time! It was absolutely awesome! MJ cried when we had to leave, they still talk about it ’till this day!  & that is why visiting Hunsader Farm was and is 100% worth the drive!!! No need to frown though, you can still visit because December 10, 11, 12, 17, 18 & 19 from 6pm-10pm the farm is transformed into Country Christmas !! There will be over 300,000 lights, Christmas music, a petting farm, train ride, hayride, campfires, Christmas movies and get this : SNOW TUBING!!!!! We will definitely be visiting & making this a family tradition from now on!

 

Gallagher’s Pumpkins & Christmas Trees

Gallagher’s Pumpkins & Christmas Trees is another one I was super excited about! It’s located in good ol St.Pete If you just look over their INSTAGRAM , their photos alone are so dreamy!  I have to be honest, I only went to take photos lol I had to!!! Come on, who doesn’t love cute photos?!!! Since my family and I never get our photos professionally taken this was the next best thing.  OK, so 85% of the drive was for the photos & the rest was for the patch LOL.  We got there in no rush and sure enough it was packed, but not too overwhelmingly packed.  It was very organized.

Everyone is clearly there for photos so we waited in lines, took the photos and then explored the area.  There were some animals we could pet up close, the girls even got to hold some guinea pigs! Of course there were tons of pumpkins, some vendors and a bounce house!  After photos we let the girls explore the animals, played in the bounce house and had some snow cones, fresh lemonade, & donuts.  The area is not huge, but for the photos alone its worth the drive in my opinion!  On November 20th they also transform it all into a Christmas Tree Farm which we will be visiting also!

So if you’re tired of the same ol pumpkin patches and are looking for a new one to explore, these two are sooo worth the visit! If you’re in Florida and have another one you think I should visit let me know in the comments below! As always, Thanks for reading!