Visiting Boyds Orchard in Versailles By: Stephanie

 Boyds Orchard is just a little over an hour away down I64 toward Lexington. It is a wonderful fall day trip from Louisville. There is definitely enough to keep you busy all day!

Admission and parking are free at Boyd Orchard but if you want to enjoy the other things they have to offer, you pay a fee. It can get pricey, but check out their weekday and weekend packages in which they bundle some of the fees.

I would suggest getting their early if you go on a weekend.  We were there at 9:30am and it was all for us. But, by the time we were leaving at noon, it was packed and you had to park across the street and everything. They have birthday parties there so that adds to the congestion.

OK, to the good stuff.  In front of the barn/shop there are lots of pumpkins to choose from and a huge chair for the kids to check out. There’s a cut out train and a barn for the kids to play in.  There’s some rocking chairs and table top checkers for those who want to relax and enjoy the fresh air.

In the shop, there is a cafe for lunch and a bakery. We got a dozen of the apple cinnamon donuts and they were delicious. You can’t go there without getting some!  There’s also lots of produce from their farm that is for sale.  They let you taste the bakery items and apples!  There is also some retail stuff in the barn.

Out back, they are grilling up some food and there are plenty of picnic tables and event some corn hole if you want to do that. You can also get your tickets for the various fun activities.  We got our wrist bands and the kids ran to play on the playsets, bouncy train, sand boxes (well, tires), slides, hay castle, climbing wall and more!  They had an absolute blast!

Eventually, we headed to the petting zoo area.  I would not spend the money on this! We go to the zoo all of the time so this was not very interesting for the kids.  They have some goats and a donkey. 

So, on to the tractor hay ride.  We got aboard a long hay trailer and set out on the tractor. It took us all around the scenic farm and we stopped at the corn maze.  With our kids, we explored the maze and to my surprise, my toddlers were totally into this.  We found a secret path out of the maze (LOL!) so that we wouldn’t be in there for too long and took the kids to the row of large hay bales that they have near the maze.  My son ran across them and jumped about 276 times.  Finally, we took the tractor ride back to the barn and headed home.  It was such a great day!