lookout farm

Living in MA for 13 years and I've apparently been missing out on a great fall find! I've gone to other orchards considered New England's best, a local orchard and winery, and a very popular farm in Northboro, but those have nothing against Lookout Farm!There is a fun train ride with several stops to the fruit of your choice. We went to the Asian pears...yes they have those!There are also lots of children's activities (maze, moonwalk, caterpillar train, and so much more)! They are a well organized place, properly labelled, extremely well staffed! This is our new place to go!

This farm is very large, very beautiful & very misleading, although in the end my family & I did finish our day having a good experience where i would return but the prices are shocking! You need to pay separate fees for admission & then for which fruit size bag to use. Both costs are ridiculously overpriced. My family of 3, 2 adults & 1 child, plus a medium apple picking bag (costs for bags: $18 for med & $32 for lg bag) a med/lg pumpkin & some food, cost us a bit over $100. The taste & size of the apples are definitely worth it in the end without a doubt but finding those apples are a challenge in itself. We arrived at the farm within a few hours of opening on the 1st Sunday of this month, October 2014 & myself, along with numerous other families were all upset about the same thing, we could not find ANY apples for almost an HOUR (keep in mind only about 3/4 rows of apples available for each kind & only 3-5 different kinds & small rows on smaller trees) They advertise & have this huge orchard yet only a tiny percent of the orchard is available for picking. They close off all the spots with tons of apples & pears and make the public scower the few rows available. After 40 minutes we finally found apples. Only the red delicious kind & 1 other, but I forget the name. We had to go to the very last rows to the very back of them also, to find any on trees. When we did though, then there was plenty. I can't even tell you how many people asked me where I found apples & how did I end up finding them because they were so limited. Thankfully we found them when we did because only moments earlier my 4 year old was crying saying she was bored & not having fun and complaining she couldn't find any apples & wanted to go back home. That right there should say alot about the apple orchard. Myself, along with other families were very frustrated with this. But once we found those apples & tasted them, everything turned around. My daughter who never has eaten an apple without being peeled & cut, ate 3 of them in minutes. They are the most juiciest, delicious, biggest apples I've ever ate/seen. That alone ended up being worth that crazy price. We also went to the play area and animal farm area. The play area was probably hands down the best 1 I've seen. The tree house with the slides, was my daughter's favorite. The BBQ/snack area at the play ground had tasty food & compared to the high prices of everything else on the farm, the BBQ was reasonably priced. My daughter even rode the horses which for a separate fee you can. Overall, in the end we enjoyed ourselves and would come back, crazy prices and all. If there was another orchard with similar things and just as good, but cheaper prices, I'd have to go there, too be honest. The prices alone deter people and the lack of apples and having to wait in very long lines on the weekends to go to each orchard stop by train, is a bit time consuming too. You are not allowed to walk from orchard to orchard or to the play area, etc. I don't understand why but hey, the kids love the train rides.

Ridiculously overpriced! We took our grandson and paid $40 for our admission tickets and another $18 for a 10 pound bag of so-so apples. I've purchased better tasting apples at the supermarket. Not a single smile or welcome from anyone on their staff the entire afternoon. I felt like we were bothering them just being there. Also, portopotties are gross.So . . . $58 for a bag of apples. That's the long and the short of it. Don't bother.

We visited this farm on a Monday morning to avoid the crowds. By not doing our research, we didn't know that they charge an entrance fee for all people in your group - including a 4 yr. old. You then also pay for a bag to put your apples and pears in. We had wanted to walk to the orchards for exercise, but you are only allowed to get to the picking areas by tram. There are 3 stops you can get off and on, but must wait for another tram to travel to the next stop. They rope off huge areas where picking is not allowed, (even though we saw lots of ripe fruit) leaving small areas where we could chose from. We were also disappointed to return to the shop area only to learn they were not making cider donuts and had no pies available.They do have a very nice playground area, but overall the adults were unhappy with this farm and agreed we would not return. There are better farms available.Only restrooms available are port-a-pots and they had not been cleaned after the busy weekend.

Can't believe I just paid $56 for one adult and 2 small children to pick apples...only 1 section of apples open to pick, most areas all fenced off. Add another $10 for a pony ride in the kids area, which is actually a really cute area for the kids to play. Not worth the $ in my opinion.

I'm just going to reiterate what the previous travelers reported. This place is a massive ripoff. They charge admission (more expensive on the weekends) AND they charge for an itty bitty bag to carry the 6 apples that will fit. If you failed to do your research (like us suckers) then I suggest you fill up your coats with apples and eat your fill to try and get your moneys worth. Don't waste your time here.

Apple-picking season is a great time of the year in New England and Lookout Farm is a beautiful and convenient location. We spent a really nice day with our six year old grand- daughter who was happy to look at some farm animals, climb a hay pyramid, go on a hayride, see a magic show, go in a bounce house, and take a little train ride. It was convenient to have specially pruned low trees that little arms could reach and there was enough fruit available at 4:00 pm ( with a little walking into the orchard ). But, was the experience worth the high admission charge for us all? No. Were the apples worth the high price we paid? No. A token fee to cover the cost of upkeep would be fine---but even though the apples were "delicious", this was not a "gala".

I really dont know where to start probably one of the worse expierences ive ever had first of all you go into the place and they charge you $14 to get in and if you have a aaa card you are supposed to get $3 off and the lady at the window ended up giving me $2 off not that big of a deal. So i got there with a family of about 11 of us and we take the tram up to the mountains to start picking and when we get off mind you ive never been there before so we get off the tram and everyone is picking grapes from the vines so i decide to grap a bunch and this 19 year old decides to say hey you those arent to be picked there only for decoration when there were about 50 other people picking them and he didnt say anything to them. thats one of the expierences then we go to the peach trees that are all fenced off and i decided to get a couple and as im walking towards the peaches and eating one another one of there friendly workers "not" decide to come out and once again hey you, those arent to be picked while there were another bunch of people picking them so ive invested so far $46 for a pleaseant expierence that totally sucked so im finally annoyed enough and i just hang at one of the benches while the kids are playing and am waiting to go back to the bottom of the hill where everything started.So the best part comes here i go to the store that they have ask for a manager she asks what can i help you with i explain the whole situation to her and her answer was we are not a apple picking farm people dont come here to apple pick they come here to use the play area cause we are a wholesale company so i said your charging me $14 to come in and $18 for a bag when on the bag on the side of it states this is the season for peaches and her response to me was her laughing at me saying yes so i told her this place is totally highway robbery and her answer was sorry about what happened. one another thing everyone in that place has a different story you go on the hay ride they tell you to pick and enjoy the peaches and grapes then you go to area to pick and you have people treating you like crap telling you that you cant do it....so to whoever reads this save yourself a trip dont go there you wont have a plesant expirence there are much better places out there there rude and dont care about customers...

Our experience starts with a ride in a small train to orchards where the over glorified playground is, also lama and goats in bad living conditions. This takes about 15 minutes for my grandson to play through. Local playground is so much better and free. Next, back on train to apple picking. May have been nice if there were any apples to pick. Trees were so bare it looked like apples had been gone for quit a while yet, they where still bringing people to pick apples. What a scam. The 4 employees we encountered were rude. I paid $30+ for 2 adults and 1 child to be miserable.

We visit the farm once a year because we have a small child who enjoys the apple picking experience and it is a short ride for us. The biggest tip I can give is not to go on the weekend. Cons: 1) Overpriced entrance fee + high price charged for the fruit after you leave 2) Rude staff3) Small sections that are designated for apple picking tend to be picked through. The staff won't allow to pick in the other areas.4) Porta Potty bathrooms are dirty Pros: 1) The play area works well for small children with the bouncy house, caterpillar ride and the other activities around the play area. Me and my family will not return to this place.

It saddest me to read all of these poor reviews. I spent alot of my childhood at the 'original' Lookout Farm where my Godparents were the caretakers and lived on the property in the big grey farmhouse. I spent wonderful times picking apples and walking the fields. Sorry to see it so commercialized.

Stopped going there a few years ago. They are too expensive and too commercial feeling. The staff seemed like they didn't want to be there and were frustrated with their customers. Not a fun family experience at all.

My husband and I took our 3 year old son Lookout Farm last weekend and we all had a blast! My 3 year old has a short attention span and I wanted to take him to a place that offered more than just picking fruit. He absolutely LOVED the play area! It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon. We spent the entire day there and tears were shed when we had to leave. We will definitely be back next year!

If you want to go to a gigantic PYO farm, don't go to this one. They charge an expensive admission with no break on cost of fruit bags, the train-shaped-tractor is pretty lame, and the kids area is not worth the admission. I went here because it's slightly closer than Stow or Ipswich, but it really wasn't worth it for me. The quality of apples is terrible, and while the grapevine arbors are adorable, the stink of the dropping fruit makes it unpleasant. Their store stocks the same sort of apple-related items you would see at a major grocery store. Why even bother?When I visited, the train operator didn't speak a word of english and drove pretty fast.

First of all, they charge an inflated admission fee. It cost me nearly $80 for me + 2 kids (ages 3&5) just to walk into this place, and that's because I bought a small bag for apples. The train ride was OK, the children's play area was OK. The apples were TERRIBLE!!!! Thank god I didn't splurge for the big bag of apples!! We forced ourselves to eat the apples even though they were awful because we'd paid so much for them. You can get MUCH better apples at your local supermarket at a fraction of te price! Don't waste your time and money here, it's a complete rip off.