USA: Northeast, Best Corn Mazes and Fall Festivals for Families 2008. From Pennsylvania and Vermont to Rhode Island and New York, the idea is simple, enjoy the season. Select the perfect pumpkin, time travel, preview a film, or hike a mountain trail. We've managed to obtain a bird's eye view of Vermont's Apple Barn Maze to give you a sense of the season. Play flashlight tag or chase the kids through the corn stalks; ride on a wagon full of hay or bob for apples, make time for fun.
New York: Greene County, Massacre Mansion - Haunted House (10/17/2008 – 10/31/2008). Located between the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains two hours north of New York City, Greene County has embraced family vacationers for more than a century. Take a frightful guided tour in the scariest haunted house in the Catskills. Explore the house, dark maze and wolf hollow trail. (Blackthorne Resort, 348 Sunside Rd., East Durham. (518) 634-2541 or www.blackthorneresort.com) Bonus point: Checkout the Mountaintop Pumpkin Festival (October 18 (rain date 19) featuring dozens of quality craft and gift vendors, hay rides, and pumpkin painting. Bear Creek Restaurant & Recreational Park, (518) 263-3839 or www.bearcreekrestaurant.com For more getaway options go to www.discovergreene.com
Vermont: Danville, the Great Maze. (8/1/2008- 10/19/2008) The maze and farm adventure includes a flower garden, perplexing puzzles, 50' of bridges, trails and paths plus Miney's Korny Kid Korn Maze - a smaller version of the maze. There is also barnyard golf - definitely something different and the Barnyard Nature Center where farm life experiences become a reality and visitors enjoy the animal petting area, pedal tractors, and good old fashioned fun comes easy. The maze includes not just corn alley ways but also 100' of underground tunnels. On selected nights you can even enjoy the maze with Starlight Maze nights. Bonus points: For a more thrilling experience older kids will enjoy “Dead North”. This year’s haunt will include wagon rides, a ½ mile walk of terror through a haunted cornfield and buildings including animatronics, special effects and three new buildings. There is also an ultimate laser tag with 2-acre playing fields which will open this year and is fun for the whole family, 9 to 90. (The Great Vermont Corn MAZE, 3260 Tampico Road, Danville, VT 05828. 1(802) 748–1399 or www.vermontcornmaze.com)
New York: Critz Farms Harvest Celebration . (9/15/2008-10/21/2008) From a petting zoo with more than twenty animals to pony rides for tykes this is a family adventure for all generations. They have a 10-acre corn maze as well as a hay bale maze. On Sunday afternoons there is live musical entertainment to compliment the country gourmet café. Wagons loaded with hay take visitors to the pumpkin field. Special events include a children's pedal tractor-pull, a haunted barn for little monsters and magic shows. The Kiddie Corral children's play area has a 45-foot wooden train. Bonus points: This farm also has a cut-your-own Christmas tree family adventure and they mail fresh wreaths almost anywhere. (Critz Farms 3232 Rippleton Road, Cazenovia, NY 13035. Toll-free 1-800-442-3225 or www.critzfarms.com)
Maine: Oguinquit, OgunquitFest (10/24/2008 – 10/26/2008). The fifth annual OgunquitFest is a marvelously fun weekend festival with a scarecrow contest, a kids’ carnival, pumpkin decorating, a spooky scavenger hunt, costume parade, ghost stories galore, ghost tours, a Monster Mall market place and more. There’s even a nine-hole Graveyard Golf course along the beach for the grown kids. (All through the town of Ogunquit. 1(07) 646-2939 or www.ogunquit.com)
Massachusetts: Wareham, 5th Annual Cranberry Harvest Celebration (10/11/2008 – 10/12/2008). The Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Association invites families to enjoy “two big days for a little berry” at the 5th annual Cranberry Harvest Celebration this Fall. Festival activities will include cranberry harvest tours, wagon and pony rides, games and crafts for kids, juried crafters and artisans, musical performances, cooking demonstrations, helicopter rides and more. Bonus: Children under 6 are admitted free, but the ticket price is only $2 per person. (A.D. Makepeace Company Headquarters at Tihonet Village, 158 Tihonet Road, Wareham. 1(508) 322-4000, 1(508) 759-1041 or www.cranberries.org/festival/festival.html)
New Hampshire: Hampton Falls, Harvest Festival (09/06/2008 – 10/26/2008). Now in its 34th year, the Applecrest Farm Harvest Festival is memorable and guaranteed to please the young and the young-at-heart. Starting the first weekend in September, the festival features free live folk and bluegrass music, “pick-your-own” apple and pumpkins, horse-drawn orchard hayrides, a children’s petting zoo, face painting, a pie eating contest, apple pie and ice cream, old-fashioned hot cider donut, make-your-own scarecrow and the world famous corn roast. (133 Exeter Road – along Route 88, Hampton Falls 03844. 1(603) 926-3721 or www.applecrest.com)
Information compiled from theFamilyTravelFiles.com database as of July 2008. Images provided by Adams Farm in Vermont and Emma Krumbies in Minnesota. Sometimes things change, so please confirm details before making plans. Copyright 2008.
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