Fall Harvest Festival at Port Farms

Fall has most definitely arrived in Erie, PA. We’ve decided to accept it, and some of us are even excited for the colder weather! One thing that we can all agree on is that we’re all excited for Fall activities and festivals in the Erie area. We recently visited the Fall Harvest Festival at Port Farms, and we have to say that it was a ton of fun and offered a lot of things to do!

Location:

Port Farms is located at 2055 Stone Quarry Road, Waterford, PA 16441. The Fall Harvest Festival runs Wednesdays-Sundays 10 a.m.-7 p.m. from September 18, 2021 until October 31, 2021. It is closed Mondays and Tuesdays with the exception of Columbus Day, Monday, October 11, when the festival will be open from 10 a.m.-7 p.m..

This fall festival in Erie County does have an admission cost. The following are prices for the 2021 season. Wednesdays-Fridays, children and adults are $12.95 per person, and Saturdays-Sundays are $14.95 per person. Kids 2 and under are always free. Ages 60 and over are $6.95 per person, and on Wednesdays, grandparents get in for free with the purchase of a kids admission!

Property Description:

Port Farms is a working farm with the Fall Harvest Festival only taking up a portion of the farm. When you come up to the address, you will see a set of flags welcoming you into the parking lot. Park your car and head to the ticketing entrance. Do not go through the Harvest Barn (gift shop) entrance. Once you get inside there are maps available, you can look at the maps they have posted on the farm, or you can look at a map on your phone from their website in order to get to the attraction that you’d like to visit.

One thing we were pleasantly surprised to see was the amount of hand sanitizing stations around the farm, especially in the areas intended for children.

What to Do:

There is no shortage of things to do while you’re at Port Farms in Waterford, PA! To be completely honest, this is the first time we’ve visited with our littles, and we couldn’t believe the amount of activities they have!

We’ll start with the kids. When asked about their favorite part, one responded “THE GOATS!” while jumping up and down. Those goats clearly left an impression. They are super friendly; we fed them and they were very gentle with the children. After feeding them, one of the littles even said “I just can’t believe this, this is the best Thanksgiving ever,” which was adorable in so many ways. The other attraction that almost matched up to the goats was Tiny Town. Tiny Town is a new attraction for 2021; it’s basically sheds that are transformed into places you would find in a small town, such as a theater, market, farm, house, and pizza shop. Inside, the kids will find all sorts of fun things to play with, including Melissa and Doug toys of all kinds. Our favorites were the market, the house, and the “pond” to fish in.

There are several other activities that the kids will love (and some adults will love, too)! The Low Ropes Course was a lot of fun for all of us, as we played on a giant playground and balanced on different obstacles. We even got to climb a small rock wall! The ball zone will be a favorite of anyone who enjoys playing sports; you can try your hand at soccer, basketball, and football. The Game Garden features large wooden games, such as a giant game of connect four called Ducks in a Row. The Tire Fort will test your climbing and balancing skills as you climb from tire to tire and walk across wooden beams.

The Kid’s Fort had a few slides for the kids to go down, and several areas to hide and even a place to climb up a slanted board that led to a fun tube slide. The Cattle Chute Maze was a lot of fun for the kids to figure out, and great because they never felt trapped as they could see all around them. The Bubble Hut was really neat, and the bubbles floated very far while staying in tact! In fact, we saw bubbles floating by as we were eating on the other side of the festival!

There are several other activities at Port Farms in Erie County that we were unable to do on our trip, but may head back for the opportunity to try them. Port Farms Fall Festival has a few stages set up on the property, which they have live music events at. We are very interested in checking out this live music in Erie County, as we love a good live artist or band! The Beer Garden also peaked our interest, but wasn’t available while we were there.

The littles didn’t get a chance to play in the corn box, but it’s on our list for next time! One of the kids really wanted to try the Jumpkin Patch, but we just weren’t able to on the day we went. It looks like a lot of fun; and like something kids would really enjoy! And let us mention, adults can enjoy it, too! We also want to try the corn maze; an 8 acre corn maze sounds like a bit of a challenge! Another was the Giant Rocking Chair, which makes for a great photo opp!

Speaking of photo opp, there are plenty of places around Port Farms to take photos! Whether you’re looking for a quick family picture, a pic of the kids, an Instagram selfie, or a place to showcase your food and drink, you’ll find it in one of the many displays at Port Farms.

While here, we ate at the Country Kitchen. We chose to get a side order of French Fries, a Burger (comes with fries), a Peanut Butter Cup Cookie, a Smore’s cookie, cappuccino, hot apple cider, and hot chocolate. Everything we had was great. The fries were soft, with a bit of crisp on the outside. The burger was really good, and tasted like “a real burger” to us. The cookies were super good. We can’t say enough about how yummy the cookies are, the Smore’s cookie has a lot of marshmallow fluffiness inside and the crushed peanut butter cups are on top of the Peanut Butter Cup Cookie flavor it with so much peanut buttery goodness.

The drinks were really great and all of them were served very hot. The cappuccino and hot chocolate were both very tasty, but our favorite was the hot apple cider. There’s something about hot apple cider on a cool day that just makes Fall feel very welcoming.

We couldn’t leave the Harvest Festival without stopping by their gift shop. We had to get a bag of kettle corn to take home, and the littles each picked out a souvenir for the day. While in the store, we couldn’t help but notice the candle display from Our Own Candle Company and treated ourselves to a few Fall scented candles. In fact, one is on the warmer right now (Pumpkin Creme Pie) and our house smells phenomenal. We also found out, right as we were checking out, that the gift shop also has slush puppies! Awesome.

Who Can Go:

Upon hearing about this event, one may assume that it’s geared towards children. Let us verify something, Fall Harvest Festival at Port Farms is literally for everyone at any age. It is easily accessible for strollers and wheelchairs, but keep in mind there is a lot of grass to roll over. Be mindful of the weather, and prepare in case you will be dealing with mud or wet grass!

Our feet were saved by our Vessi’s yet again! A walk in the rain never felt so dry! Vessi makes 100% waterproof sneakers that we highly recommend. We have an exclusive code for $20 off your first purchase of $100 or more. Click here to be directed to Vessi’s website to browse and use our code!

We feel like this next thought we have is looped in with who can go because we know people can take caution when bringing kids and babies out into public, especially in the Fall as flu season begins, not to mention what the world has been facing recently with the pandemic. One thing we were very impressed with was the Hand Washing Station and Changing Station, located near the goats. There are several sinks available to wash your hands whenever you need to, and when you walk around to the other side you will see a feeding and changing station for babies and toddlers. We were so glad to see this at a place such as Port Farms, because of the traffic of kids coming in and out. It’s so hard for moms to find private space when they need it, and Port Farms provides that space. We didn’t go in as we didn’t need to use it, but we really like knowing it’s there!

Final Thoughts:

If you’re looking for Fall activities in Erie, PA, you should definitely check out Port Farms. For a lot of Erie residents, Fall just isn’t the same without a trip to this fun-filled place. For more information, maps, pricing, and details about Fall Harvest Festival at Port Farms, visit their website by clicking here.

And click HERE for more Fall fun in Erie County!

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[Editor’s note: Please be aware that we are not affiliated with Port Farms in any way. This is true of all of our posts. We simply enjoy wandering around Erie as we know finding what to do in Erie, PA area can be hard. And in the case of this post, we went during a time when crowds were extremely low.]

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