Pumpkin Patch Prices UK 2026: What a Family Day Out Costs

Pumpkin picking sounds like a fairly innocent autumn afternoon. A muddy field, a wheelbarrow, a few pictures of the kids looking adorable in wellies and home in time for tea. But somewhere along the way, we've managed to turn choosing a vegetable into an £81 family day out.

Our research at thinkmoney found that a trip to the pumpkin patch could cost a family of four around £81.12 in 2026, once you've paid for entry, picked your pumpkins and factored in the extras. We compared ticket prices at 12 pumpkin patches across the UK and found that some attractions are charging up to 88% more on their busiest dates.

And if you remember when pumpkin picking involved handing a farmer a fiver and being pointed towards a field, you might want to sit down for this.

How much does pumpkin picking cost for a family of four?

Based on the average adult admission price at eight of the daytime pumpkin patches we researched, here's how the cost of a family trip could stack up.

This is an illustrative estimate rather than the price every family will pay. We've used adult admission prices for all four visitors, although many attractions offer cheaper children's tickets. Pumpkin prices and extras are estimated, and one attraction includes a pumpkin in its admission price.

Of course, there are still places where you can pick a pumpkin for a couple of quid, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to spend more on a special day out. But there's quite a difference between popping out to choose a pumpkin for Halloween and discovering that you've accidentally booked the family into an autumn-themed shopping experience, where the real Halloween scare is pester power.

Why has pumpkin picking become so expensive?

We've got America to thank for the modern pumpkin patch tradition, although we've certainly embraced it with enthusiasm. Halloween is now one of the UK's biggest retail occasions, behind Christmas and Easter, according to Kantar.

Social media has given the humble pumpkin a particularly impressive career change. A field full of pumpkins is lovely, but a field full of pumpkins with a coffee van, vintage tractor, perfectly positioned hay bales, golden hour lighting, and a photo backdrop is practically irresistible to Instagram.

And once there's an experience to sell, there are plenty of opportunities to charge for it.

To be fair to the farms, running these events isn't cheap. They're dealing with staffing, insurance, maintenance and the considerable gamble of growing something outdoors in British weather. Many have invested in attractions well beyond the original pumpkin patch, including lantern trails, children's entertainment, food stalls and elaborate seasonal displays.

Some farms also work with influencers and build dedicated photo opportunities to attract visitors. It's become a whole industry around something we used to buy from a supermarket for Halloween.

As I see it, Instagram has turned a field of pumpkins into a full production, and productions cost money. The important thing is recognising when you're paying for the pumpkin and when you're paying for the experience, and what it is your kids are actually looking for before you commit to the ticket price.

Are pumpkin patches more expensive at weekends and during half term?

Here's where the pricing gets particularly interesting. Several of the pumpkin patches we researched now charge different prices depending on which day you visit.

It's the same principle we're used to seeing with flights, hotels and theme parks. Go when demand is lower and you pay less, turn up when everybody else wants to go and the price climbs.

At Craigie's Farm near Edinburgh, a quieter day costs £4 per person, compared with £7.50 on festival dates. That's an increase of almost 88% for admission to the same attraction.

Hobbledown Heath in Hounslow charges between £7.50 and £9.50 depending on the date, while Tulleys Farm in West Sussex charges between £8.95 and £13.95 for its daytime Pumpkin Days.

And it isn't just daytime picking. The highest ticket price for Tulleys' evening Pumpkin Nights has risen from £17 in 2025 to £24.95 this year, although the cheapest tickets remain around £12.

Now, there's a completely reasonable argument for charging more when demand is highest, particularly if it helps keep quieter days affordable. Unfortunately the people most likely to be restricted to weekends and school holidays are families with school-age children. They're also the people buying multiple tickets, paying for multiple pumpkins and trying to make a lovely October memory without accidentally spending the Christmas present budget.

Pumpkin patch prices compared: where is cheapest in 2026?

We looked at admission prices across the UK to see how much families can expect to pay this autumn. Prices vary considerably, and some attractions include activities or a pumpkin in the ticket price, so it pays to look beyond the headline figure.

Prices researched during the week commencing 15 September 2026. Date-dependent prices show the available range. Please check with the attraction before booking.

There are some big differences here, but it's worth remembering that these aren't necessarily like-for-like experiences.

An attraction charging £14.95 with a pumpkin included might actually work out better value than somewhere charging £10 for entry and another £6 for the pumpkin. Equally, a simple field where you pay £2 to get in could be absolutely perfect if all you want is to choose something orange and take it home.

The cheapest option isn't always the best value, but the most expensive certainly isn't guaranteed to be the most fun.

Is the pumpkin included in the ticket price?

You'd be forgiven for assuming that booking a ticket to go pumpkin picking might include an actual pumpkin. Unfortunately, that's not always how it works.

Of the eight daytime attractions in our main price comparison, three confirmed that pumpkins cost extra, one included a pumpkin, and four didn't make the position clear enough for us to confirm.

That matters when you're buying for a family. Four pumpkins at approximately £6 each add another £24 to the day, and that's before anyone decides they want the enormous one that requires its own seat in the car.

Check what's included before booking. An apparently expensive ticket might include the pumpkin or other activities, while a cheaper entry price can quickly grow once you're through the gate.

And if your children have already decided they're each coming home with a pumpkin the size of a small planet, it's worth agreeing on a budget before you arrive.

Where are the cheapest pumpkin patches in the UK?

Thankfully, not every pumpkin patch has decided it needs a festival programme, a professional photographer and six different varieties of hot chocolate.

There are still some lovely low-cost options around the country, including places where admission costs very little or nothing at all.

These four attractions are excluded from our £81.12 family estimate because their entry arrangements differ significantly from the main group.

Doddington Hall is a particularly good example of keeping things simple, with free entry and visitors paying for the pumpkins they pick.

Malpas Pick Your Own in Cheshire charges just £2 for admission, with pumpkins priced separately. That might leave enough in the budget for a hot chocolate afterwards, which I'm fairly certain is half the reason anyone agrees to spend an October afternoon in a field anyway.

It's worth checking for smaller local farms, garden centres and pick-your-own sites, too. They might not have the giant photo props you've seen all over Instagram, but if the objective is to find a pumpkin, that isn't necessarily a disadvantage.

Are more people searching for pumpkin patches near them?

Apparently, we can't get enough of them.

Google Trends data shows that searches for "pumpkin patches near me" reached a new high in October 2026, even though the month wasn't over when we checked.

Search interest was approximately 37% higher than in October 2025 and roughly double the levels recorded in 2022 and 2023.

There's also a small but interesting shift in how people are searching. The phrase "cheap pumpkin patches near me", which previously attracted too little search interest to register consistently in Google Trends, has started showing up this autumn.

It's still a small amount of search activity, so I wouldn't read too much into it, but it does suggest some of us are starting to look for ways to enjoy the tradition without paying quite so much for the privilege.

Google Trends measures relative search popularity, rather than the exact number of searches. The October 2026 figures also cover only 1–19 October, so they're an early indication rather than a final comparison for the month.

Source: Google Trends, Great Britain, monthly data from October 2021 to October 2026, with the latest month partial.

How to save money on pumpkin picking this Halloween

I would never suggest vetoing a lovely family tradition purely because somebody on the internet has worked out that buying a pumpkin from Aldi would be cheaper. Sometimes the experience really is the point. But if you're going to make a day of it, there are a few ways to make sure you're paying for things you actually want.

Decide whether you're going pumpkin picking or going on a day out. They're two quite different propositions now. If you want the full Halloween experience, with activities, entertainment and something nice to eat, compare what's included in the ticket. But if you're mainly going for pumpkins, a simpler pick-your-own farm might be much better value.

Look at the total family price before falling in love with the photos. Four admission tickets can be expensive before you've picked a single pumpkin. Add parking, food and drinks, and a seemingly modest £8 ticket can turn into something much bigger.

Take advantage of quieter dates if they genuinely work for you. Some attractions charge substantially less outside peak periods. But don't make life unnecessarily complicated trying to save a few pounds. Taking time off work or driving much further can easily wipe out the saving.

Don't assume the pumpkin comes with the ticket. It sounds obvious, but when you're booking an activity called pumpkin picking, it's easy to miss that detail. Check whether pumpkins are included, how they're priced and whether there's a minimum spend.

Give the kids a pumpkin budget. If they're old enough, let them work out what they can buy with it. Choosing between a gigantic pumpkin and a smaller one with money left over for a treat is quite a nice little lesson in spending priorities, without making the day feel like a maths lesson.

And perhaps most importantly, remember that you're not obliged to recreate someone else's Instagram reel.

If everybody has a lovely time, comes home with muddy shoes and something vaguely pumpkin-shaped to carve, I'd call that a success. Whether there's a professionally styled hay bale in the background is entirely optional.