Apple Picking Near Chicago: 10 Orchards + Timing

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Last updated: September 2026

Apple picking near Chicago has a timing problem nobody warns you about: Honeycrisp and Granny Smith ripen about seven weeks apart, so “apple season” isn’t one season. Drive out on the wrong Saturday and you’ll pay admission to pick the variety you like least.

Below are ten orchards, sorted by how far you have to drive, from a forty-minute hop into Indiana to a Michigan farm worth a full weekend. For each one: where it is, what kind of day it is, and whether it’s the version with pig races or the version with just apples. My husband’s family is from Chicago and we’ve been making this drive in some direction for decades, and the short answer is that the quiet orchards and the carnival orchards are two completely different outings.

The thing to understand before you book a Saturday is that picking is now a ticketed activity almost everywhere. You buy a bag, the bag admits a set number of pickers, and on weekends a lot of farms add a separate gate charge for the corn maze and the animals. Two tickets, two prices, and buying one doesn’t get you the other.

The second thing is that variety availability changes weekly and sometimes daily. Every farm below posts what’s ripe, and the ones that don’t will tell you on the phone. Check the day before you drive, not the week before.

Getting There Without a Car

Here’s the honest answer: apple picking near Chicago is a driving activity. None of these orchards has a train station you can walk from, and no CTA line goes anywhere near them.

The closest thing to an exception is Royal Oak Farm in Harvard, which sits at the end of the Metra Union Pacific Northwest line, though it’s still several miles from the station and you’d need a rideshare from there. If you don’t have a car, the more practical fall move is a farm-style festival you can reach on the L, like the Lincoln Square Apple Fest in early October, which brings the cider and the doughnuts to you.

Apple Orchards Within About an Hour of Chicago

County Line Orchard, Hobart, Indiana

The one to pick if the drive is the problem. County Line sits just over the Indiana line, roughly an hour from the Loop depending on the Skyway, and it’s built for a full family day: U-pick apples and pumpkins, a corn maze, a bakery turning out doughnuts on a scale you have to see, and animal barns.

It’s also the most crowded orchard on this list on an October Saturday, for exactly that reason. Go on a weekday or arrive at opening, and remember Indiana is on Eastern time, which catches Chicago families out every single year.

• Where: 200 S. County Line Rd., Hobart, IN 46342
• Drive: about an hour from downtown, in Eastern time
• Style: big, polished, family-focused
• Hours and tickets: County Line Orchard

Kuipers Family Farm, Maple Park, Illinois

Kuipers is the one for people who care which apple they’re picking. The farm runs more than 45 varieties across the season, which means the orchard you walk into in early September is genuinely different from the one in mid-October.

U-pick requires an orchard admission ticket, and the farm’s separate FunFarm attractions are their own charge. The bakery and shop are free to walk into, which makes this a reasonable stop even if you’ve decided you don’t want to pay to pick. Hours vary by date and the farm is closed on Tuesdays, so check the calendar for your day.

• Where: 1N318 Watson Rd., Maple Park, IL 60151
• Drive: about an hour west
• Style: serious orchard with family attractions attached
• Hours and tickets: Kuipers Family Farm

Jonamac Orchard, Malta, Illinois

A three-generation family farm out past DeKalb with thousands of trees, a cider house, a corn maze and an animal barn. Jonamac tends to open a week or two later than the rest of this list, which makes it useful when the closer orchards have already been picked over.

It’s also one of the clearest examples of the two-ticket structure: a U-pick bag for the orchard, plus general admission on weekends and holiday Mondays that doesn’t apply on ordinary weekdays. The haunted version of the corn maze runs select October nights and is a separate thing entirely.

• Where: 19412 Shabbona Rd., Malta, IL 60150
• Drive: about 75 minutes west
• Hours and tickets: Jonamac Orchard

Pro tip: Weekday visits aren’t just quieter, they’re cheaper. Several of these farms charge weekend-only general admission on top of the picking bag, so a Friday costs a family of four noticeably less than a Sunday for the identical orchard.

McHenry County: The Classic Chicago Apple Run

All Seasons Orchard, Woodstock, Illinois

If you have kids under ten and you want one stop to carry the whole afternoon, this is it. All Seasons has thousands of apple trees, a pumpkin patch, and a farm attraction area with a corn maze, petting zoo, pig races and a ropes course.

The pricing splits and it trips people up: the U-pick price covers the bag and orchard entry, and the barnyard attractions are a separate ticket. Decide which one you’re actually there for before you get to the window.

• Where: 14510 IL Route 176, Woodstock, IL 60098
• Drive: about 80 minutes northwest
• Hours and tickets: All Seasons Orchard

Stade’s Farm & Market, McHenry, Illinois

Stade’s runs a fall festival alongside its orchard, with dozens of farm attractions, a market and a bakery. Apples here include Honeycrisp, Zestar and Pixie Crunch, which is a better variety list than the size of the place suggests.

Think of it as the same category as All Seasons: you’re buying a farm day, and the picking is one activity inside it. Good with school-age kids, less good if you wanted a quiet orchard.

• Where: 3709 Miller Rd., McHenry, IL 60051
• Drive: about 75 minutes northwest
• Hours and tickets: Stade’s Farm & Market

Royal Oak Farm Orchard, Harvard, Illinois

Royal Oak is the pick for anyone who wants a specific apple. The farm sits just south of the Wisconsin line with tens of thousands of trees across more than thirty varieties, and it publishes an approximate harvest date for each one, which almost nobody else does.

There’s also an apple tree maze, a carousel and a train, plus a kitchen doing lunch. Two rules worth knowing before you go: picking poles aren’t permitted, and apple picking closes an hour before the farm does, which is the detail that turns a late start into a wasted drive.

• Where: Harvard, IL, about 90 minutes northwest of downtown
• Best for: variety hunters and anyone who plans around Honeycrisp
• Harvest calendar and hours: Royal Oak Farm Orchard

The No-Frills Orchards

Two farms for people whose ideal Saturday does not involve a bounce house. Both are further out, both are quieter, and both are the version of this outing I’d choose without kids in the car.

Honey Hill Orchard, Waterman, Illinois

Apples, pumpkins, honey from the farm’s own hives, and not much else by design. It’s west of Aurora in DeKalb County, roughly 75 minutes out, and the U-pick operation is deliberately simple. Check the orchard’s page for current picking days and payment before you drive, because a small farm’s rules change more often than a big one’s.

• Where: 11783 Waterman Rd., Waterman, IL 60556
• Hours and picking: Honey Hill Orchard

Edwards Apple Orchard, Poplar Grove, Illinois

The furthest north of the Illinois group, out past Rockford, and the biggest by tree count. Edwards is a fourth-generation family farm that runs from September through November, and the cider doughnuts are the reason people drive ninety minutes each way.

Here’s what I’d do: pair it with a stop in Rockford rather than driving straight back. Two hours in the car for one bag of apples is a long day; two hours in the car for apples plus lunch somewhere new is a trip.

• Where: 7061 Centerville Rd., Poplar Grove, IL 61065
• Season: September through November
• Hours and picking: Edwards Apple Orchard

Worth the Drive: Wisconsin and Michigan

Apple Holler, Sturtevant, Wisconsin

Halfway to Milwaukee, right off I-94, which makes it the easiest out-of-state orchard on this list. Apple Holler is a farm with a restaurant, bakery and gift shop attached, and its picking package bundles the orchard with tractor rides, the farm park and the animals.

The dwarf trees mean no ladders, which matters more with small kids than anything else on the brochure. Call ahead for picking availability; the orchard asks people to, and varieties move fast here. It’s at 5006 S. Sylvania Ave., Sturtevant, about 80 minutes from the Loop without traffic.

Crane Orchards, Fennville, Michigan

This is the one I’d build a weekend around. Crane Orchards has been farmed since the 1880s and is now in its sixth generation, with U-pick apples, a 15-acre corn maze, weekend hayrides and the Pie Pantry restaurant next door. Apple U-pick hours run 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily when the fruit is in season, and the farm is clear that it can’t promise exact dates because the trees decide.

What makes it worth two and a half hours is where it sits. Fennville is inland from the Lake Michigan shoreline, so an orchard morning pairs with an afternoon in Saugatuck, which holds its fall color later than almost anywhere else in the region. Apples, dune trail, dinner, drive home Sunday.

• Where: Fennville, MI, about 2.5 hours around the bottom of the lake
• U-pick hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily in season
• Current picking: Crane Orchards

Pro tip: If you’re crossing into Michigan or Indiana, check the clock as well as the calendar. Both are on Eastern time, so a 10 a.m. opening is 9 a.m. to you, and a 6 p.m. close is 5 p.m. That one hour is the difference between an unhurried afternoon and a rushed one.

When to Go, and Which Apple You’re Actually After

Most orchards around Chicago open in late August and run through October, but no single variety lasts the whole stretch. Early season leans Gala and Zestar, the middle brings Honeycrisp and Jonagold, and the late weeks are Fuji, Granny Smith and the keeping apples.

If you’re going for Honeycrisp specifically, and most people are, go earlier than feels right and check the farm’s page first. It’s the variety that sells out fastest and the one that generates the most disappointed Saturday drives. Royal Oak’s published harvest calendar is the most useful planning tool in this whole post for exactly that reason.

What to Know Before You Drive

Bring cash even where cards are accepted, because small farms and farm stands move faster on cash and some U-pick operations prefer it. Wear shoes you don’t mind muddying; an orchard after rain is a working field, not a park.

Assume your dog stays home. Most orchards don’t allow pets, which is usually down to the animal barns and food service on site, and the ones that make an exception say so clearly. If a farm day with the dog is what you’re after, a forest preserve hike is the better plan.

And go early. Every farm on this list is at its best in the first ninety minutes it’s open, and at its worst between noon and three on an October Saturday, when the parking lot backs up onto a two-lane road and the doughnut line is forty deep.

When does apple picking season start near Chicago?

Most orchards in the Chicago area open in late August and run through the end of October. Individual varieties ripen in their own two- to three-week windows across that stretch, so the right question isn’t when the season starts but when your apple is ready.

How much does apple picking cost?

Nearly every orchard charges per person now, with the bag as the unit of purchase, and many add a separate weekend general admission on top. Farm attractions like corn mazes and petting zoos are usually a third charge. Prices change year to year, so check the farm’s own page rather than a roundup.

Can you go apple picking without a car?

Not realistically. No orchard near Chicago is walkable from a train station. Royal Oak Farm is the closest, at the end of the Metra Union Pacific Northwest line in Harvard, but you’d still need a ride from the station. Without a car, the Lincoln Square Apple Fest in early October is the better option.

Which orchard is best with toddlers?

County Line Orchard for the short drive, or Apple Holler in Wisconsin, where the dwarf trees mean small kids can actually reach the apples. All Seasons Orchard is the pick if you want farm attractions to fill the rest of the day.

Are dogs allowed at apple orchards?

Usually not. Between the animal barns, the bakeries and the food service, most orchards limit access to service animals. Always check the individual farm’s policy before you load the car, and assume no unless the farm says otherwise.

Can you pick apples and pumpkins at the same place?

Yes, at most of them. County Line, All Seasons, Jonamac, Kuipers and Stade’s all run pumpkin patches alongside the orchard, usually opening in mid-September. Picking both in one trip is the efficient version of a fall Saturday.

Pick the variety first and the farm second, and go on a weekday if your schedule allows it, because the same orchard is a different experience on a Tuesday. When you’re ready to add the rest of the season, the pumpkin patches are mostly the same drive, the fall festival calendar runs from Labor Day to Halloween, and if the Michigan option tempted you, fall road trips from Chicago has the routes and the color timing. Tell me which orchard is your family’s, because I’m always looking for a new one.

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