Apple Picking Near MetroWest MA 2026: Farms, Mazes & Day Trips

The Best Fall Day Trips from MetroWest (2026)

Everything on this list is between 20 and 60 minutes from central MetroWest. 

1. Shelburne Farm (Stow) pick your own apples, peaches and Asian pears, plus hayrides, a story walk and a playground. About 25 minutes from Framingham.
2. Honey Pot Hill Orchards (Stow) apples plus the biggest hedge maze in America, and cider donuts made with cider they press themselves.
3. Davis Farmland and the Davis Mega Maze (Sterling) an eight acre corn maze with roughly three miles of pathways, redesigned every year.
4. Nashoba Valley Winery (Bolton) a 52-acre hilltop orchard with roughly 80 apple varieties, most of them heirloom, plus a winery, distillery, brewery and restaurant.
5. Fruitlands Museum (Harvard) and Wachusett Mountain (Princeton) the two best foliage overlooks within an hour of MetroWest.

Foliage in this corridor runs slightly ahead of MetroWest proper. Sterling, Princeton and Harvard usually peak in the middle two weeks of October, with the Stow and Bolton orchards close behind.


Why Leave MetroWest for Apple Picking?

MetroWest does fall well: Hanson's Farm, Lookout Farm, the Wayside Inn. What it doesn't have is scale.

Drive 20 to 40 minutes northwest into the Nashoba Valley and the orchards get bigger, older and considerably more interesting, with heirloom varieties you won't find in a grocery store. Another 15 minutes and the land starts to climb, which is how you go from walking through fall color to looking out over it.

Our team drives this corridor every October with our own families. This guide is organized the way you'd actually plan the day: by how far you're willing to go.


20 to 30 Minutes: Stow

Stow is the closest serious orchard town to MetroWest, and it’s the reason you don’t need to drive to New Hampshire.

Shelburne Farm (106 West Acton Road, Stow)

The family friendly anchor of the town. Pick your own apples, peaches and Asian pears, with a lineup that includes less common varieties like CrimsonCrisp, Autumn Crisp and Red Rubens alongside the standards. Beyond the picking there’s a story walk through the orchard, hayrides, a John Deere playground, farm animals, food trucks and a pop-up apple shop selling homemade apple crisp. Open daily, generally 9am to 6pm through the season.

Best for: families with kids under 10 who want picking plus enough else to fill three hours.

Honey Pot Hill Orchards (Sudbury Road, Stow)

A fourth-generation farm started in 1926, and the most distinctive orchard in the region. Pick your own apples, pears and blueberries, with early varieties in September rolling into later ones through October.

The real draw is the mazes. The Big Green Monster Maze is made of roughly 3,000 hedges, with six bridges and a lookout gazebo, and takes about an hour to solve. There’s a smaller Mini Monster Maze modeled on the maze at England’s Hampton Court, and a tunnel maze scaled for younger kids. The hedge mazes typically run from late August into mid-November, well past apple season. Add hayrides and a barnyard with sheep, goats and rabbits.

On the food side, Honey Pot Hill is one of the few orchards that presses its own cider weekly from its own apples and uses that cider in the donut batter. It’s a real difference and you can taste it.

Practical notes: October weekends get very busy, arrive early for parking. 

Carver Hill Orchard (Stow)

The low-key alternative. Scenic, quieter, and a good call if you drove out on a peak Saturday and the other two lots are full.

Also in Stow

• Assabet River Rail Trail paved and flat, connecting toward Maynard and Acton.
• Stow Town Forest and Delaney Wildlife Management Area for quiet walking and paddling on the Assabet.

30 to 40 Minutes: Bolton and the Nashoba Valley

Nashoba Valley Winery (100 Wattaquadock Hill Road, Bolton)

The grown up version of an apple picking day. A 52-acre hilltop orchard overlooking Bolton, growing roughly 80 apple varieties around 60 of them heirloom. On the antique trees you’ll find things you can’t buy in a store: Rhode Island Greenings, Roxbury Russets, pink fleshed Almatas, Ashmead’s Kernel. If you care about apples as apples, this is the most interesting orchard in eastern Massachusetts.

The property also runs a winery, distillery, brewery, a wine and gift shop, and J’s restaurant with orchard views. Weekend tastings and tours are available, and there are picnic tables under the trees.

One note for families: children are not allowed in the tasting room. The orchard itself is fine for kids, but plan the visit accordingly.

Also in Bolton and Harvard

• Bolton Orchards a long- unning farm stand for apples, cider and fall produce without the pick-your-own commitment.
• Carlson Orchards (Harvard) the Carlson name is on cider distributed across New England. Drinking it at the source is a different experience.
• Westward Orchards and Doe Orchards (Harvard) smaller, older, less crowded.

35 to 45 Minutes: Harvard and Fruitlands

Fruitlands Museum (Harvard)

A Trustees of Reservations property on a hillside overlooking the Nashua River Valley, with a view across to Mount Wachusett and the Monadnock region. Four museum buildings including the 1840s Transcendentalist farmhouse where Bronson Alcott’s utopian experiment briefly ran, sit on 200-plus acres of trails and meadow.

The view alone justifies the drive. In mid-October it’s one of the best foliage overlooks in eastern Massachusetts, and unlike a mountain summit you can reach it without climbing anything. Bring a blanket and sit on the hillside.

Check current hours and admission before you go; seasonal schedules vary and non-members pay.



40 to 50 Minutes: Sterling and Davis Farmland

Davis Mega Maze and Davis Mega Farm Festival (145 Redstone Hill Road, Sterling)

The corn maze has been running here since 1998 and it’s not a token attraction. Eight acres, roughly three miles of pathways, and a completely new design every year specifically so repeat visitors can’t shortcut it. You get a puzzle sheet at the entrance and it takes real time to finish.

The surrounding fall festival adds something like 50 attractions: quad carts, corn cannons, knocker soccer, archery tag, pig races, live music, food and drinks. It’s the most activity dense fall destination in this guide.

Davis Farmland (same property, Sterling)

The petting farm side is a separate operation focused on young children, with heritage and endangered livestock breeds, hands-on animal encounters, safari hayrides and a splash park in warm weather. One rule catches people out: adults must be accompanied by a child 12 or under to visit Davis Farmland.

Practical notes: buy tickets online in advance, wear real shoes, and check the site for which attractions are running on your date, the summer and fall operations have different schedules.



45 to 60 Minutes: Wachusett Mountain, Princeton

The best view in eastern or central Massachusetts, and the destination that most justifies the phrase “worth the drive.”

• Wachusett Mountain State Reservation trails to a 2,006-foot summit, plus a seasonal auto road if you’d rather drive up. On a clear October day you can see Boston to the east and Monadnock to the north.
• Wachusett AppleFest — October 17–18 and October 24–25, 2026. Live music, apple pie baking and eating contests, roughly 100 craft exhibitors, a farmers market, kids’ entertainment, and foliage views from the SkyRide.
• Wachusett KidsFest — September 26–27, 2026. The 35th annual edition, with dino day and princess-and-pirate day, live animal shows, circus acts and walkaround characters.
• Wachusett Reservoir the drive around it is beautiful and almost nobody thinks to do it.