Minneapolis does autumn better than it gets credit for, and the best part of it is not actually in Minneapolis. It is forty minutes out, in a row of trees, with a paper bag in your hand.
Apple season here is a genuinely big deal — this is the state that gave the world the Honeycrisp, bred at the University of Minnesota in 1991 and now Minnesota’s state fruit. Here are four places worth the drive, with what their own sites say as of today, plus what to do with the rest of the weekend once you are back in the city.
Aamodt’s Apple Farm — Stillwater
If you only do one, do this one. Aamodt’s has been on a hillside above the St. Croix valley since 1948 — 50-plus acres, more than 6,000 trees, and four generations of the same family. Founder Thor Aamodt was Minnesota’s State Entomologist and a University of Minnesota professor of horticulture, which is a fairly good sign about where he chose to plant.
- Address: 6428 Manning Ave N, Stillwater
- Hours: Apple Barn open daily 10am–6pm; pick-your-own daily 10am–5pm when apples are ready, through roughly the second week of October
- Cost: free admission and free parking, always. You buy a prepaid bag before you pick, and their bags only
- Also on site: wagon rides ($6) and the Honeycrisp Express barrel train for kids 10 and under ($6), weekends 11–5 plus MEA Thursday and Friday, October 15–16; a free goat farm; playsets; and the bakery, which is where the apple cider donuts live
One catch worth knowing: pick-your-own opens and closes with each variety, so it can be paused for a few days between them. Their homepage publishes what is picking that day — check it before you drive. Thor’s Hard Cider and Saint Croix Vineyards are both on the same property, and the vineyard’s Grape Stomp runs September 12–13 with free admission.
Afton Apple Orchard — Hastings
Afton is the one to pick if you want the whole fall-festival package rather than just trees. Fifteen pick-your-own apple varieties, plus pumpkins, gourds, sweet corn, fall raspberries and sunflowers, a 15-acre corn maze, hayrides, a petting farm, a playground and a café.
- Address: 14421 90th Street South, Hastings
- Hours: orchard and retail store open 10am–6pm daily through October 31
- Cost: general orchard admission $7 for ages 5 and up, $5 for ages 4 and under. Admission does not include the fruit you pick, and the corn maze is charged separately
- Dates: the corn maze opens September 19 (their site marks it tentative), pumpkin season runs late September through the end of October, and Apple Festival weekends are September 26–27, October 3–4 and October 10–11
Jacobson’s Pine Tree Apple Orchard — White Bear Lake
The closest of the four to the north metro, and the most old-fashioned in the best way. Pine Tree is open for the 2026 apple season with 25 varieties, a homemade bakery, fresh cider, caramel apples and live weekend entertainment.
- Address: 450 Apple Orchard Rd, White Bear Lake · 651-429-7202
- Fall activities: corn maze September 26 – October 25; pumpkin patch October 3 – October 25; wagon rides; last outdoor activities October 28–29, weather permitting
- Worth knowing: their fall hours changed on September 8 and the new outdoor-activity times are not posted on the site, so call before you plan a specific afternoon. Payment is cash, Visa or Mastercard only, and no pets
Sever’s Fall Festival — Shakopee
Not an orchard so much as a fall theme park with apples in it, and the best choice if you are bringing a crowd of kids. Sever’s built Minnesota’s first corn maze and still cuts the largest one by hand each season; there are 30-plus attractions around it — a pumpkin patch, hay rides, a corn pit, jumping pillows, zip lines, pig races, a petting zoo and two food courts.
- Address: 3121 150th Street West, Shakopee, just off Highway 169
- When: Saturdays and Sundays from September 19, 10am–7pm, plus MEA Thursday October 15 and Friday October 16. Their own site gives the end of the season as October 31 in one place and November 1 in another — worth a check if you are aiming at that last weekend
- Cost: general admission $19, or $16 early-bird if you buy before 11:59pm on Sunday, September 13. One ticket covers unlimited visits and re-entry all season, and children 3 and under are free. Several individual attractions are cash only on site
Want more than four? Minnesota Grown, run through the state Department of Agriculture, keeps the searchable directory of member orchards and farms across Minnesota.
And the other half of the weekend, back in the city
An orchard is a morning, not a weekend. Here is how to build the rest of it.
Start Saturday afternoon on a Minneapolis Trolley. The sightseeing tour is the fastest way to make sense of a city you have only driven through, and in October the ghost and true-crime tours come into their own — we leave from the door of the Pillsbury Club mansion, which is worth seeing on its own account and serves dinner before or after. Bringing a group? Private rentals are straightforward.
Stay somewhere that suits the season. 300 Clifton is a mansion bed and breakfast above Loring Park with a garden hot tub that is at its best in cold weather; Oakland’s on 9th is a furnished studio in a restored 1889 brownstone downtown if you want a kitchen for the bushel of apples you are about to come home with.
Then fill the gaps from our own lists: the best family activities, the best parks for a walk while the colour holds, the best coffee shops for the drive home, the best breweries, and the best date ideas if it is that kind of trip.
Already planning October? We have the whole month in what to do in Minneapolis in October 2026, and if the crowd is small and loud, the best things to do in Minneapolis with kids.
Hours, prices and picking conditions change week to week in September and October — every date above is taken from the farms’ own sites today, but call or check before you drive. Then book a trolley for the other half of the weekend.
Keep reading: which Minneapolis mansion tours run year-round, and which only happen at Christmas.