Where to stay for the Winter Equestrian Festival when you want quiet, acreage, and a short drive instead of a Wellington lease. The Bell Farm sits in Loxahatchee, about twenty minutes north of the showgrounds. Stays from $145 a night — long stays quoted direct.
Every January, Wellington fills. The Winter Equestrian Festival runs consecutive show weeks from early January into the spring at Wellington International, and it brings riders, trainers, grooms, owners, farriers, vets, vendors, officials, and a very large number of families along for the ride. Local lodging inside the village gets absorbed by seasonal leases months in advance, and what is left is priced for the season it is in.
The Bell Farm is the other option. We are ten-odd miles north in Loxahatchee — a working, state-registered agritourism farm on acreage, with two entire private units, a natural spring soak, and nights that are genuinely dark and genuinely quiet. You are close enough to be at the showgrounds before the first class and far enough out that the noise of season stays where you left it.
Our longest guest stays of the year happen during equestrian season. That is not an accident — the people who book here in January and February are the ones who realized a month of early alarms goes better on a farm than in a hotel corridor. This page is the honest version: how the season is structured, when to book, how to get to the ring, and who this suits.
If you are new to season, the calendar is the first thing to understand, because it drives everything about lodging: when demand starts, when it peaks, and how long people book for.
The general rule around here is that equestrian-season lodging is searched in the fall and gone by the winter. Local agents typically tell riders to start three to six months out; by November and December, what is left inside Wellington is thin. Our own calendar follows the same curve, a little later and a little kinder.
One structural note worth knowing: Wellington's seasonal market is largely a lease market — multi-week and monthly blocks, often thirty to ninety days, with a whole property changing hands for the season. We are not that. We book nights, weeks, and months directly, and a stay can be as short as you need or as long as we have open. Longer stays are quoted individually rather than multiplied out from the nightly rate — call (561) 779-3213 and tell us your weeks.
Both are entire private units, not rooms in a house. Rates shown are peak-season nightly rates and move with the calendar and the length of the stay. Before you book a long block, call and ask exactly what your unit includes and what it does not — for a month-long stay the details matter more than the photos, and we would rather answer them on the phone than have you discover them on arrival. The Farm Stay Guide covers both units in full.
The farm is at 16140 Okeechobee Blvd, Loxahatchee, FL 33470. Wellington International is at 3400 Equestrian Club Drive, Wellington, FL 33414. The drive is east on Okeechobee Boulevard and then south into Wellington — roughly twenty minutes to the village and a little more to the ring itself, traffic depending. In season, that last stretch is the variable: allow extra on Saturday nights and on the big grand prix evenings, when everyone in the county is heading the same direction.
Plan on a car. The western communities are not walkable and ride-share coverage out here is thinner than it is on the coast — which is the trade you are making for acreage and quiet.
We would rather be plain about this than have you book the wrong thing in the busiest month of the year.
The Bell Farm is registered with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services as an agritourism operation and is protected under Florida Statute 570.85, the state law that keeps local governments from restricting agritourism on agricultural land. When you book here you are dealing directly with the owner of the farm, not a leasing desk — which in a market as seasonal as this one is worth something on its own.
The Bell Farm in Loxahatchee is about twenty minutes north of Wellington and books directly rather than through the seasonal lease market. We have two entire private units — the Tiny Oasis for two at $145 a night in peak season, and the Farm Cottage for four at $175 — and longer season blocks are quoted individually. Call (561) 779-3213 with your show weeks.
The farm is at 16140 Okeechobee Blvd, Loxahatchee, FL 33470; Wellington International is at 3400 Equestrian Club Drive, Wellington, FL 33414. It is roughly twenty minutes to the village and a little more to the ring, east on Okeechobee Boulevard and then south — allow extra time on Saturday nights in season.
The 2027 calendar opens with Premiere Week beginning January 6, 2027, at Wellington International, and continues in consecutive Wednesday-to-Sunday show weeks from there into the spring. Wellington International publishes weeks as they are confirmed, so check its official event schedule for the current list before you lock your dates.
Locally the advice is three to six months out, and by November and December what is left inside Wellington is thin. Summer is the easiest time to hold a long block with us; September and October is when most season plans firm up. Late callers are still worth a call — plans change and blocks open back up, and a cancellation is never published anywhere.
Longer stays are quoted individually rather than multiplied out of the nightly rate. Tell us your weeks and your headcount and we will quote the block. Unlike most of Wellington's seasonal market, which trades in thirty-to-ninety-day leases of whole properties, we book nights, weeks, or months direct.
The Bell Farm is a lodging and agritourism operation, not a boarding barn — stabling is not among our listed services, and your horses will be at the showgrounds or at your own barn. If you have a specific need, ask when you call and we will tell you plainly what we can and cannot do.
Two entire private units, not rooms in a house: the Tiny Oasis on a Working Farm sleeps two and starts at $145 a night in peak season, and the Farm Cottage sleeps four and starts at $175. Before a long booking, call and ask exactly what your unit includes — on a month-long stay those details matter more than the photographs.
Show mornings start in the dark and a farm is already awake, so nobody here is surprised by an early car door. Nights are genuinely dark and quiet — frogs rather than traffic. The flip side is farm noise: roosters keep their own schedule, so bring earplugs if you sleep lightly.
Our farm stays are listed as no pets — this is a working farm with its own animals, and that is the reason. If you are travelling with a dog for the season, call before you book rather than after, and we will be straight with you.
Yes. The western communities are not walkable and ride-share coverage out here is thinner than on the coast. Everything you need in season — showgrounds, feed and tack, groceries, the airport — is a drive, and that is the trade for acreage and quiet.
The Winter Equestrian Festival is the hunter-jumper circuit at Wellington International; the winter dressage festival runs on its own schedule at the Equestrian Village grounds during the same stretch of the year. Together they are why the village is full from January into the spring rather than for a handful of weekends.
The plant-filtered natural spring soak is $25 as a farm-stay add-on, $40 for a private session, and $90 for a sunset soak for two. Private farm-to-table dinners are $150 per person, arranged in advance. Beyond that: sugarcane, tropical water lilies, a nursery, animals, and the Everglades edge, with the beaches half an hour east.
Yes — the farm hosts private events, retreats, and weddings in a working-farm setting, with venue pricing starting at $2,500, and our AMERICA food truck lives here. Call (561) 779-3213 with your date and headcount.