Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience title logo over a snowy, lantern-lit forest with three visitors looking up at a stag Patronus

Harry Potter’s Forbidden Forest Returns to Westchester After Four Years: Tickets Go On Sale September 17

ByThe House Elves at Aguamenti

Every witch and wizard knows you’re not supposed to go into the Forbidden Forest. Westchester has spent four years not being given the option. That changes on 16th October, when Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience returns to Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park in Yorktown Heights, New York.

Key art for Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience with a Patronus stag and the flying Ford Anglia
Official key art for the returning experience. (Fever / Warner Bros.)

The experience is an after-dark walking trail lit up across the woods, built around creatures and moments from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films. You’re handed the run of the forest at night: cast spells along the way, meet Hippogriffs, unicorns and Nifflers, and try conjuring a Patronus before the trail ends in a village with food and drink.

Two young visitors waving at a lantern-lit magical gate on the trail
A wave-here gate along the route — the interactive moments start early. (Fever / Warner Bros.)

The official listing promises a bigger, brighter version than the one Westchester saw last time, with new characters, new creatures and more spells worked into the route. Nobody has published a scene-by-scene list yet, so treat the specifics as “more than before” rather than a confirmed lineup.

The logistics

  • Opens: Thursday 16th October 2026
  • Where: Franklin D. Roosevelt State Park, 2957 Crompond Road, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598
  • Nights: Wednesday through Sunday, from 5:30 p.m.
  • How long: Roughly 60–90 minutes total, with the trail itself taking 45–75 minutes
  • Tickets: From $35.90 for adults and $28.90 for children, varying by date and time slot
  • Ages: All ages welcome, with under-3s free
  • Parking: $15 booked online in advance, $20 on the night. Accessible spaces available
  • Accessibility: It’s a genuine woodland walk and the path isn’t hard-surfaced throughout. Motorised scooters can be hired at the trail entrance
Lantern-lit welcome sign at the entrance to the experience
The welcome sign at the trailhead after dark. (Fever / Warner Bros.)

Getting tickets

Public on-sale is Thursday 17th September at 10 a.m. Before that, the waitlist is open on the official site, which is how you get presale access ahead of general release. Given this is a return after four years and the organisers put the tour total at three million visitors across sixteen cities on four continents, the good weekend slots in October will not hang around.

Couple inside an illuminated branch archway on the forest trail
A glowing archway along the woodland route. (Fever / Warner Bros.)

Looking for more Harry Potter events? Check out our Things to Do page for everything else on the calendar.

Will you be braving the forest this October? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to follow along for more Harry Potter news.

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