For landlubbers delighted by this season’s colors, a fall foliage tour by boat serves up an unforgettable adventure, with Gold Coast mansions framed by orange, russet and red.

These cruises, by Big Apple Fanatics Tours, motor on Long Island Sound from the North Shore to New Rochelle, past local but little-known habitats like Pea and Huckleberry islands, says Kevin Fitzpatrick, the company owner and tour guide.

"For anybody who’s been up into the Catskills and Hudson Valley, it’s not exactly the same because you’re also enjoying the water," Fitzpatrick says. "It’s just a very fun way to celebrate the changing of the seasons."

Yes, it’s autumn, when the leaves turn and our appetites hanker after fresh cider, getting lost in corn mazes and chowing down on apple- and pumpkin-flavored everything. How about pumpkin-spiced meat jerky?

Does fall come every year? You betcha. But hey,  discover something new at these centrally located Long Island farms, festivals and more.

🌽  Fun on the farm  🌽

Attend the Crossroads Farm Fall Festival

480 Hempstead Ave., Malverne

Food trucks, music, a farmer’s market, hayrides and witchy characters will be at hand at the festival.

But educating visitors about planting and organic methods are just as important to farmers, says farm operations manager Michael D’Angelo.

For the first time, for example, some pumpkins will be gourds still growing when visitors pick them by cutting the vines, D’Angelo says: "People get more out of that. We really want to tell people where pumpkins really come from."

• Cost Free admission, noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays in October
• More info xroadsfarmliny.com, 516-341-0075

Spend the day at F&W Schmitt’s Family Farm Fall Festival

26 Pinelawn Rd., Melville

Searching for the Loch Ness monster is this year’s challenge in the corn maze for the farm’s fall festival running through Nov. 2.

Mini golf, mechanical pigs and other features come with admission, but pumpkin picking, the animals, hayrides and other attractions are extra.

• Cost $23, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekends and school holidays, noon to 5 p.m. on select weekdays through Nov. 2.
• More info schmittsfarm.com, 631-21-3276

Take photo ops at Thera Farms at The Sisters of St. Joseph

1705 Brentwood Rd., Brentwood

Red picket fences make up a maze and raspberries have started to plump up on the trellises.

For farm owner Teddy Bolkas, fall is like the last-chance, outside dance of the year, on the playground, pumpkin patch, hayrides and more.

"You feel like the cold’s coming so people enjoy the nicer days a little bit more," he says. "Outside, it’s not too hot and not too cold."

• Cost Free admission; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
• More info facebook.com/TheraFarms, 631-478-5229

Buy cider doughnuts at Jericho Cider Mill

213 Rte. 106, 213 Jericho Oyster Bay Rd., Jericho

Apple cider doughnuts, ice cream floats, pies and the season’s harvest are all here.

The mill’s 1938 conveyor belt and 1960 German wine press are still in use, and the season’s first picking of apples, fresh from Hudson Valley orchards, arrived in early September, says owner Ted Ketsoglou.

"Our apples are not waxed," he notes. "They’re right off the tree and they still have a leaf on it."

• Cost Free admission
• More info jerichocider.com, 516-433-3360

🍂  See fall foliage, explore nature  🍂

Sail with Big Apple Fanatics tours

405 Main St., Port Washington

The two-hour autumn boat cruise departs from Inspiration Wharf on Oct. 18, 19 and 26, with more dates during peak leaf peeping weeks, Fitzpatrick says.

"Honestly, it’s so much more fun than going to a pumpkin patch — the traffic, you know," he says. "This is having apple cider on the boat. You’re with your family and friends."

• Cost Starting at $50
• More info bigapplefanaticstours.com, 917-526-0597

Walk around Clark Botanic Garden

193 I U Willets Rd., Albertson

Many trees are clothed in camouflage as their bark peels off in the fall, their variegated colors showcased at this North Hempstead Town park.

Horticulturist Helene Drozd notices the orange and brown trunk of the Persian Ironwood; the red- and brown-striped bark of the crape myrtle; and the green and brown of the Korean dogwood.

"We have quite a few maples," she says, " ... so they give not only really nice fall color but a lot of them have interesting bark as well, even after the leaves fall."

• Cost Free
• More info clarkbotanic.org, 516-484-2208

🎃  Haunted houses and spooky trails  🎃

Stroll a haunted trail at CSTL's Spooky Fest

Tanglewood Preserve, 450 Tanglewood Rd., Rockville Centre

Zombie dinosaurs are in the woods! So are free candy, stickers and kid treats!

The center’s artisans and builders, who usually craft science stuff like the DNA double helix, have lined two spooky trail with animatronic dinosaurs, a glow tent, a pirate’s cove that’s a ship one walks through, popular cartoon characters as Merry Monsters and more.

One trail is not scary and the other is a little spookier, geared for children ages 7-12, but center director Ray Ann Havasy believes the outside heightens the experience: "Not many people have been in the woods at night."

• When 6 to 9 p.m. Fridays through Sundays in October
• Cost Tickets start at $22
• More info cstl.org, 516-764-0045

Visit Rise of the Jack O’Lanterns at Usdan Summer Camp for the Arts

85 Colonial Springs Rd., Wheatley Heights

More than 10,000 illuminated objects, including 7,000 jack-o'-lanterns, will line the wooded trails in an after-dusk experience that can be a little spooky and magical.
Guests can venture into a 60-foot-long AI-generated tunnel and onto a dance floor, and they can also hear 20-foot-tall singing pumpkins.

• When 7 to 9:30 p.m. Oct. 15-19, Oct. 22-26 and Oct. 29-Nov. 1
• Cost Tickets start at $20 with advanced tickets required
• More info jackolanterns.com 

Get spooked at Gateway's Haunted Playhouse

215 S. Country Rd., Bellport

During ongoing theater renovations, a septic crew disturbed the cesspool, unleashing a gas that transformed Rkyard J. Edmund into the Harvester, who stitched together job seekers into a monstrous sum of body parts that raided Plum Island for materials to refine the gas into an injectable liquid so an army out of the stinky darkness can take over the world.

Paul Allan, the theater’s artistic executive director, says each year’s haunted theme has a basis in reality — the current renovations.

• Cost Starting at $42
• More info fearli.com, 631-286-1133

🍎. Fall festivals  🍎 

Eat apples at Town of Islip Apple Fall Festival

Islip Grange, 10 Broadway Ave., Sayville

Scores of vendors, entertainers, kiddie rides and crafts for sale make the festival the prime event for the Greenport Jerky Company to debut two, fall-inspired meat flavors: apple pie and pumpkin spice.

Over the centuries, many cultures dehydrated and salted meat to get them through the cold seasons, including American cowboys on the prairies, says Vincent Macchirole, who owns the business with wife Carolyn.

Jerky has now become popular all year, he says: "It’s a good grab and go healthy snack."

• When 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 25
• Cost Free
• More info islipny.gov, 631-595-3500

Participate in the 35th annual Scarecrow Competition

Main Street, Stony Brook Village Center

The Headless Horseman and Cat in the Hat have been spotted around Stony Brook Village in past October competitions for best scarecrow.

Visitors can vote for their favorites through Oct. 26, with the winner announced 3:30 p.m. Oct. 31 during the 35th Annual Halloween Festival, both events are organized by the nonprofit Ward Melville Heritage Organization.

"It’s actually kind of fun to walk during the night because some people have lights to their scarecrows," says Claudia Powell, the nonprofit’s communications manager.

• Cost Free
• More info stonybrookvillage.com, 631-751-2244