Being from Amish Country Pennsylvania, I’ve always been aware of the Amish. However, they are a very closed community and it can be hard to befriend the Amish as an outsider. This summer I finally brought my boyfriend to see where I grew up. One of our main goals for our visit? To learn more about the Amish and interact with them as much as possible. Little did we know we would end up at an Amish homestay for two nights!
Who Are The Amish?
To begin with, who are the Amish? The Amish are a conservative Christian subculture who believe in pacifism and are Anabaptist – they believe in being baptized as an adult instead of as a baby. The Amish were persecuted due to their Anabaptist beliefs. In the mid 1700s, hundreds of Amish left Switzerland and Germany to travel to the Untied States where they were free to practice what they believed in.
Today the Amish are known worldwide for their unique culture. They are known for being very conservative and rejecting modern technology. The Amish choose to use horse and buggies instead of driving cars. They also cannot use electricity and wear very simple clothes. However we were shocked by how normal life with the Amish felt!
Many Amish use other forms of energy such as solar power, battery power, and propane gas. Through utilizing these forms of energy, our Amish homestay had a normal toilet, shower, refrigerator, and they even had lights that ran off of batteries instead of electricity!
Our Amish Homestay Experience
The morning that we were supposed to head to our Amish homestay, we received a phone call. It ended up being from our Amish host! Yes, they do have access to a phone! However, it is a landline that is located in a shed separate from the house. He called to ask what time we would arrive and if we would like to add the option of a home cooked meal with him and his wife. We agreed on a time and said yes to dinner!
Later we arrived at our homestay not sure what to expect. It was the only option that we could find where you actually stayed with the family as opposed to staying in an Amish style house so we were unsure how authentic it would be. We pulled up front and the man came outside to meet us immediately. He was so nice and welcoming! He took us inside the house where we sat in the sitting room and chatted for over an hour. Our host started by telling us a little about himself and his family and it soon turned into a Q&A where we were able to ask him anything we wanted about the Amish and their way of life.
After chatting for a while we received a tour of the rest of the house including our bedroom. Our bedroom had both a light and a fan that ran off of battery power. There was also a shared bathroom which was almost identical to our bathrooms at home. It had a toilet that flushed as well as a sink and a shower with both hot and cold water. There was a light next to the mirror that also ran off of a battery.
We were able to relax a little in our new room before we joined the couple for dinner. They made some amazing Pennsylvania Dutch food that included sausage, mashed potatoes, corn, lima beans, coleslaw, and beets. Most of the food came from their own garden – the wife had even canned the beets herself! It was a great meal but it was even more special because we got to spend the entire dinner chatting with both of them. We were able to ask more questions and they asked us a lot as well.
After dinner we headed out to the barn with our host and the other couple who was staying there (there were two guest rooms in the house). He showed us their two buggies and then we headed upstairs to the game room. The floor of the game room was a massive shuffleboard! None of us had ever played shuffleboard before, so he explained all the rules and taught us to play. It was surprisingly so much fun (although I was not very good)! We played until it got dark and then he turned on another battery powered light.
Around 8pm our host couple went to sleep. We stayed up chatting with the other couple for a while, but we also went to sleep early as we had a group breakfast scheduled at 8am. When we met the next morning they had made pancakes, scrambled eggs, muffins, plums, peaches, grape juice, and jam – all either homemade or from the garden. It was another delicious meal!
After breakfast we had a ‘free day’. The other couple opted to take a tour around Lancaster’s Amish Country. However as we had a car and I’m from close by, we drove to some local places (listed below). While there are many places in the area that offer ‘buggy rides’, we drove past one of them and they weren’t authentic at all. We were lucky because we could also add on a buggy ride at our homestay.
We arrived back to the homestay around 4pm where our host was waiting for us. He took us out to the barn and showed us how to harness the horse up to the buggy. He also explained the difference in the two buggies. One was an ‘everyday’ buggy and the other was their Sunday buggy. One of us squeezed into the back seat and the other sat at the front with him while we drove down the road a little before making a couple laps around a huge parking lot as it was much safer that way. We learned so many fun horse and buggy facts such as:
- A Horse and Buggy’s average speed is 10 mph (16 kph)
- You don’t need a license to drive one
- It’s up to the parents if their child is ‘ready’ to drive
- Our host had seen children as young as 10 years old driving pony and carts
- His wife’s family used to put 10 of them in one buggy
- Horse and Buggies are better in snow than cars are
- Horse and Buggies get hit by cars quite often
The buggy ride was one of the highlights of our trip! And it was even better that it was a completely authentic buggy just for us as opposed to one of the ones you can pay for that carry many foreigner in a cart as opposed to an actual buggy!
Our last night we ate dinner out in town. When we returned to the farm we all played some more shuffleboard until bedtime.
The last morning we had coffee, muffins, and some snacks that we bought at the local market. We spent our last few hours chatting, telling jokes, and playing some Amish games. They had a lot of different knick knacks that were actually very addicting games!
We had an amazing time at our Amish homestay and would 100% recommend it to anyone who is in the Lancaster area or who wants to learn more about the Amish way of life firsthand! While we didn’t have a place to charge our phones, we weren’t really missing any other modern conveniences. And we all had a great time talking and enjoying each others company.
How To Book an Amish Homestay
It actually took us a while to find what seemed to be a legit Amish Homestay. We found some that did not seem authentic. We found even more that let you stay in an Amish house (with no electricity), however you had the house to yourself. The one we stayed at is the only one that we saw where you could actually live with the host family.
We actually found the same listing on two different websites that work together. You can book it at https://www.amishfarmstay.com/reservations/ or https://www.amishbnb.com/reservations/
However keep in mind that both of those sites have many properties listed and not all of them have a family that you stay with. Search for ‘Amish Homestay Bed & Breakfast Room 1’ which is the exact room we stayed in. There is also ‘Amish Homestay Bed & Breakfast Room 2’ which is across the hall from our room in the same house.
We found available dates and paid online then they sent us a confirmation email. We received a phone call the day of confirming what time we would arrive.
How to Get to the Amish Homestay
If you want to go to the same Amish homestay that we stayed at, it’s best to have your own transportation. There are many restaurants, gas stations, etc in a 5-10 minute drive from the homestay. However there aren’t many Ubers or public transportation options in the area.
The homestay is a 15 minute drive from the Lancaster train station. You can take an Amtrak train from the Lancaster train station to Philadelphia, New York City, Washington DC, and many other big cities.
What Else to do in Lancaster Amish Country
While staying at the Amish homestay was our top thing to do in Lancaster County, there are many activities close by that are also great to check out! Here are some of our favorites:
The Amish Village
The Amish Village is located 20 minutes from our homestay. It’s an old Amish farmhouse that was turned into a museum. While there are no actual Amish people working there, all the employees have a lot of knowledge about the Amish way of life. The farm area has many typical Amish buildings on it such as a milkhouse, a barn (with animals), a one room schoolhouse, and two different stores full of Amish products that you can buy.
They have two different ticket options available. You can pay for a guided tour within the house then walk around the grounds on your own. Or the other option is to take a guided bus tour around Amish Country. We opted for the first one and paid $13 each. We learned a lot and thought it was a great place to start our weekend learning about the Amish!
Their website: https://www.amishvillage.com/
Martin’s Pretzel Bakery
I might be biased as I grew up with Martin’s Pretzels in my house 24/7, but these hard pretzels are amazing! The bakery is less than 5 minutes from the homestay. While we didn’t see any Amish working there, the employees are mostly Mennonite (a similar religion to the Amish). When we went, they invited us inside and showed us all around the bakery. We were amazed at how many pretzels they could make! She said they make up to 22,000 hand rolled pretzels a day and some of the employees can make 20 in one minute! That’s one pretzel every 3 seconds!
Their website: https://www.martinspretzelspa.com/
Green Dragon Market
Green Dragon is a huge farmer’s market and auction that’s been in Lancaster County since 1932. There are hundreds of stalls and many of them are run by both Amish and Mennonites. It’s only 13 minutes from the homestay, however it’s only open on Fridays from 8am-8pm.
This is a great place to see lots of Lancaster Country Amish goods for sale. They have so many amazing bakery items that you NEED to try! We picked up some whoopie pies, peanut butter balls, and Amish cinnamon rolls that were to die for. You also can’t miss shoofly pie as it’s a local favorite!
Their website: https://www.greendragonmarket.com/
Shady Maple Smorgasbord
Shady Maple is the largest smorgasbord in the United States and it’s full of amazing Pennsylvania Dutch food! What’s a smorgasbord? It’s basically a huge buffet. And it’s only 17 minutes from our Amish homestay!
While it’s closed on Sundays, Shady Maple has a huge menu every other day of the week. Breakfast and lunch are usually similar, however dinner has a rotating featured menu with different prices each day. For example Monday is steak night while Tuesday is seafood night.
This is one of the best places you can visit in the area and it gets extremely busy on the weekends! This is the one place from our blog post that you can’t see in our video (it will hopefully be a future video).
Their website: https://www.shady-maple.com/smorgasbord/
I’m glad to know that I wasn’t the only one who ever wanted to visit with the Amish! I live in a highly populated Amish area in southern Indiana. Thanks for sharing your experience!
I hope you get the chance to stay with them like we did! It was such an interesting experience!!