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The Amish Village Inc
Rating Details »
7 reviews for The Amish Village Inc
Amish Village gives a good overview of Amish life. You can look at a typical Amish house, the wellhouse, smokehouse, schoolhouse, working garden and animals, waterwheel, and of course, the gift shop.
There were some Amish kids selling lemonade and geegaws too.
It was informational, but I'd say the value was a little less than what we paid. If you only have time to visit one place, this is an OK place to go.
This is hypocrisy.
I don't want to malign the Amish for I truly respect their beliefs and often I myself wish that I could do what they do - just chuck the never ending chirping of the blackberry and prison of the information age. But for a family that espouses this belief system to charge $7.75 for adults and especially $3.75 for children 5 - 12 ... it's worst than the Sabrett's guy in front of the Met selling his dirty water dogs for whatever he can bilk you for. The only good thing about this place is that you get a walking tour of this little beat up house and a cultural history lesson. The guide was informative and the information was interesting to me but NOT to my kids. They were antsy through the whole affair. Luckily it was not much more than 30 minutes. Wait ... how could it be lucky when I just paid that much for that little time and hoping it was even shorter. There is also a self walking tour of their campgrounds - old and decrepit buildings. And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE use the bathroom before you come to this place because I guess they really wanted you to experience what is was like before household detergents. The visitors outhouse bathroom was DISGUSTING. The two nicest places were the ones where they were hawking their overpriced wares - the gift barn and the produce gift barn. They do have buggies and amish stuff for you take the obligatory "I'm on an Amish Country vacation" photos.
When I left the place, a guy came up to me in the parking lot and asked me if it was worth it. Let's just say he was right behind me when we left the parking lot.
This small Amish Village gives you a good overview of how an Amish Family would live and spend their time. There is a small house on the property, some farm animals, a school house, smoke house, etc. There are also a number of farm equipment and buggies lying around for people to view and/or take pictures. Not exactly something I would visit again but nice to see once to get an idea of their culture.
There are a number of these "working" Amish Farms in Lancaster for tourists to see what life is like as part of the Amish community. I'd say this one is about average as far as they go. It looks big from the entrance, but in reality there isn't a lot to do after the tour. You can literally spend 30 minutes there and experience an Amish setting. Don't plan on spending the day at this one place.
The tour is simple, kind of like Amish life. It was given by a young guy probably a senior in high school. He seemed knowledgeable but spoke way too fast for a lot of people to understand (especially the foreigners, and there a lot that come to Lancaster), I think out of nervousness. The tour is about 20-25 minutes long and you get to see how the Amish live with a kitchen, bedrooms, and working basement used to can food as well as their classroom/church.
Outside they have a little stable where there are baby pigs, a peacock, chickens and sheep that you can pet. It is great for kids. There is also a couple more smaller buildings on the grounds to pop in, nothing amazing. There is also a couple buggies you can pose in and a cool bridge. Two or three country stores to buy Amish memorabilia from. I would recommend the The Amish Experience in the town of Bird-In-Hand over this, because they have a somewhat interesting movie about the process of a teenager choosing between joining the Amish as an adult or leaving it forever. Also their country store and snack stands are much cooler.
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We through it was going to be a bit too touristy, and while it was a little bit, it did give a very solid overview of the Amish story and how they live. The guide was thorough and easily answered any questions. The house is authentic, and there are some gift shops selling authentic Amish wares as well as some non-Amish stuff. It was a quick stop to get a flavor of the local area while we were in town for the weekend, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it seemed legit and very interesting.
This was a tour we did in Lancaster one day when our sister-in-law was visiting from overseas. It was basically a walking tour through a house and farm where the guide gave you historical info about the Amish and how they live and what they do. It cost about 7.00 per person and lasted about an hour or so. our group had about 15 people, mostly adults, some were quebecers, then there was our clique.
They take you through a real life Amish house where they explain about heating, electricity, clothing and Bibles and weddings. It also covered history, geneology and languages (they speak 3 languages- church german, regular spoken german and english) also most Amish drop out of school at grade 8 to work on the family farm or in construction, handicrafts or tourism. It was pretty insightful, but they revealed that men grow a beard after they get married. That all their clothing is usually home made, and that they can wear any type of footwear available. When normally all their clothing is plain and basic and doesnt carry any logos. Our tour guide was american, but there were a lot of workers or employees that were Amish here. Next they take you to the farmhouse outback, and show you what typical types of animals are domesticated by the Amish. Horses, sheep, pigs, etc.
There was also a covered bridge where you could take some photos, and an old buggy carriage you could get in and take a photo.
They have a small store where you call buy all kinds of Amish made products, like butter, jam, bread, jellies, beef jerkey, etc. Birch beer, shoefly pie, sweets & cakes. Quilts, bonnets, aproms, placemats, post cards, pencil sharpeners, all kinds of toys and souvenirs and handicrafts. stuff to decorate your home with, it was both fun and informational.
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We visited the Amish Village because of an ad that we saw while on vacation. I didn't realize that you have to buy tickets for a tour. I enjoyed learning about the history and the culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch. I think that the tour might be a little boring for kids. My daughter loved seeing the animals that that they had outside. She also loved hopping in the old buggy. There is a real nice store where they serve local treats. We bought apple butter because my daughter love the samples the had available. This place is more suited for adults and might not keep the little one's attention.
People thought this was:
- Useful (1)