Need local help

As a teenager with my parents we visited the Lancaster area and I fell in love with it. My daughter is a college student in Baltimore and I want to take her to Lancaster to ';unwind';. I am very sensitive to the Amish beliefs and way of life and don%26#39;t want to do anything to offend them. I would like to take a buggy ride and stay on a working farm. I have found a wonderful website with alot of that information but I don%26#39;t want to do ';touristy'; stuff that would offend the locals. Some look like they are Amish run. I would like to use them and not someone that is a ';wana be'; just to make money from tourists at the expense of the Amish. Is anyone familiar with some that the Amish might not be happy with so I can avoid them? Or ones that are not Amish sensitive? I don%26#39;t know that I am asking this correctly or getting my point across but hopefully someone will get my drift. Thank you for any help

Need local help

Have you tried www.padutchcountry.com.It is the Lancaster County Guide website. I checked under lodging and it had a list for working farms. As far as a amish buggy ride,the authentic one is Aaron and Jessica%26#39;s Buggy Rides in Bird-in-Hand. You will find alot at this site. And I%26#39;m sure locals will respond to your question with more suggestions.

Take care and enjoy. The wife and me will be making a trip out there ourselves soon. We%26#39;re only three hours away in New Jersey. I know that once we arrive in the area, it%26#39;s as if a weight falls off you and you feel the peace and tranquility of the area.

Enjoy your trip and God Bless.

popc

Need local help

thank you for your reply. That is the website that I found today and thought it was great. I have looked at several farms and buggy rides on there. Is this your first trip there or have you been there before? Where have you stayed? Again thank you for your input.

The Mennonites have an information center that provides contact information for area farms that you can stay at. Their website is www.mennoniteinfoctr.com/guesthomes.html. Their visitor center also has a good video about the Amish that I found interesting. When I was there we had quite a mixture of people - a large Jewish group of whom only one person spoke English so he translated the entire video into Hebrew for the rest of his group, a large Mennonite group, and myself. I also did the Amish ';buggy'; ride (was more like a wagon). I was the only one riding so rode with the driver who was a young Amish woman and very interesting to talk with.

No this will not be our first trip. We go a few times a year (now as the gas allows). We have stayed at a few different places. The Soudersburg Motel, the Comfort Inn in New Holland, because they are pet freindly and mainly the Orchard Inn. A nice quite place where you hear the clip-clop of the horse and buggies in the evening. When you go into any shop or restaurant,look for a yellow map titled ';FREE MAP of Amish Farmlands';.It comes in very handy.

I must tell you,DO NOT go to the Paradise Motel on Route 30. Bad news! Read my post in ';Where NOT To Stay in Lancaster!'; at the Ronks Forum.

The wife and I like to go to the Amish %26amp; Mennonite owned shops. Kaufmann%26#39;s on Rt.340,Centerville Bulk on Centerville Road in Intercourse. There are many little shops and farm stands around.I%26#39;m sure you will hear of many more places to go and things to see.

popc

As a local, I don%26#39;t think doing ';touristy stuff'; annoys the Plain people....just respect them and their property and don%26#39;t think of them as ';curiosities'; that you can stop %26amp; stare at! They are just like you and I in many ways, and generally very friendly.

\

Other than trying to photograph them or barging onto their farms, it%26#39;s unlikely you will draw their disdain during your visit (and I certainly doubt they care where you shop!).

About the only other thing I tell tourists is that if you shop at their produce or craft stands, you%26#39;re not supposed to ';dicker'; over the prices like at a yard sale...no idea where people get this impression, but that%26#39;s maybe the one other thing that might annoy them!

Think about this: The Amish are largely immune to the sudden spike in gas prices! (but probably hay is going up also!!)

There are some ';outlet'; malls in the area and I know that on Sunday the Amish do not work so that their stores are closed but are the malls open? We have ';outlet'; malls in our area but it%26#39;s just a name for the malls and not a real bargain to be found. I can find stuff equal to or less than at the outlets in my local stores. Are the outlets there the same or are they truly outlet/factory malls with bargains? Outlet used to mean that it was a store where the factory sent their items that were good but had some issue or was discontinued and you could get them cheap. Now the malls just use it to draw you in but there are not deals.

There are two main malls in the area and they are open on Sunday.Here are the links for them.

www.rockvalesquareoutlets.com/

www.tangeroutlet.com/

Each site will give you all the info you need.

Enjoy. popc.

They are truly fctory /outlets malls. Both are on Route 30 East. Tanger is closer to Lancaster City.

popc.

parameter order