Lancaster County holds one of the largest Amish and Mennonite communities in the country, farming the same rolling Pennsylvania Dutch countryside their ancestors settled generations ago. Horse-drawn buggies still share the back roads with cars, farm stands sell produce grown just beyond them, and the region’s small towns have built a respectful tourism industry around genuine curiosity about a way of life that continues largely as it always has, without turning into a costume show. The best visits here come from slowing down enough to notice the details of a working agricultural community rather than treating it as a drive-through curiosity.
Related: Best Tours & Experiences in Amish Country Ohio
Best Things to Do in Lancaster Amish Country
Take a guided buggy ride
Several outfitters offer buggy tours led by Mennonite or Amish drivers through the farmland surrounding towns like Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse, giving a firsthand sense of the pace and perspective of horse-drawn travel through working farm country.
Browse a local farmers market
Markets like Central Market in downtown Lancaster — one of the oldest continuously operating farmers markets in the country — or the Bird-in-Hand Farmers Market showcase the region’s produce, baked goods, and traditional Pennsylvania Dutch foods like chow-chow and shoofly pie. Arriving early gets you the best selection before the busiest stalls sell out.
See a production at Sight & Sound Theatre
This large theater stages elaborate biblical productions with live animals and enormous sets, drawing crowds well beyond the immediate area and offering a very different kind of evening than the rest of the region’s slower-paced attractions.
Drive the covered bridge back roads
Lancaster County holds dozens of historic covered bridges scattered across its farmland, and a self-guided driving route connecting several of them makes for a scenic, unhurried way to see the countryside between towns. Many of these bridges date back over a century and remain in everyday use by local traffic.
Visit an Amish farm and house tour
Several sites offer respectful, informative tours of a farmhouse and outbuildings that explain Amish daily life, beliefs, and farming practices, giving useful context beyond what you’ll pick up from a buggy ride alone.
Top-Rated Lancaster Amish Country Tours & Experiences
Practical Tips for Your Visit
Best Time to Visit
Spring through fall brings the most active farm stands and the best weather for driving the back roads, with fall adding harvest markets and changing leaves to the mix.
How to Get There
Lancaster is roughly 1.5 hours from Philadelphia and about 2 hours from Baltimore or Washington, D.C., making it a manageable day trip or weekend from several mid-Atlantic cities; a car is essential for exploring the farmland routes.
Good to Know
Many Amish-owned businesses close on Sundays, so plan farm stand and market visits for other days of the week. Always ask before photographing Amish individuals directly, as most consider it against their beliefs — photographing landscapes, buggies from a distance, or farms is generally fine. Drive carefully and patiently around horse-drawn buggies on rural roads, giving them plenty of room when passing.
Lancaster Amish Country rewards a slower pace and genuine curiosity over a checklist approach. A buggy ride, a market visit, and an unhurried drive through the back roads will tell you more about the region than any single big attraction could on its own — and leaving room for an unplanned stop at a roadside farm stand often turns out to be a highlight.
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