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Welcome to PA Dutch Country Views with information on dining, accommodations and attractions in Pennsylvania's Dutch Country.
- Accommodations - Choose from Bed and Breakfasts, Hotels and Motels
- Attractions - Pennsylvania Dutch Country provides a wide variety of family oriented attractions. Many people are drawn by rustic scenes such as the numerous covered bridges, farmers markets, buggy rides and steam trains. Others will appreciate the theaters and historical sites .
- Dining - The Amish country is famous for farmer's markets offering fresh produce, dairy and meat and numerous country style or family style restaurants. Some of these are obviously focused on moving herds of tourists through while others offer genuine homestyle cooking. If you are looking for something more elegant, you can find a number of more upscale restaurants throughout the area.
Dutch, Amish, Mennonite, Deutsche
The there are a number of attractions in Pennsylvania Dutch County: The scenic beauty of farmland, historical sites, trains, good food and more. The defining aspect of the area though, is the Pennsylvania Dutch. They are composed primarily of the Amish and Mennonites. Both are extremely religious, hard working groups. They avoid modern technology to varying degrees depending on their particular location. Married men wear beards, they work their farms with horses, drive buggies and hang their wash out on washday.
Getting there.
The Pennsylvania Dutch Country is easily accessible by auto. The main east-west road is the Pennsylvania Turnpike, I-76(Toll). Route 222 runs southwest to northeast from Lancaster. Route 283 runs from Harrisburg to Lancaster. If you plan to get off the main roads a GPS or Compass and map are advisable as many of the smaller roads are not well marked.
. There are a few airports with varying levels of service:
Book flights to or from:
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Amtrak provides passenger train service to Harrisburg and Lancaster on the Pennsylvanian
Greyhound serves the following locations: Ephrata, Harrisburg, Hershey, Lancaster, Lebanon, and York.
Some tips
- It is a good idea to be aware of the Amish culture. For example, their religious beliefs preclude having their pictures taken
- Be aware of the buggies. They usually move at a good pace on the roads but it is not unusual to be passed by a horse and buggy. Be especially careful at night as the buggies are dark although most have a blaze orange reflector in the read
- The farmers use natural fertilizer. That means they spread manure on their fields. Lots of it. For some people, it's a pleasant, natural smell. Others can barely tolerate it.
- Watch out for farm animals such as chickens on the back roads.
- Many of the true Amish and Mennonite businesses are closed on Sundays
