9 Mistakes Tourists Make Planning a First Trip to Pennsylvania Amish Country

Pennsylvania’s Amish Country holds the largest Amish settlement in the country, with an estimated 44,765 people across 267 church districts, per Elizabethtown College’s Young Center.

Needless to say, it doesn’t run on a tourist’s calendar.

These are the mistakes tourists make planning a first trip to Pennsylvania Amish Country.

1. Building the Trip Around a Sunday

Pennsylvania Amish Country shuts down every Sunday, and tourists who book that day find it out the hard way.

Amish-owned bake shops, farm stands, family restaurants, and buggy-ride operators close without exception for the Sabbath.

No exceptions get made.

A Sunday drive still passes covered bridges, working farmland, and horses out in the pasture, but the shops and stands a first-timer wants to walk into stay locked.

Save Sunday for driving and sightseeing, and plan the shopping and market stops for any other day of the week.

2. Picking a Market Without Checking Its Day

Pennsylvania Amish Country’s farmers markets don’t all run on the same schedule, and Green Dragon Farmers Market in Ephrata is the clearest example.

It opens Fridays only, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., and sits closed the rest of the week.

One day only.

A visitor who drives out on a Tuesday expecting rows of produce stands and food vendors finds an empty parking lot instead.

Look up a market’s exact open days before building a morning around it, not just its general hours.

3. Leaving the Cash at the Hotel

Pennsylvania Amish Country still runs on cash at many of its smallest stops.

Roadside produce stands and baked-goods tables commonly work on an honor system, a lockbox instead of a register, with no card reader anywhere in sight.

Exact change only.

A tourist who packs light on cash and heavy on cards can drive right past a stand’s best baked goods with no way to pay for them.

Bring small bills before heading out, since a cash machine can sit miles away once the route turns onto the back roads.

4. Saving Shopping for Saturday Evening

Pennsylvania Amish Country businesses don’t treat Saturday like a normal retail day either.

Many close early in the afternoon so families can prepare for Sunday, well before a typical closing time elsewhere.

Early means early.

A tourist who plans a late-afternoon shopping loop on a Saturday can find doors already locked with hours of daylight left.

Front-load Saturday visits for the morning, and treat the afternoon as a bonus instead of the plan.

5. Planning to Snap Close-Up Photos

Pennsylvania Amish Country asks something different of a camera than a typical destination does.

Amish religious tradition prohibits creating graven images, so photographing a person’s face crosses a line even when it feels harmless to whoever is holding the phone.

Ask first, always.

Landscapes, farm scenes, and buggies in motion are fair game, and a photo of a face taken without asking isn’t, no matter how quick the shot.

Ask before pointing a camera at anyone, and treat a polite no as a normal answer, not a rare one.

6. Treating the Region Like One Walkable Town

Pennsylvania Amish Country isn't one town a tourist can cover on foot in an afternoon.

Bird-in-Hand, Intercourse, and Strasburg sit along different rural roads, each with a stretch of stands and shops between them.

It's a drive.

A visitor who plans a single stop and expects to see everything ends up with an afternoon of driving they never budgeted for.

Map out two or three towns ahead of time, and build in enough drive time between them instead of just a parking spot at each one.

7. Rushing to Pass a Buggy

Pennsylvania Amish Country roads carry cars and horse-drawn buggies at the same time, and passing one badly is where trouble starts.

Police in Lancaster County point to unsafe passing on hills and curves as a recurring factor behind the county's buggy crashes.

Those crashes totaled 189 injury crashes and 4 deaths from 2008 through 2017.

Wait for a straightaway.

A driver in a hurry who cuts around a buggy blind on a curve is testing a stretch of road that has already proven it doesn't forgive that move.

Slow down early, flip on the hazard lights, and pass only where the road stretches out straight and clear ahead.

8. Wandering up to a Farmhouse

Pennsylvania Amish Country farms are working homes, not open-air exhibits.

An Amish farmhouse glimpsed from the road is somebody's private residence.

Walking up the driveway for a closer look crosses the same line as approaching any stranger's front door uninvited.

It's still someone's home.

The pull to see a working farm up close is understandable, but the front porch and the barnyard aren't part of any tour.

Stick to public roads, markets, and businesses that welcome visitors, and admire a farmhouse from the car instead of the driveway.

9. Calling Ahead or Searching Online

Pennsylvania Amish Country doesn't run on the same information trail as everywhere else.

Old Order Amish tradition forbids owning a personal telephone, so a call to a favorite stand or bakery often has nowhere to ring, and a website is rarer still.

No listing, no problem.