PA - Lancaster County - Amish Country?

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designerobsessed

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Anyone here from Lancaster County, Pa? I'd like to visit there in the beginning of October & need some suggestions of where to stay. I'm looking for clean, comfortable, centrally located and inexpensive. Thanks.
 
I will be going to the Lancaster area in September! There is a bed and breakfast near there that I am currently looking into staying at.
 
Robo410 said:
I'd stay in Lancaster (the city). Go online or check with AAA for hotels motels etc.

Why do you say stay in Lancaster itself? Specifically I was thinking of staying in Millersville.
 
There's an odd place that we stayed for one night (I'm not sure I'd want to do it for a long time) in Strasburg that consists entirely of cabooses as rooms and a dining car. If you have kids this is a must stay for a night and a breakfast. The dining car plays nothing but old railroad-themed songs, and it periodically shakes.
 
Hotels in Lancaster: there are a wealth of them. From Red Roof Inns & EconoLodges to some pretty fancy places. They are everywhere!! I really have no information on B&B's because they aren't my style but I know that there's a bunch of them, too.
If you can give me some more details, I can make some suggestions to you. Is there anything you want to be close to? Do you want to be right on the main drag, right off the highway, or as far away from the busyness of the area as possible. What kind of accomodations & amenities are you looking for? Something nice or just someplace to lay your head at night?

I would not stay in the city. I believe there is only one hotel in the city. It used to be called the Hotel Brunswick. I'm not sure if they still go by the same name or not. You can stay *close* to the city without actually being "in the city". It's a small city anyway!
 
Lancaster is a city and is pretty centrally located within the county. There will be many choices of places and types of places to stay, and places to eat. From there it is easy to visit any town or location. It is on major highways and easy to get to and from. I live in the next county over.

However, if you have specific locations to see, and limited time, by all means avoid the city.
 
Must see Lititz for Wilbur chocolate, and Akron for the best pretzels. Don't forget the Herrs and Utz chip factories as you tour the farms and shops.
 
Food in Lancaster

Oh, yes - one of my very favorite subjects. My choices won't appeal to everyone but I love casual food & takeout, for the most part. When I go back there, these are the places I make sure to visit:

Isaac's Deli (several locations) - best sandwiches EVER! http://www.isaacsdeli.com/

Villa Nova (Harrisburg Pike or Columbia Ave) - Tenderloin Tips sandwich with cheese & mushrooms.

Jimmie's Deluxe Grill (behind the Stockyard Inn - Lititz Pike RT 501) - Filet Mignon sandwich with whatever you want on it. Reasonable price & so tasty.

Lancaster Brewing Company (downtown) - Creepin' Dog wings & Buffalo Wings http://www.lancasterbrewing.com/home.html

Alley Kat (downtown) - pizza & Buffalo Fries

Taj Mahal (Rohrerstown Rd - right off RT 30) - Indian food at it's best - http://www.tajlancaster.com/

Tony Wang's (RT 30 East - close to all the hotels & outlets) - excellent Chinese food

Other than those suggestions, you can go to Good 'N Plenty for homestyle food - everyone sits around big tables & passes all the dishes on to the next person. And every chain restaurant that you have ever heard of seems to have a location in Lancaster.

Not a restaurant but might be worth a trip: in Millersville there is a Farm Market: Funk's. They are pricy but they have the best produce. The have baked goods, etc. They usually have the first sweet corn of the year & the last sweet corn. It's well worth the price.

Keep in mind that a lot of places you might want to visit won't be open on Sunday.
 
Robo410 said:
Must see Lititz for Wilbur chocolate, and Akron for the best pretzels. Don't forget the Herrs and Utz chip factories as you tour the farms and shops.

Really? Akron for pretzels? Where? That's a new one on me. :)

I would go to Reading for pretzels - the Unique Pretzel factory store. Thanks for reminding me of that!
 
bethzaring said:
just an aside..."Amish Country" to me means Wayne/Holmes County Ohio

Ohio, NC, Kentucky, etc. But I'd have to say the the Lancaster area is the mother country of the Amish and the first you think of, unless you grew up with another community.
In recent years these folk have sold their very valuable land and moved to other parts of the country in order to fulfill giving their sons their own farmland.
 
In Akron you can buy pretzels in a large brown unmarked box (except for a Bible verse on the side). Inside is a plastic bag full of crisp medium brown salted but not lye dipped (ie not shiny) pretzels that have the best flavor I've ever encountered. Name of company? unknown, but everybody knows about them and sells them. Who'd a thunk it?
 
There are getting to be more and more Amish communities in the Midwest as those in Pennsylvania (a) get tired of being treated like creatures in a zoo and (b) the state is more and more crowded and the land very expensive. You can sell a farm there for big bucks and buy a larger, equally rich-soiled farm out here and for the most part, no one comes to gawk at you. So, yes, we have smaller Amish communities in this area. We run into Amish more and more -- not here in Galena (tourist central), but at the hardware and WalMart places in Dubuque, and selling veggies in Schulsburg and other small Wisconsin towns. We just smile and say hello and move along.
 
Claire said:
There's an odd place that we stayed for one night (I'm not sure I'd want to do it for a long time) in Strasburg that consists entirely of cabooses as rooms and a dining car. If you have kids this is a must stay for a night and a breakfast. The dining car plays nothing but old railroad-themed songs, and it periodically shakes.

Many, many years ago we also stayed at the Red Caboose in Strasburg for one night- my boys at LOVED it!!We had visited the area a few times and had stayed in the Best Western Paul Revere in Bird in Hand-it seemed pretty centrally located to everything.Our last stay there and I'm talking MANY years ago-we noticed that a lot of building was going on by the way of shopping centers taking away from the peaceful landscape of the Amish farms that we had enjoyed.We were alos less than thrilled with the motel on our last visit as it was showing signs of age but, we were told that renovations were going to take place.Again I'm talking about the early to mid 80's.I would still like to go back at some point in time.Miller's had the best breakfast and Good and Plenty was a favorite dinner spot.There were tons of flea markets,hex barns,the mile ride to Paradise on a coal run train.Great memories!!! I hope you have many, many of your own when you visit the area. Love and energy, Vicki
 
I remember very fondly a couple of family vacations spent in "Pennsylvania Dutch" country when I was a kid (so we're talking about 40 years ago - lol). We toured a lot of farms & farming museums, but even then the big attraction for me was the FOOD!!

I remember the places we dined at - regardless of whether it was breakfast, lunch, or dinner - were "family style". You sat on benches at long tables with anyone/everyone else dining there, & were brought plate after plate & bowl after bowl of delicious offerings - all shared by everyone else at the table. I particularly remember the creamed corn made from rehydrated dried corn & the "Shoefly" pie. Also all the wonderful pickled vegetables!! I wonder if they still have places like that to eat at.
 
BreezyCooking said:
I particularly remember the creamed corn made from rehydrated dried corn & the "Shoefly" pie. Also all the wonderful pickled vegetables!! I wonder if they still have places like that to eat at.

Still plenty of those places around!

The corn you had was probably Cope's Dried Corn. You can buy it online at several places, including directly from Cope's.
 
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