My dad and I both agreed that it would be wrong to take a trip to Amish country without going to at least one of the several living history museums in the area. I've been to them all, albeit many years ago, and the one that stuck out well above the herd was The Amish Village.

Technically in Strasburg but closer to Lancaster than the various and sundry train attractions that give Strasburg its identity, The Amish Village is 1 mile south of Route 30 along Route 896. Huge signs painted on barns and more traditional locations proclaim its location loudly. If you somehow still miss the turn, you'll soon be greeted by "The Amish Village - 300 Feet Behind You".

The Amish Village is just that - a recreated village complete with a schoolhouse, a blacksmith shop, a farm, a picnic area, a general store, and a village green. There's also a traditionally furnished Amish house you can tour.

The extra buildings and the animals freely running around the grounds (think of it as a free-range petting zoo) were what really set The Amish Village apart from other spots that offer house or house and farm tours. Although staff stayed in each building, you could freely wander around at your own pace. They also had a lot of extras, like an unhitched buggy that you could climb up and pretend to drive. I loved it as a kid, and when my father and I were planning this trip, it was one of the images that came to mind.

That buggy now sits in front of main entrance to the house where visitors can look (but not easily climb in). That's because during the winter months they close off the entire village and offer only house tours. There was no indication of this in the literature, on their informational phone line (called to confirm hours), or from the staff when we purchased our tickets. We were given a 50% winter discount, so at least we didn't pay full price for less than the full experience. The staff assured me that the grounds are open during the rest of the year.

Although not always as forthcoming with information as I'd have liked, most of the staff at The Amish Village were very friendly. We had a short wait for our tour. Instead of leaving us entirely to our own devices, they sat us in the front parlor (set up for a meeting) and fed us hot cider and authentic homemade Amish cookies. Our wait turned a bit longer than expected when a small group of German tourists wandered in and then took forever to go collect some cameras from their car, and the guide came in several times to see how we were doing. Other staff wandered in infrequently to make sure we were okay, too.

The guide was very nice, but I'm not convinced he always knew what he was talking about. Either the Amish have gone through 200 years of modernization in the past 15 years or he was making up answers that sounded good when he didn't know answers on the tour. He made several quite outrageous claims about the current Amish lifestyle, making them sound just like a very religious group of people who live mostly like anyone else except they don't use electricity and drive buggies instead of cars. His most mind-boggling assertion was that most of the Amish voted in the recent national elections. Amish don't vote. They don't involve themselves in the affairs of the English (as they call anyone who isn't Amish). Period.

The tour itself is rather short. It starts in that meeting room downstairs with a short talk about how church services worked, then progressed to the kitchen. We spent most of our time here, and it was indeed interesting. There are quite a few Amish-style appliances and furnishings here, including a sewing machine and a blender powered by air compression and propane powered standing lamps (with tanks of gas inside what look like normal under-lamp cabinets). Most of the talk of lifestyle and how the Amish differ from the English came here, as well. It might have been better suited for the meeting room while we were all seated instead of while we were standing in the kitchen. In fairness, I don't think the conversation was meant to be quite so long, having at least in part jumped off from some questions asked by the group. Still, some of it was pretty basic information and it could have easily been covered in the introductory speech.

After the kitchen the tour heads up an old winding staircase to three bedrooms upstairs. They were furnished as if belonging to a little girl, a little boy, and their parents. There was a minimal discussion of the furniture, but the guide concentrated mainly on the clothing hanging in each room. Here he was quite knowledgeable, spending considerable time discussing color usage and the use of pins vs. plain buttons as a function of age and marital status. I enjoyed the clothing talk very much, but would have appreciated more than a cursory overview of everything else.

There are better Amish house tours out there, particularly if you happen to get this guide. The strength of the Amish Village was always that it was a complete package. I heartily recommend visiting if the entire place is open - call and confirm first - but have some reservations about just taking a house tour. That said, even with the problems, both my dad and I enjoyed ourselves. We also felt pretty strongly that it was important to spend at least a little time doing something educational and directly Amish-related while we were in the area. The Amish Village filled that role adequately, if not as well as we expected. I'd give this visit three stars, but if the entire village is open, it's definitely worthy of more.

Recommended: Yes

Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug