Many years ago a friend shared a valuable travel tip: “Whenever you go to a new place, before you do anything else, sign up for a local tour. It’s a great way to get an overview of the place.” And, over the years, we’ve done just that—in destinations ranging from Fort Lauderdale to Montréal to London. Such tours are typically conducted in a bus or van. Gray Line has been a reliable favorite, and we’ve also used local companies as well as the red, double-decker “hop-on, hop-off” buses in London.
A recent work trip to Pennsylvania Dutch Country, however, brought an opportunity to expand upon that tried-and-true tidbit of advice. Not only did we take a traditional orientation tour in a van, we also experienced the scenic countryside from an Amish horse and buggy and a chugging steam train.

Our base of operations was Lancaster, and some pre-trip research showed that we would have our choice of van tours. We selected the 90-minute Amish Countryside Tour offered by the Pennsylvania Dutch Convention and Visitors Bureau, which was conveniently near our hotel.

Our personable guide quickly steered the van away from town and into the rural Pennsylvania countryside. The scenery soon changed from busy and commercial to peaceful and agricultural. Meandering two-lane roads revealed neat, white farmhouses with porches and expansive barns and silos. White shirts and prim dresses and aprons pinned on clotheslines danced about as they dried in the warm breeze, and bearded men in broad-brimmed hats and traditional Amish garb could be seen cultivating their fields behind plows pulled by teams of horses.

Our guide was brimming with information and interesting factoids. For example, did you know that the Amish have their own one-room schoolhouses that are spaced a mile or two apart so all children can walk to school? Or that Amish children only go to school through eighth grade? How about that Amish families have seven children on average, men do not grow beards until they marry and church services are held in homes every other Sunday?

We saw our share of horse-drawn buggies and a covered bridge and made a stop at a roadside stand. Now I’m not a big fan of pretzels, but a young Amish woman at the roadside stand was selling just-out-of-the-oven soft pretzels that were incredibly yeasty and good.  She also had small cups of cold, homemade root beer -  a totally refreshing treat for 25 cents.

Inside was a shop with rows of hand-crafted items including quillows, a cross between a quilt and a pillow, birdhouses, rocking chairs, preserves and baked and canned goods. Very tempting!

Though driving was somewhat unnerving at first as we shared the road with horse-drawn carriages, the sight of these old-fashioned conveyances soon became commonplace. We had been told that the horses used to pull buggies are often retired race horses. Even so, those gentle creatures are no match for cars zipping along at 35 to 40 mph . The Amish are very conscientious, though, about keeping to the side of the road out of traffic whenever possible.

Thinking it would be fun to see the area Amish-style, we decided to take a tour in one of those horse-drawn carriages. Abe’s Buggy Rides in Bird-in-Hand was a good choice. We settled on the 20-minute, 2.3-mile tour and clambered up and into the buggy.

One of the advantages of these rides is that they’re private—just you, the horse and the driver. We soon found out, however, that trying to understand the driver’s patter could be difficult due to the loud clatter of the buggy wheels against the pavement. Our guide was very knowledgeable and friendly and answered all our questions as we clip-clopped through farmland and along back roads. This was definitely a fun trip and a uniquely Pennsylvania Dutch Country experience.

One of the items high on my to-do list was a trip to Paradise—Paradise, Pennsylvania, that is. The Strasburg Rail Road Co. offers 45-minute trips to this tiny burg in beautifully restored Victorian-style rail cars pulled by a puffing steam locomotive. Seating options were offered in an open-air car or coach, lounge or parlor cars or, in the  luxury of the President’s Car.

Our coach car had a pot-bellied stove for cold winter days. There were, naturally, a lot of children on board, and they all seemed to be having fun watching the steam billow from the locomotive as the train passed picture-perfect Amish farms with cows and horses contentedly grazing in pastures.