so are you planning a trip to the amish what are some things you might want to keep in mind i'm going to tell you about five tips today to help you get the most out of your visit my name is eric wester i'm not amish but i've visited dozens of amish communities around the country i've lived with the amish before i run the amish america website at amishamerica.com first tip if you're visiting the amish visit the amish on their own turf there are a lot of things you can do when you visit one of the
larger amish communities like lancaster county the shipyard area in northern indiana homes county ohio and a lot of the larger places like that definitely have a tourist industry that's kind of built up around them so they've got restaurants they've got buggy rides they may have like a farm visit different tours theaters those kinds of things definitely nothing wrong with that especially the restaurants but but a lot of people tell me they want to meet the amish kind of their own turf and there's actually a really good way to do this that anyone can do and
that's pretty simple it's actually to visit the amish at their businesses the amish are not just farmers anymore and many you know most amish communities have some kind of business there and some of them have many businesses there's furniture shops variety stores bulk food stores there's bakeries quilt shops and most of these businesses welcome outside visitors i mean that's part of how they make a living you have certain businesses that cater more to the amish like if you have for example a buggy shop most of the business is going to be going to other amish
but you know even in the amish like variety stores you can you can go to those there's nothing against that and even the farmers have their own farm stands in many cases where they might sell produce uh by the roadside or you know you drive down the lane of the farm and you buy it off the front porch from whoever happens to be there whether that's the mom of the house or one of the children these are a great way to kind of meet the amish you know in their place of business you know they
usually have some pretty interesting things that they're selling now they've got a busy store they're not going to have the time to talk to you necessarily and in some places people are just not talkative so they're not all going to be talkative but some of them will be you know learn a little bit about the community strike up a conversation it's usually a good idea to buy something when you're there i mean you know you can buy some pair of socks or some canned goods or whatever you'll have something to remember the visit by as
well so in other words that's a great entry point to be able to meet amish people you still need to you know be respectful obviously when you go there and i'll talk about that uh some more in the next point but um it's a great pathway to having more contact with actual amish people so number two relax and treat amish people like people kind of hand in hand with the first point you don't have to act in some weird stiff stilted manner around amish people i think some people go to amish communities and they're very
concerned that they may do something or say something wrong and might offend the amish right and i think that kind of i don't know i think that kind of misreads the general character of amish people they're they're not us but it's not like they're super easy to offend you know as long as you're behaving in a good way uh they're not that uptight about things as people maybe imagine there is something to keep in mind which i'll talk about you know later on this list but in general i would recommend just relax and i remember
the first time i met an amish person i did behave in kind of a stiff and awkward manner i think to say the least it was just a housewife in in illinois when i was selling books door-to-door actually and i had hadn't visited any amish homes so this was really the kind of the first amish person i had spoken with i think i said something dumb i think i said something like so is this amish country or just something really kind of stupid but stupid sounding i didn't really know how to relate you know quote
unquote to this person who seemed suddenly seemed so exotic to me you know i always think back to that time and sort of like cringe or laugh at myself a little bit because knowing now kind of what i know i probably didn't put her at ease with my with my dumb question or whatever so but i wasn't i wasn't there for very very long so so i i soon after left and then started to figure things out eventually once i visited more amish families in that in that job and actually turned out pretty well yeah
so i think some people visit with the idea they have to watch every single thing they say or you know not talk about technology or you know just really worry about offending someone you know amish have opinions amish people are curious about things they may be curious about the way you live some of them are interested in the news and what's going on some of them are interested in sports some of the men in particular you know and again i'm generalizing here there are going to be some people that are more uh cold or standoffish
for lack of a better word generally i just kind of i just assume people are going to be friendly and amish have a sense of humor as well i mean so don't be afraid you know to be funny of course in wholesome ways so again it doesn't mean don't be respectful but the point is just to relax and kind of be yourself and don't put the amish on a pedestal or treat them like there's some different kind of humans than the rest of us i mean they're humans too treat them like people and uh you
know i think that's my best advice on that by the way if you're liking this video uh do me a favor just hit like that'll give this video a little boost appreciate it number three dress accordingly now i'm not i'm not talking about going out and buying amish trousers and you know getting a handmade dress and wearing a head covering or a hat you don't need to mimic the amish in some weird way to make them feel more comfortable or something i would say that you know even though you may be visiting in summertime when
it's hot it may not be a bad idea to dress a little bit more formally and that doesn't mean wearing a suit or just you know everything you can wear normal clothes the idea here is maybe show a little less skin because i think non-amish people don't realize the way how i think revealing certain clothing can be or can seem to a non-amish person and i actually noticed this like when i was like living for longer periods of time with amish friends and i would be kind of just in their company for you know for
weeks you know right and i would see non-amish people in a on a limited basis but then i would maybe go to some gas station or something like that and uh it would even kind of shock me the kind of things people would wear right it kind of got my attention because i was just so used to the way the amish dress which is pretty pretty well covered right again i'm not saying like just you know dress head to toe and super formal clothes and everything i mean you can roll up your sleeves it's not
like you have to uh you have to be totally you know covered up but keep in mind that typical english in other words non-amish clothing tends to be more revealing than what amish are used to seeing in their communities so what might not seem immodest to us may appear that way to an amish person i also want to say this like amish people are used to seeing non-amish people especially in like the larger amish communities and more progressive places the amish who have businesses that deal with english people a lot they're quite used to it
okay because that's just the nature of things no one's ever gonna say anything to you but just something that might show a little more respect you may actually find yourself more comfortable if you wear something that's a little more formal or less revealing number four important to keep in mind sunday is not a shopping day even in non-amish places in some in some communities you probably have heard that the amish don't do business or work on sundays that's one of the most hard and fast rules that you'll be able to find across the board in
in the amish world a lot of things the amish do there can be little tweaks and exceptions and you may see one community that's a little different from everybody else that do something a little bit differently but um this is one that's pretty hard and fast across all the amish groups from the most conservative to the most progressive another thing to keep in mind is that in some places the non-amish businesses will also be closed on sunday for example berlin ohio basically shuts down on sundays in other words a lot of the other businesses kind
of follow sort of an amish schedule in these amish communities a lot of the non-amish people that live there are also you know are also christian some of them have similar belief systems even though they're not amish they may be mennonites so things like you know the chain stores the fast food the mcdonald's that's going to be open but generally not a great day to do a lot of shopping another little note is that on sunday you should expect to see more and maybe different activity from the amish so obviously you're not going to have
the farmers in their fields and people plugging away at work you are apt to see more buggies on the road and that would be from amish traveling to and from church okay buggies and also foot traffic in going visiting which is a popular thing to do for the amish on sunday after church dropping in on other family members other people in the community and then of course the youth traffic the youth have their youth groups in the evening they will be on the roads going out with their with their buddies and friends going to the
youth singing some going on dates number five be careful on the road you know if you monitor the kind of news about the amish you become pretty aware of how many accidents seem to happen between cars and buggies if you're not used to driving around buggies it can be kind of surprising how quickly you come up on a buggy when you're doing you know even if you're doing the speed limit if you're doing 45 miles an hour and the buggy is doing eight you will be right up on that buggy faster than you expect so
i think you know driving in amish country means you need to take your speed down a notch try to stay a little bit more alert you know again for people on the road uh you know in buggies or people walking on the roadside that can be pretty common there have been some tragic accidents where children have run out into the road just something to kind of be aware of when you're passing even people on the side of the road give them enough space so children walking to school okay that's something that's going to be you
know in the morning around 8 am or so and then walking back from school in the afternoon around 3 okay just something to be aware of on the road walking on their scooters on their bicycles some of the missed children will wear safety clothing in some of the more progressive communities they've in particular they've accepted that especially in places like holmes county ohio lancaster county you've got a lot of hills a lot of curves you can come especially if you come over a hill you know there could be a buggy that had just gone over
the crest and sitting and just descending on the other side and you don't see it when you're you know accelerating over the top then you suddenly come up on it and then it could be too late so really be careful in those situations sun blinding you sometimes a horse can be startled and bolt now that doesn't typically happen the horses are generally pretty well conditioned to be on the roads at least they should be maybe they're not always but that's kind of that's kind of on the amish to get a hold of also when you
do pass a buggy try not to cut it off but give it a wide enough at birth when you come you know come back into the lane but probably more importantly you should be aware of other automobiles on the roads some drivers are not very careful about how they pass or how they drive around amish especially in these places where you've got curves and you've got the double yellow line and you can have a buggy going around a curve or you know in a new passing zone and it can back up car traffic it goes
without saying don't pass on blind curves you may see people doing this regardless but people take that risk okay so just something to be aware of people tend to get pretty impatient i don't want to blame it on the locals but it's usually more the locals that are that way how do i know they tend to you know locals tend to be the ones that are involved in these accidents funny enough i don't know if i've ever read an accident report where a tourist actually caused an accident i'm sure it's happened but the majority of
them tend to be people that live locally you know some people just get frustrated driving around the amish you know because it slows you down and you know the amish don't feel great about that i've talked to amish about you know they don't like to be blocking traffic and you know they'll try to get over as much as they can a lot of them sometimes there's just nothing you can do about it especially going uphill one of those hill situations like in holmes county i mean you see this all the time there you you got
the horse you know it's been going up a really big hill and uh there's no nitro button really that the driver can hit to get the horse to fly up to the top for you it's you know it can slow down pretty slow to a clip clock pace you know in those cases you just gotta drop it down to three four five miles an hour and clip clop along uh you know so to speak until it's clear to pass you may have to wait for a long time you know if you get stuck behind someone
but you know that's part of the charm of visiting an amish community what can i say people often wonder about whether they can stay with the amish i get a lot of comments and questions about that it's possible right i always suggest that you know the best way to go is to make friends first and then go from there you know it's like i think we kind of expect sort of an instant solution to things like you know where's the program i can pay for or the uh you know the experience i can sign up
for where i live with an amish family for a week right it's not always that simple and in this case it's it's kind of about making friends first then that's something that could naturally evolve from from that that's usually what i recommend there are actually some places we can stay on an amish farm or like rent from the amish and there are a number of those in lancaster county there's at least a dozen of those there's a website it's called amishfarmstay.com and i'll put a link to that in the description that's not like you're living
with the amish necessarily waking up you know and eating breakfast with them and you know because i think that's what people tend to want to do uh when they ask that question but i think that can be a nice sort of alternative where you actually are living sort of around the amish and i think in some of the cases you actually do interact with the amish hosts or the amish owners of the property so you can check that out but i always want to recommend if you want to actually live with the amish it's good
to you know make friends first and i did a couple videos about that i've got one on the best things about living with the amish and then i've got one on the five hardest things about living with the amish that's not a complaint video that is more about how you know as a non-amish person what are the some of the challenges and adaptations you make when you stay with amish hit subscribe to be in the loop for more videos i do two videos per week what other tips would you add to this you know feel
free to throw those in the comments i would love to hear any other ideas that that you guys have thanks i will talk to you next time
