Lancaster County is the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, where Amish and Mennonite communities have farmed the rolling countryside since the 18th century. Horse-drawn buggies share the roads with cars, and roadside stands sell fresh-baked shoofly pie, whoopie pies, and locally grown produce.
Lancaster City itself has an increasingly vibrant downtown with art galleries, farm-to-table restaurants, and the historic Central Market, operating continuously since the 1730s. Lititz, a Moravian-founded village in the northern hills, is filled with antique shops and retains much of its old-world charm.
The Strasburg Railroad Museum offers rides on an authentic steam train through Amish farmland, and the Fulton Opera House in Lancaster is one of the oldest working theaters in the country. This is not a place to rush through -- the appeal is in slowing down, browsing the farm markets, and watching a way of life that has deliberately resisted the modern world.
