Bird In Hand brings together Amish culture, market offerings, and a rural setting with neighboring Amish farms. You can tailor your stay to different interests: a meal in an Amish home, a guided tour, a drive through farmland, and a theater offering each have a different focus. This makes it easier to decide when planning whether you mainly want to explore cultural attractions in town or experience the landscape on a tour.
A market town with Pennsylvania Dutch culture
Bird In Hand began as a meeting place where farmers gathered to talk and do business. The town is designated a “market town.” Its cultural character includes restaurants, bakeries, local shops, and a traditional farmers market, with Pennsylvania Dutch culture and history at its heart. The Bird-in-Hand Farmers Market offers locally made crafts, quilts, and high-quality leather goods. Alongside the dining and cultural offerings, this gives you a specific reason to explore what the market has to offer.
Tours and offerings from the Amish Experience
The Amish Experience offers a meal in an Amish home. This includes a narrated round-trip ride and a meal served in an Amish home. The experience combines the ride with a meal in a private residential setting. Another way to visit is to take a guided tour of the Amish Country Homestead & One-room School. The Amish Experience Theater presents the five-part special-effects film “Jacob’s Choice.” These offerings differ considerably in whether a meal, a tour, or a film is the main focus.
Farmland tours and live entertainment
The Amish Farmlands Tour travels along back roads through Amish farmland. If you want to make the landscape your focus, this tour is specifically centered on the farmland. By contrast, the Amish VIP (Visit-in-Person) Tour visits three authentic Amish properties that are not normally open to visitors. This restriction is part of the description of the properties; visiting them is part of this tour. The two offerings therefore provide different experiences: a drive through the rural surroundings on the one hand, and a visit to these three properties, which are not usually open to visitors, on the other.
The Bird-in-Hand Stage also offers its own program of Broadway-style musicals and comedy. Its tiered seating accommodates up to 150 people. This gives you another clear alternative to the market, guided tours, and excursions: a stage program in a venue with tiered seating. A specific schedule or individual performance dates are not part of this description of the town.
Rural surroundings and orientation
The expansive landscape around Bird In Hand includes neighboring Amish farms. The Amish Farmlands Tour highlights this landscape with its drive along back roads through Amish farmland. Nearby, Plain & Fancy Farm is located on Scenic Byway Route 340, between the towns of Intercourse and Bird-in-Hand in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. This provides additional geographic context without equating Plain & Fancy Farm with the offerings in town.
When planning your stay, you can use the differences between the offerings as a guide: the market and local shops offer a different kind of visit than a narrated ride with a meal; a guided tour and a film, in turn, differ from a trip through farmland or to the three properties that are not normally open to visitors. The stage program adds musicals and comedy to the choices. Which of these aspects matters most to you depends on whether you want to focus on the market and culture, a guided experience, the rural surroundings, or a performance.
Discover more destinations: Denver, Ephrata, Salunga-Landisville, Mountville, Millersville, Christiana, Columbia, Ronks.
For the broader travel overview: Lancaster.
