Last Minute Trips from NYC: Pennsylvania Amish Country

Around this time of year, it's customary for us to book a cheap hotel with an indoor pool for a weekend getaway out of the city. We call it urban camping. It's never planned in advance. Usually around 2pm on a Friday we'll figure it out. 

Last weekend we decided to drive 3 hours to see Pennsylvania Amish Country and stayed in what felt like the Presidential suite at this Best Western for $143/night. That included a full continental breakfast, 2 bedrooms, a fire place in the living room, kitchenette, 3 color TVs, and 1.5 bath with a spa tub. It's humiliating to think that the Best Western is a step up from our apartment in the city, but it was. 

The locks on the bedroom and bathroom doors were my favorite luxury. Our NYC apartment has old door knobs without locks, leading to absolutely no privacy. Actually, the door knob on our bathroom fell off months ago. I keep meaning to put it back on, but I can't find it now. It's either buried in a pile of laundry or under a stack of toys in the kid's closet. Instead of cleaning, I did what any faithful consumer would do and bought this other one from Etsy for $10. If I learned anything in from the Amish, it's that more possessions, more junk, more conveniences definitely makes life more fulfilling and awesome.     

I asked our Amish tour guide about the laundry situation. In this community, they are allowed to have washing machines (this family used solar power), but not dryers. It's different in every community though.   

We took a buggy ride out to a real Amish farm. This was their dog.  Puppies were in the barn.  

I took this photo while Rob was driving. Their buggy was going into the gorgeous Lime Valley Covered Bridge. It was so picturesque. Except I didn't actually capture a picture of it. It all happened so fast. 

Another covered bridge.  It was really hard to find the bridges using the map the hotel provided. We got tired of searching after we saw 2. This Google map of the covered bridges would have been so much better. I know for next time.

Our Amish tour bus vs NYC tour bus. 

It's red and double decker just like the tour buses driving around NYC. Practically the same.

This is a donkey's eye, not a horse. I'm so sorry if this information disappoints anyone. Donkey's are pretty cool, too.