Our next trip was to the Amish Country in Ohio. The Amish Country is a relatively small area in Northeast Ohio that has a concentration of Amish. The Amish try to stay true to there heritage and religion by working, farming and living life with few if any of the modern conveniences we take for granted. Both of our families have a farming background and even though we are not farmers now, it makes us respect, admire and a little understand the way the Amish live.
Our overall plan for this trip is to see our son and daughter-in-law in Cincinnati Ohio. For the trip we did a 2 day excursion through the Amish Country.
The beginning of our trip started in Hagerstown Md and got us to Moundsville WV where we stayed the night with Cindy’s mom. That part of the trip was top down part of the way but alot was interstate highway which is nice but it is not the back road slower pace top down that we enjoy.
After the night in Moundsville we took backroads the rest of the way to the 4 small towns we were planning on visiting. Plan was to start at Sugar Creek then go to Walnut Creek, Berlin and Millersburg. All are on Ohio Rt 39. Most things you will want to do in the Amish country is a short excursion off of Rt 39.
One very nice thing for top down driving is the option on Google maps to go no highways. It routes you to your destination using backroads, taking you through small towns and communities that you would not see otherwise. We did the rest of our trip to Amish Country and Cincinnati using this feature.
Our first stop was in the town of Sugar Creek. It is pretty much the gateway to the Amish. In reality our 2 days started when we arrived on Thursday around 11am and completed Friday around 11 am when we had to start the drive to Cincinnati. Due to limited time, we had to pick the things that we wanted to see and do carefully to maximize the time we had.
The Amish are famous for several things, one of them is their quality constructed furniture. There are a lot of furniture shops so we picked one basically at random. We went to Troyer Furniture right on Rt 39. It had very nice furniture and gave us several good ideas. SugarCreek is also home to the largest Cuckoo Clock. The clock show happens every 30 minutes. There were a few shops around the clock that we explored while we waited for the clock to cuckoo. One particular shop was called The Secret Garden Gift shop. It was one of most unique shops we have been to. It sells and is decorated by a lot of natural items. It is very much worth a few minutes to go in.
After we saw the 5 minute clock show we moved on to other things in SugarCreek including Breitenbach Winery and then headed to Walnut Creek. Another thing the Amish is famous for is their cheese. We went to Walnut Creek cheese which is basically a country store with all kinds of meats and cheeses along with other Amish made items. There are also a few shops associated with Walnut Creek Cheese that are worth looking through.
Eating in the Ohio Amish country is always a tough decision. Since we were around Walnut Creek at the time we wanted to eat a late lunch, we went to Der Dutchman restaurant. There are several restaurants in the area that serve what I would consider home cooking, meat and potatoes types of dinners. If you are looking for that type of food one of these are what you are looking for. The people are great and the food is good at a reasonable price. You can do a buffet or menu which ever meets your hunger needs.
For the night we stayed at the Berlin Resort. It was a very good choice for us. Everything was very clean and well kept. It has inside and outside activities, including a movie theater for kids and adults, pool, hot tub, outside sitting locations with a fire pit and more. They also give you a warm cookie when you check in.
The next day we went to a couple different places including Tis the Season, the largest Christmas shop in Ohio, Sheiyah market and Heini’s Cheese where usually during non covid times you can taste test about a hundred different types of cheese. You can also see them making cheese and if timing is right may be able to have a tour guide talk about the process.
The entire day was top down with our Miata. There are alot of things we did not have time for that we would have liked to see, but due to our limited time we couldn’t. One other bad part is that there are a lot of shops that have a lot of unique and cool things. But with limited space in the miata, pretty much the only thing we bought was some cheese to take home. That just means that on a future trip to our sons house we may need to stop again.
From Berlin we drove through Millersburg and headed to Cincinnati looking at the Amish farm land and small towns along the way, all on back roads. It turned out to take about 1.5 hours longer than if we just got on the interstate but it was a sunny day and with some sun screen, the AC on and the top down, the drive was great.
Tips for the Ohio Amish country
- If you live close by and can go several times, you can see everything in a couple trips. For us we grew up about 2 hours away and had been there several times. If not close and you’re going for the first time you should stay 2 nights in the area in order to do everything that is interesting.
- Being Amish, a lot of places close at 5pm every day. Also not much is open on Sunday so plan accordingly.
- We mentioned this before but the Google maps no highways option is a great tool. We prefer under 50mph with the top down, along with the scenery and experiences you can have off the highway.