Holidays in Amish Country!

Everyone is curious about Lancaster during the holidays. After the long days of summer and the harvest is in, what is there to do in Amish Country? PLENTY!

Have you finished your shopping for the holidays? Or, have you even started? We have two outlet malls – Tanger and Rockvale.  At the Australian Walkabout Inn B&B, we can provide you with directories and coupons for both, to make your shopping cost-effective and time-efficient. If you’re looking for something unique, head downtown to the Gallery Shops. Here again, we can provide you with maps and other information. Looking for something Amish-inspired? We like local Amish-owned shops like Riehl’s Quilts and the Countryside Road Stand.

Rather than giving that special someone something in a box for the holidays, why not give them an experience? Our local theaters – Sight and Sound; American Music Theatre; Ephrata Performing Arts Center; Rainbow Dinner Theatre; Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre; and Fulton Opera House (just to name a few) all have special productions just for the holidays! I can tell you from experience, that this is some of the easiest gift shopping you’ll ever do, and the memories last a lot longer than a Wii game, tie or bottle of perfume.  

Other experiences might include a Segway Tour, a zip line canopy tour, a hot air balloon ride, a couples’ massage, or horseback riding. The possibilities are virtually limitless!

All this shopping, Segway-riding and theatre-going is probably going to make you hungry. We have a wide variety of food choices here in Lancaster. You can go the Amish-Dutch route at Katie’s Kitchen in Ronks, or Dienner’s Family Restaurant in Paradise (both minutes from the Walkabout Inn). Hungry for ethnic food? We have everything from Asian-fusion to Peruvian and Italian. If American fare is more your style, then we recommend The Brasserie. For an intimate dinner, we prefer the Greenfield Restaurant. The downtown area also has wonderful restaurants that rank right up there with places we’ve eaten in DC, Philly or other major metropolitan areas (without the high prices and long waits for reservations).

So see? There’s a lot to do here in Lancaster, PA during the holiday season. You’ll need several days to experience it all. Call today to reserve your favorite room. See you soon!

Two weeks

So, starting this Saturday, our daughter leaves on a two-week vacation. The first week she'll be staying with family and the second week will be at a church music camp. I'm not sure who looks forward to this more, me or her. She gets to experience what she refers to as 'freedom' and, well, so do mom & dad. I think all families should be this fortunate!

Her version of freedom includes sleeping till noon and then swimming the rest of the day; getting a pedicure; going shopping with grandma for those things that mom won't buy because they aren't 'needs'; eating whatever she wants whenever she wants and this includes ice cream for dinner (yeah, grandma, she told on you!) Fortunately, this is only the first week. The 2nd week is a bit more structured. It only takes me half of the remaining summer to re-program her.

Don't get me wrong. We love our daughter more than anything in the world! She's reallly a fantastic kid and we're very proud of her. Generally, she's a joy to have around. It's just that this two weeks is a very important time for her parents. We get to take a little time to 'reconnect' as a couple. We've made this a priority since our daughter was very young and like I've commented before in this post, she understands that this is important.

Our daughter has always been quite 'portable'. We've taken her with us just about everywhere except during the aforementioned vacation times. This year, vacation for mom & dad is going to include some of the following: Music and Wine on the Lawn at Waltz Vineyards; A Ghost Tour of Lancaster;
dining out at Greenfield Restaurant and/or The Orchard.

I think I need to make a list.

Commercial Approach

For over a year now, I've been the chair of the marketing committee for our local B&B association . I get to work very closely with a lot of very talented people who are passionate about innkeeping. In addition to marketing together as 40 unique B&B properties among about 160 in Lancaster County, PA, we also share ideas, stories and a lot of laughs.

We've done our share of rack cards, print advertising in newspapers & magazines and social media like Facebook and Twitter. This year, we decided to pull out all the stops. At the end of April, we produced a commercial for our association. We would not have been able to do this without the help of our local CVB and a matching grant from the state. It was a long day and a lot of people worked very hard to turn out a great product. You can see it here:

Another very similar version of the commercial is airing this week and next on cable stations and WGAL. We had great participation from the association members. Thanks to Bob & Vivian Abel of the Pheasant Run B&B - they were so gracious in hosting the event.

Just wait to see what we do next!