Aaron & Jessica’s Buggy Rides

Called ahead — no reservation required We were told 30 min wait. 46 minutes later — again was told 30 minute wait. The staff was very uncaring — I’m sure they made plenty of money off the ones that were still waiting and the tour bus that arrived. Apparently they do take reservations if you’re on a tour bus. If they (3 staff member — 2 men and a woman) were honest and informed us from the beginning of the 1.5−2 hr wait — we could have shopped around and returned. We went to Ed’s buggy rides. Ed’s was awesome! Had a buggy waiting for us.

Our buggy ride was OK. Luckily we beat the crowd and only had a 10 minute wait. Our tour guide, Gideon, was nice and informative. He was Amish which was great. The buggy wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I was hoping to go on a small buggy, just the two of us but they grouped us with 6+ strangers. The horses were awfully tired. I honestly they were gonna pass out under us. I also thought the route was going to have more business but it was mostly farm land. At $ 14 each for a 30 – 40 minute ride I didn’t think that was too expensive.

My husband and I took the town tour. Our driver was very friendly and informative. We did have to wait about 45 minutes for the next tour upon arrival but we were able to walk over to the local market to buy some apple cider, jams and jellys. Driver took us around his home and told us what his way of life is. Also told us all about his family and all the different jobs they have in the Amish community.

Awesome tour! We showed up without a reservation and they put us right on an hour tour. We went to the working Amish farm and got to watch them milk the cows (they milk at 5 am and 5 pm so if you want to see that, plan accordingly). We really enjoyed our guide, Levi, he answered all of my questions patiently — which is awesome because I am that annoying person that asks nonstop questions! I’ve read no less than 30 Amish books because I have long been attracted to a simpler way of life. Though I’m not getting rid of it all and putting on a bonnet, I truly appreciate their way of life and focus on family and this tour gave us the «inside look» I was looking for without feeling intrusive.

DON’T GIVE THESE GUYS YOUR BUSINESS! Go to Abe’s Buggy Rides down the street instead. I wish I consulted Unilocal reviews before coming here because it is clear that this place has gotten several poor reviews in the last 3 years and they are riding on a previous reputation. You’ll get poor customer treatment if you don’t go for the most expensive «Farm Tour» ride. My son wanted to go for the shorter, cheaper «Town Tour» ride but they kept us waiting for an hour in the summer heat while they took out over 4 wagons filled its people who arrived AFTER us for the more expensive farm tour. They tried to upsell us to to the farm tour but when we declined they kept us waiting. It’s clear that they didn’t really want to sell the cheaper, shorter «Town Tour». But then why offer it? This is a pretty selfish business and poor way to treat customers. Their tactic is to keep you waiting and waiting until they have a full wagon even if there are multiple wagons sitting there (there were 3 empty wagons sitting there when we arrived with the drivers milling around waiting for higher dollar customers). They only included us on a wagon once a bunch of other people showed up for the cheaper town tour which was over an hour later! What a horrible waste of valuable vacation time when they had plenty of capacity available to take us right when we got there.

The tour that is offered tells you about the conditions. We did ask questions!!! We asked «Why are the cows chained up on a three foot chain»? «Are the cows ever allowed to go out of the stalls»? The tour guy said the answers to which i posted earlier. We were there for 45 min waiting and the tour was over an hour. The horses were not switched in the time frame and I asked about that as well. They said they give them breaks. The horse that took us on a buggy had a limp and once we stoped was trying to stay off the leg. There were no calfs there were puppies in those houses on the grass. I wouldn’t lie and yes cali does have these horrible conditions but theres NO tours on the situation.

I visited once in the summer 2015.
Pros:
— Dog-​friendly– as stated on their website, they do allow dogs on their buggy rides. However, a note of caution, your buggy may be a wagon stuffed full of people with a very narrow space in between the benches. If any of the people stuffed into my wagon had been weird about the dog it could have been a bad situation. And my dog is a medium size (~50 lbs).
— Farm tour– the farm tour takes you to a real operating old order Amish farm. If you haven’t been to a farm this is a nice quick tour. If you’ve toured a farm before you won’t be impressed. Compared to the touristy farm museum I just came from visiting, it was cool to see the real thing and see the real people engaged in their everyday work. On the farm, we were taken by where the cows were being milked (got there just in time to see the milking) and by several of the other areas where there were cows, pigs, and various buildings. They sell homemade cookies, lemonade, and root beer for about $ 2 – 3.
Cons:
— Cash or check– they don’t accept cards but there is an atm nearby that will charge you $ 3.50 to make a withdrawal. It’s $ 21 a person plus tip for the driver.
— Driver– my particular tour guide/​driver was more interested in talking to the children on the tour than giving any knowledge about the area. He was pleasant enough but not a very good tour guide and maybe be did share some local knowledge on the wagon ride but sitting at the back of the wagon I couldn’t hear a word he said. Even when we got on the farm it was too crowded and his voice was too quiet still to hear anything he was saying. However, on the farm I heard another of the company’s guides talking to his group and learned a couple things from him. So it seems to be the luck of the draw what kind of tour guide you get.
— Crowding– probably could have heard the tour guide better if there weren’t so many people in the group. Our wagon held 9 adults and 4 children plus my dog. Two of the children were loud and obnoxious and monopolized the guide’s tour time. Even once we got on the farm only the two or three people closest to him could hear him over the children and farm noise. A buggy that left right behind us was a single family of 4 in a private buggy with the tour guide. This would have been much better.
Bottom line– seems to be luck of the draw whether you get a good driver or not and whether you get a buggy to yourselves or a wagon with 13 people. I wish you the best of luck.

Friendly amish guide. I forgot his name. he is very informative. We stopped by his house to buy lemonade and chocolate cookies which is tasty. the buggy ride is around 30 min and passing thru the farms and a lot of information were given by him about amish culture.

I came here on a Sunday, and only because every Amish buggy ride place was closed. I had a brochure from my hotel from this place talking all about the great tours they give and blah blah blah.
We weren’t given any choice of tours and told the only one available is the Amish Town tour. There were no actual buggies, only larger wagons. There were a ton of people here waiting for a tour and we waited around 45 minutes before getting our tour. The wagons were leaving every 20 minutes and there seemed to be only 3 drivers, none of them Amish.
What’s in the brochure and on their website is pure fiction. The drivers are not Amish, and the people who own the company (pictured in the website in Amish clothing) are also not Amish. Our driver was their grand-​daughter and told us that both her parents and grand parents (owners of the business) used to be Amish but aren’t any more.
We were packed into this wagon very tightly and told that our kids had to sit on our laps so they could cram even more people in. Our kids were very annoyed at this and spent the entire time grumbling about having no room. We sat in the wagon for 15 minutes before departing for no apparent reason.
The tour is advertised as «A 4 mile tour passing an Amish Village, businesses and an all Amish farm area, with a brief stop for refreshments. Experience real Amish life». BULLSHIT. We were taken about ½ mile down a road (the same road we had already driven down), turned around, and then taken back. It was 15 minutes each way. No way in hell that was 4 miles. We didn’t pass any village, businesses, or stop for «refreshments». We got to see a bunch of corn fields, like we hadn’t already seen 100 miles of corn already.
The driver rushed through a script that she clearly didn’t like reading from with some boring facts about how many Amish people there are and then spent the rest of the ride talking about her personal life and how many family members are divorced and so on.
Since our driver wasn’t Amish and we didn’t encounter any Amish people, it was really just a waste of 2 hours and $ 40. As a bonus, the two horses were farting constantly throughout the ride.
AVOID

I would not recommend this buggy ride operator. First, the process to get on the buggy is incredibly inefficient. A woman takes names, then calls them to get on the carriage. After each party gets seated, more are attempted to be squeezed on. When the buggy is filled to capacity, then the carriage awaits the next available driver, which could take 30 minutes. During the waiting period, some discover their need to use the bathroom, which could then delay the ride further. Finally, if your driver is a young, self-​absorbed woman, she might take an additional minute or two to text. We waited an hour from the moment we checked in until the time when our ride commenced. When the ride finally took off, our driver talked more about her non-​Amish life than about the people we’d come to learn about. She used inappropriate language several times in front of the many small children aboard. She rushed through a rehearsed speech that clearly bored her out of her mind, and she admitted that she took this job for mercenary reasons alone. While that may be most people’s motivation, it’s not necessary to say. I could see the experience being lovely with a driver who was happier to be at work or at least better at pretending to be, but this driver really left us cold. It was obvious that no one else on the ride was impressed or amused by our ride. Just unfortunate.

Had a great time on our buggy ride. We got to see part of Lancaster we had never seen. We had several questions about Amish life, and Levi answered pretty much all of them. Our horse AL was very well mannered and well cared for. I would definitely recommend this tour for anyone. We did take a longer tour and it was well worth it!

We took a private ride paid $ 170.00 we just went along the road where I could go with my car, the driver ‘Rubin’ had no idea what’s going on and new nothing about the Amish, no stops (only at the shop), basically we got nothing, very disappointed.

The buggy ride was fine, but the driver actually scammed us.
We wanted to do the «Amish Farm Tour» which was $ 14. Another couple who was there before wanted to do the «Cookie Tour» which was $ 10. But the driver told us all to get in at once anyway. When I asked him if this was the «Amish Town Tour» he cryptically said «oh yeah, we’ll go all through the Amish town and houses.»
The tour itself was pretty nice. The driver was friendly and informative, if repetitive. And the scenery was nice. I’d say at this point I’d recommend a buggy ride, but not one from this company.
At the end, we asked the driver how much we owed him. He sort of shooed us away until he dealt with the other couple. Once they were gone, he charged us $ 14. It wasn’t until after we paid that I inspected the sign describing the tours (and caught up to the other couple) that it became apparent that we had been overcharged.
Left a bad taste in my mouth.

We took the Cookie run. Which means you have the opportunity to purchase cookies along the way
Our driver, Levy, was funny and gave us some good information as we toured around

I first saw mixed reviews with Aaron & Jessica’s buggy ride. After visiting them, I think I know the reason.
I believe Aaron & Jessica is a «wholesaler». They operate the «storefront». Local «buggymen» offer services through them. Thus the services are not totally in par with each other.
Fortunately we had a really good experience with ours. We took the 1 hour ride. The buggy coach was nice and clean. Our guide was friendly and very informative. He explained everything from beginning to the end. He took us to his own farm, went through his ranch, (and he sells cookies and drinks there, of course), answered all of our questions, and finally collected the fees for the ride. We are very pleased with our buggy ride.

We arrived at 10am, ready for some great scenery and buggy riding fun. We were told that there would be a 20 – 30 minute wait. OK, where do we wait with our eager 1– and 2-​year old boys? It’s in the middle of a parking lot. No problem, said they, got to the gift shop where you can get a coffee and peruse Amish goods. Surprise! It’s a Cracker Barrel gift store by any other name (all cheap and junky goods) and there is NO COFFEE until 11. Ugly stuff. Uglier still, we return 20 minutes later, and we’ve missedour ride because they «had no idea where we were». No problem, they are busy and we should have been on the ball. But then, the confused and overwhelmed gent who was on the gatekeeper shift disappears when we ask him when the next buggy ride happens. He argues on the phone briefly with someone inside the Cracker barrel look alike building, then sitched our names, told us we were right up and left again for another 20 minutes. Once some of the other folks waiting for rides bail on the idea, we also eventually decided this might be the best bet as well. We go to Abe’s, which is down the road, quaint, non-​commercial, beautiful, and we have an awesome buggy ride and no wait. Oh yeah, Abe’s also has a petting zoo and fun little jungle gym so the kids had something to do while we waited for 10 minutes.
At least Aaron and Jessica didn’t make us pay up front.

My family lives in Lancaster County and we have slowly been doing every tourist thing to do nearby. We did the extended buggy ride that visits a real working Amish farm. This has been one of my absolute favorite things we have done as tourists at home. I loved the buggy ride, I loved the farm, I loved seeing all the animals, I loved hearing my nephews ask questions. There are cookies and lemonade and root beer for sale at the farm. The lemonade really is that good. Go ahead. Get some. A great activity for adults and kids.
If you only have a day in Lancaster, skip the Kitchen Kettle Village tourist trap and come here to do the buggy ride out to the farm. Then go to Bird in Hand Bakery to get a pie to eat after your supper. Then google Lapp Valley Dairy Farm and drive over there through the farmland to pet the kittens, pet the cows, pet the dogs, use the hand sanitizer station, and get some Butter Brickle ice cream in a cone. Grab some ice cream to go because hey, you got a pie in the car. You’re welcome.

We had such a great time on our Amish tour! We rode in a wagon to a local farm, where the barn was mega-​old, the cows were super cute, and the child wandering about was hilarious. Our tour guide was friendly and informative, and our wait wasn’t too long (though others had different stories).
One star removed because the description online makes it seem like you’ll get FREE beverages for your $ 17 tour. Not so. We were offered colorful trinkets, cookies, and drinks for purchase. I didn’t feel like dropping any more cash that day so I didn’t indulge, but others did and seemed content with the quality of the offerings.

We were given a flyer that had an advertisement for these buggy rides and decided to try them out. We went on the Amish Town tour, since it was a bit longer than the cookies and lemonade one. We were loaded up into a large buggy along with about 10 others and our guide. Our guide was a nice enough Amish man, the majority of the time he spoke about Amish life and his own family. He took us to visit his farm house and his granddaughter was there selling cookies, pretzels and drinks. The lemonade was really good. My nephew and little brother enjoyed the tour and seeing all of the horses and cows along the way. I’m not saying this was the most authentic experience ever, but it was overall a good experience and the price of $ 12 adults and $ 6 for kids under 12 was decent.

Absolutely loved this farm and the buggy rides!!! Our guide the first time was Ejay. He was excellent and so friendly!
We went back again the next day and enjoyed another buggy ride with Big Steve as our guide! What a treat!!!