Ohio’s Amish Country offers a slow-paced journey

If you view Ohio’s Amish Country—a simple and slow-paced setting—in an appropriate manner, you don’t want to fight a tourist-filled crowd.

So, now is a good time for us to take to the road and head southwest from Stark County toward the central part of the state, to where the horses trot and the buggies roll behind them, as if they were traveling in a bygone slower time.

We’ll likely ease the pace of our trip, too.

“The area is generally referred to as Amish Country Ohio and is a great place for visitors to learn about the history and local traditions of the Amish and Mennonite peoples, purchase traditional Amish handicrafts, eat a lot of hearty Amish food and enjoy the great pastoral scenery of this region,” notes a 2021 article by Jessica Norah at the website IndependentTravelCats.com. “If you are visiting in summer, holidays or school breaks, just note that it will likely be more busy, so just be prepared for some crowds.”

With that in mind, we’ll take our trip as soon as possible—today, perhaps—and certainly before those throngs of people descend on such Amish Country destinations as Berlin and Millersburg.

Holmes County, where those communities sit, is the focal point of Amish Country. Still, the region extends into Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne counties.

So, we’ll start our loop on the Amish Country map in southwest Stark County, and drive along Route 62 toward the small towns that haven’t grown much in decades.

We can almost feel the Amish influence enveloping us as we drive. The surroundings almost are warming and greening around us as we travel. Our first sightings of buggies on the road will begin as the hills rise before us.

If we start between meals in the morning, by the time we reach Wilmot, we just might be ready to stop to eat lunch and to shop for souvenirs at The Amish Door.

Winesburg is next on our path through the present to the past. The village was “founded on top of a hill, where State Route 62 now passes, in northeastern Holmes County,” recalls OhioAmishCountry.com.

“Winesburg boasts two antique malls conveniently located on Route 62,” the travel website notes. “Winesburg Historical Society and a carriage and wagon museum are also points of interest in this quaint town.”

Upon leaving the village, we might want to take a short side trip, turning onto southern Route 515 toward Trail. There we will find Troyer’s Trail Bologna, a tasty snack combined with baby Swiss cheese and crackers. It’s worth the stop before a brief return to Route 62 on our way to the more tourism-driven community of Berlin.

Fortunately, there is plenty of parking for us in this “heart of Amish Country” gathering of shops before the summer season starts on Memorial Day. The sidewalks are open for us to tread. The restaurants have unoccupied tables. And the sun seems to shine warm instead of hot as we walk along Berlin’s “main” street.

“With more than 50 restaurants, inns, hotels and historic attractions, Berlin ... offers an enormous variety of leisure activities for the perfect memorable vacation or day trip,” notes the website VisitBerlinOhio.org.

Route 62 meets Route 39 here, and we’ll find many of the shops that interest us on the latter road, such as Berlin Antique and Craft Malls.

“Two large malls side by side, one filled with quality antiques and collectibles,” informs the website. “The other is overflowing with locally made crafts. You will also find the best homemade fudge in Amish Country at the craft mall! One-floor shopping with lots of parking. Located at Schrock’s Heritage Ville, one mile east of Berlin.”

Returning to the central portion of Berlin, we’ll find shops that quietly capture the essence of Amish Country, even in their names. Country From The Heart and Country Gatherings galleries, German Village Market specialty grocery, Gospel Book Store, Helping Hands Quilt Shop, Orme Hardware, Streb’s General Store and The Old Thume Homespun Shoppe all are ready to be explored.

Bunker Hill Cheese Chalet and Guggisberg Cheese are nearby, off County Road 77 and State Route 557, respectively.

Backtrack a bit and if we’ve tarried long enough among the shops, it might be time to stop for a country dinner at Berlin Farmstead Restaurant, which serves “bounteous portions of our Amish Kitchen Cooking,” or Boyd & Wurthmann Restaurant, which is “a simple reminder of the days gone by,” VisitBerlinOhio.org assures.

We’ll head toward Millersburg on Route 39 following our meal. The cool of the evening is an inviting time to arrive.

“Whether you’re a newcomer, longtime resident or visitor, you’ll find resources and friendly faces to help you make the best of your time in our beautiful village,” the town’s website, MillersburgOhio.com, promises.

A historic downtown district first meets our eyes. Streets throughout the village recall individuals from early in American and Ohio and Holmes County history—Jackson, Clinton, Adams, Man Anthony, Washington, Clay, Monroe and Crawford.

We shouldn’t get too caught up in the history, however. There is plenty to take in here. We can visit shops, stop at a restaurant, tour a winery or brewing company, even stay and sleep at a cozy inn.

Or, if time necessitates, we can simply smile at the memories of our day as we travel home to Stark County on Route 241. Don’t worry. There still is plenty of Amish Country to see while we depart it. It may only be a brief glance, as we pass through the quiet and quaint bergs—Mount Hope and Mount Eaton—that dot the green countryside of Amish Country. But, it will be enough to bring us back one day.

We are leaving Amish Country behind in body, but not in mind.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Ohio’s Amish Country offers a slow-paced journey