1. Country Vistas Bed & Breakfast
City: Manheim, PA
Category: Accommodations
Telephone: (717) 664-2931
Address: 448 W. Sun Hill Rd.
Description: Your family will have an authentic hands-on farm experience, feeding the animals, collecting the eggs, even riding a pony on this 5-acre “farmette” located halfway between Hershey and Intercourse. The 2 guest rooms and 1 suite are clean, homey, and tastefully decorated. Full breakfast is included. No credit cards.
2. Annual Celtic Fling & Highland Games
City: Manheim, PA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (717) 665-7021
Address: 83 Mansion House Rd.
Description: Hundreds of traditional musicians, dancers, crafters, Scottish clans, Irish societies, and athletes from all over North America and Europe celebrate Celtic traditional athletic and strength competitions for men and women (sanctioned by the Mid-Atlantic Scottish Athletics Association). More than 800 children and young adults compete in Highland Dancing competitions, and there will be bagpipers, crafters, authentic foods, and free Scotch and whiskey samples.
3. Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire
City: Manheim, PA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (717) 665-7021, ext. 231
Address: 83 Mansion House Rd.
Description: From the time you enter the castle gates, you are immersed in the life and pageantry of 16th-century life as hundreds of costumed characters from peasants to pirates take to the Shire streets for morning-to-night jesting and jousting, tournaments and troubadours, 13 stages of entertainment ranging from bawdy to the Bard (there’s mud wrestling, too), a gigantic human chess board, and too much more to describe.
4. Poe Forevermore
City: Manheim, PA
Category: Annual Events & Festivals
Telephone: (717) 665-7021
Address: 83 Mansion House Rd.
Description: Poe returns to Pennsylvania Dutch Country for his annual November haunting of the Victorian Mount Hope Mansion. Each year, he meets up with a new set of equally historic (and equally dead) cohorts, such as P. T. Barnum, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley, to find adventure and a convenient forum for the telling of his most famous frightening fables.
5. Root’s Country Market & Auction
City: Manheim, PA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (717) 898-7811
Address: 705 Graystone Rd.
Description: Begun in 1925, Root’s (pronounced like “foots”), which is open only on Tues, is the oldest single-family-run country market in Lancaster County. More than 200 stand holders (some of whom are second and third generations of family businesses) offer farm-fresh produce, meats, bakery items, flowers and plants, handmade crafts, and all manner of household items.
6. Mount Hope Estate and Winery
City: Manheim, PA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (717) 665-7021, ext. 129
Address: 83 Mansion House Rd.
Insider Pick:
Description: At the home of the annual Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire, you might not be surprised to find a honey mead—but how about one with blueberry? Yum. The Fantasy Series blends such as Maiden’s Blush and Knight’s Reward are fun, too.