Plan your trip itinerary!
When going on vacation you may see the best places , but do you know the best times to be there? This is where a good itinerary comes in! We all want to get in as much as we can when we travel. Bad weather and crowds can really slow us down and force us to make modifications to our plans. Having a back up plan or alternate idea can help us save the day and still have a good time. The Amish of Ethridge team has put together theme based itineraries to help you if you want a similar theme. If you see something you like but don't want our suggestion, then swap it out for something else. We want you to have the best vacation you can have while visiting our Amish community!
Coming to see the Amish in Ethridge is quite easy! Getting the most out of your trip will take some effort to see it all. This is where having a good plan will help you get the most out of your Amish Adventure. Below are our recommendations, based on a theme with the understanding that seeing the Amish is your top priority!
Are you looking for Group Travel?
We have a whole page devoted to group travel on charter busses and school field trips that include some of the places on this page. See our page in the button link below!
How to loosely compile an itinerary.
An itinerary is really just a list with dates and times on it, but we believe it is more than this. If you really know what is important to you then make sure to plan your itinerary around this central theme. If you want to come see the Amish during summer break then you will be here during the busy season and the Amish people are busy. If you come in the fall, then it will be slower and you can talk to the Amish people more since the harvest is over. Having a list of top priorities is needed to get what you want out of your trip! Don't make your itinerary so strict that you don't have fun.
Select your season
The Amish are open all year, but if you want to see them working the fields and to buy their produce then you have to come during the summer when the kids are out of school. Knowing the season of your visit will set the rest of your itinerary.
Find what is available
Everyone has areas of interest you can find in Amish country. Find these points of interest and see what days and times they're open. Make a list of these places you would like to see while you're here! Then put your meal times between events!
Match your lifestyle
If you're an early riser and like to take it easy, then include a breakfast time. If you are a night owl, then you'll include nightly activities into your itinerary! Matching your lifestyle to your places and times is key to your planning.
Once you have established your season, look for the places you want to see. Notice the places’ open and closed days, then write them down so you don't come to see a place while they are closed. Then book your vacation around the best days for you to stay. We made up this example itinerary below to show what features we tell visitors in person. Get a notebook or note app on your phone and start inputting your places and times!
Itinerary for Saturday in Amish Country
- 1Alarm set for 7 am morning routine - Breakfast at Marshalls Grocery by 8:30 am.
- 2Arrive at Amish Wagon Tours at 9 am for wagon ride - estimate 2 hours.
- 3Shopping at Keeto's - Heart and Soul - Amish Flea Market - Vintage Shoppe - Andy Collins Tack Shop, etc...
- 4Lunch at Bob's Cafe around 12 pm to 1 pm - Go next door to Amish Market for candy.
- 5Go to Ike's Amish Depot, Amish Flea Market East, Mike's Antiques and Moore, and Ronnie Miles’ Place - estimate 2:30 pm to 4 pm.
- 6Evening drive through Amish country with map from Amish Wagon Tours.
- 7Dinner at The Butter Bean or Hinie's BBQ around 6 pm.
Alternative plans in case of weather or crowded first choice.
Recommended Itineraries
Experience the Amish people!
Start your morning at 9 am at the Amish Wagon Ride Tours with an Amish ride into the Amish community. You will get a guide who will tell you everything that you want to know about the Amish here, and will stop at Amish homes to let you buy things from them or talk to the Amish people. The tours last about 1.5 hours and do take reservations. They also have a map where you can go out in your car to see the community on your own. You can spend all day out here in this community, but see our "Amish Advice" page to help you with the common problems we see when people visit the Amish.
Amish area shopping.
The area next to Highway 43 has English owned shops that sell antiques and items in their store that are made by the local Amish community. See our Amish Shopping page linked below where you can find out more about each store. The table here is great when planning your shopping day around the place you really want to see! These hours are from the peak season and may be modified in the off season of less visitors.
Days | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amish Wagon Tours | Open 9 am to 5 pm | Open 9 am to 5 pm | Open 9 am to 5 pm | Open 9 am to 5 pm | Open 9 am to 5 pm | Open 9 am to 5 pm | Closed |
Heart and Soul Antiques | Open 9 am to 4:30 pm | Closed | Open 9 am to 4:30 pm | Open 9 am to 4:30 pm | Open 9 am 4:30 pm | Open 9 am to 4:30 pm | Open 9 am to 4:30 pm |
Keetos Antiques | Closed | Closed | Open 10 am to 5 pm | Open 10 am to 5 pm | Open 10 am to 5 pm | Open 10 am to 5 pm | Closed |
Plowboy Produce | Open 11 am to 4 pm | Closed | Open 11 am to 4 pm | Closed | Open 11 am to 4 pm | Closed | Closed |
Amish Flea Market | Open 9 am to 5 pm | Closed | Open 9 am to 5 pm | Open 9 am to 5 pm | Open 9 am to 5 pm | Open 6 am to 5 pm | Open 9 am to 5 pm |
Ike's Amish Depot | closed | closed | closed | closed | closed | Open 11 am to 5 pm | Closed |
The Vintage Shoppe | Open 10 am to 2 pm | Closed | Closed | Open 10 am to 2 pm | Open 10 am to 2 pm | Open 9 am to 3 pm | Closed |
Mike's Antiques | Closed | Closed | Closed | Open 9 am to 4 pm | Open 9 am to 4 pm | Open 9 am to 4 pm | Closed |
Go for a barn bonanza
The Amish are great at farming but there are other farms that let visitors come out and tour their farm. These farm to table places are great to learn about farm animals and plants that do well in Tennessee. These places need for the visitor to dress accordingly for the weather and wear things that may get dirty.
Flowers Creamery
Overall Rating: 5/5
At Flowers Creamery you can learn every step in making cheese and milk products. On most Wednesdays at 11 am and 2 pm, they have a tour you can go on where you see every stage of the process. From grass to corn, you see how the farm is also ecologically sensitive to water treatment and how they grown their own corn for their cows. This tour is also great for kids with a calf petting zoo!
Pick Fruits
Overall Rating: 4/5
Pleasant Valley Farm is a pick your own fruit farm in Ethridge. Kids love to pick fruits and eat them along the way. The orchards and vines are a bit rustic so wear gloves and shoes that can get wet with morning dew. They do charge per pound so have some cash! The owners live there on site so it's always open but the fruit grows with the season so it is subject to availability.
Taylor Family Farm
Overall Rating: 4/5
There isn't a tour but Taylor Family Farms is a great place to stop by and see their farm and store. They are a good family farming business and they make a lot of things right there on site! They like when people stop by and they can show you around and talk to you about farm life. They are good at getting quality foods for those who cook in their RV! Open Tuesday through Saturday 8 am to 5 pm.
Where To Eat
Our restaurant guide shows you the best places to eat around Ethridge. See our page to find your favorite foods!
Go get in the water!
Even the Amish get in their kayak and float downstream! Lawrence county has some of the best waters to float down! The rivers around our area are smooth and wide, with many of them being shallow so it safe for those who have never been on the water. We have tubing, kayaks, and canoes with several businesses who can take you out and bring you back safely! David Crockett park also has watercraft for rent. We suggest a good, short ride, in the summer after your Amish wagon ride and shopping are done. After lunch at Bob's Cafe , Hinie's BBQ or Shaffer Farms BBQ, you'll be ready to get in the water!
Indoor Activities
Indoor activities are essential for inclement weather and nightlife recreation! We have bowling, pool, and axe throwing. Yes! Axe throwing at Axe Kicking in Loretto is a very popular destination for those wanting to throw axes and try to get out of an escape house where they lock you up as a group inside a group of rooms where you must use clues in order to find the key to get out! We also have Crockett Theater where you can see shows and live concerts performances! If movies are your interest then Crockett Cinemas are here to give you the best viewing experience with all the snacks and foods you would expect from a working movie theater!
Click the link button below to see our indoor activities webpage! We have collected all the best indoor places in Lawrence county to help you add these places to your plans or itinerary for your stay! The Amish don't offer any kind of nightlife so we want to bring you options to make sure you can enhance your vacation with a few indoor activities!
Other non-Amish things to do in the area!
Get your motors running!
Lawrence county is home to a few unique racetracks. Thunderhill Raceway Park is an oval dirt track where they slide around through the curves and have several different types of cars that race there. Ethridge Motorsports Park is a drag racing facility where two cars race to the end of the one eighth mile track. Kids love both places and each has a kids division that races on their tracks. Our racing page has all the race related interests of the area linked below! They are only open on the weekends at certain times so see our page where we share the racing schedules. That way you can make your itinerary!
Get on target!
Lawrence county has the best in shooting sports. Eagle Eye Shooting Complex has a selection of shooting setups and a good selection of rental firearms so you don't have to bring your own. They have 5-stand, trap, and skeet on the shotgun side and 5 bays setup for 3-gun competition. They also have a rifle range with target distances of 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 yards. There is a steel plate at 500 yards where they rent a .50 caliber rifle to those who want to see if they can hit the plate. Top Gun Arms has a 12 lane indoor shooting range where you can rent full automatic firearms like an old tommy gun and shoot guns you can't get anymore without a lot of red tape!
Days | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Top Gun Arms | Closed | 9 am to 6 pm | 9 am to 6 pm | 9 am to 6 pm | 9 am to 6 pm | 9 am to 6 pm | 9 am to 6 pm |
Eagle Eye Complex | Closed | 12 pm to 7 pm | 12 pm to 7 pm | 12 pm to 7 pm | 12 pm to 7 pm | 9 am to 7 pm | 12 pm to 7 pm |
Iron Horse | 9 am to 5 pm | 9 am to 5 pm | 9 am to 5 pm | 9 am to 5 pm | 9 am to 5 pm | 9 am to 5 pm | Closed |
Include your sports.
We have several places to play your sport here. There are ball golf courses like Dixie Oaks Golf Club. We have 4 disc golf courses that offer a variety of complex bends to challenge the player. Axe throwing is huge at Axe Kicking in Loretto. We have a sports webpage on our Visit Lawrenceburg Page! Dixie Oaks is open everyday from 7 am to 6 pm. Axe Kicking is open 4 pm to 10 pm on Fridays and 1:30 pm to 10 pm on Saturdays.
Fishing in area lakes and streams.
Lawrence county has TWRA lands with a few lakes where fishing and boating is permitted. These lakes are Laurel Hill and VFW inside the TWRA land and the David Crockett State Park has Lindsey Lake where you can rent boats with trolling motors so you can fish the areas of the lake you can't get to by foot. The Little Buffalo River and Shoal Creek are stocked with trout. All of these areas require a fishing license and trout stamp if you fish for trout. You can buy these licenses at the link in the button below! These places are open all year so you can fish as your schedule allows.
Outdoor Activities
We have more outdoor sports than we do inside sports. Let's divide team sports up with parallel sports. A parallel sport is one that is played the same, no matter how many players there are. So if you like golf, tennis, motorcycle and atv, or bicycle sports then we have the place you will love! We have both ball golf and disc golf courses and plenty of places to ride your ATV on wooded trails and jumping hills! We also have archery and gun ranges where you can take your best shot and be on target!
Our outdoor activities webpage is where you can find all of our listings of outdoor activity in Lawrence county! This directory explains our top places for outdoor recreation! The button below takes you to the outdoor page so click the button and get started on planning your trip itinerary with these outdoor activities in mind!
Places To Stay
Our guide covers the best places to stay around Ethridge. See our page to find your perfect room!
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We (The Amish of Ethridge) do not guarantee the accuracy of the links it shares as the URL may be changed without warning from the original location. We also do not represent any business listed above or the Amish Community we share. Anyone who consumes our content and acts on what they perceive, is doing so of their own volition. We built our website and trails to show our visitors possibilities to include in their itinerary to experience on their vacation.