I have been on this tour before with friends and had a great time, taking my family on this occasion was disappointing for all of us. The tour guide was a lady who does not normally do the tour. Not knowledgeable at all and she smoked continually during the tour!? Yes the tour was outdoors, however, my parents smoked during some of the longer stops, they at least ensured they were away from other tourists. More time enlightening us and less time smoking would have been better. Minus the tour guide, this tour is really a great tour for the sights and Amish people.
Unfortunately the day started off badly - we waited in a line for a very long time - apparently the tour guide didn't turn up or something, so one bus went off on time and ours went almost an hour later. This meant the stop at Philadelphia was quite rushed as they we trying to make up for lost time. But I am glad they cut short that part and not the Amish part.
I loved the wagon ride with the Amish farmer and he took us to his farm nearby where his wife came out with lemonade, cookies etc which we could purchase. The farmer was lovely and told us all about his family life. The scenery is beautiful and I loved seeing the men using ploughs and horses. Well worth doing.
Enjoyed Philadelphia and Amish country.My main problem was our guidewho was Colombian.Our coach was all english speaking except for a few english speaking south americans.he gave his commentry sentence by sentence alternating each in engluish and spanish making it so hard to follow.neither was it necessary to remind us he and his driver expected a "nice tip". I,m sure a little info on return trip to New York(3hrs)would have been better than a James Bond movie
besides this the scenery was beautiful and amish interesting.