Things to do in Strasburg

Visiting Strasburg

Strasburg is the rail capital of Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Settled by French Huguenots along the old Conestoga Road and incorporated in 1816, the borough's Main Street historic district keeps an unbroken run of 18th- and 19th-century houses, and its name, borrowed from Strasbourg in Alsace, marks the French roots that predate the town's Amish surroundings.

Trains define a visit. The Strasburg Rail Road, chartered in 1832 and the oldest continuously operating railroad in the country, runs steam excursions through Amish farmland from its depot on Route 741. Directly across the road, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania houses more than 100 locomotives and rail cars, the National Toy Train Museum shows five operating layouts spanning a century of toy trains, and the Choo Choo Barn packs 1,700 square feet of hand-built miniature Lancaster County into a single room. The Strasburg Train Shop supplies the hobbyists.

Between rides, Speckled Hen Coffee pours locally roasted espresso, the Strasburg Country Store & Creamery hand-dips ice cream in an 18th-century building on the square, and the Fireside Tavern serves colonial-style dinners. Village Greens Miniature Golf's two garden courses are a county institution, and lodging runs from the steamboat-shaped Fulton Steamboat Inn to White Oak Campground and the Carriage House Motor Inn.