I can´t agree with that (but then I don´t know how it used to be), but I visited this area last year and had a very good time. It was exciting to get a glimpse of the Amish way of life. The highlight was one night we spent on a farm (a B&B) in Paradise and we fell asleep to the sound of Amish buggies driving by the house. We also saw a couple of covered bridges in this area.
You probably got the Disneyland view that it's in the interest of the toursim bureau to sell to visitors. I can't speak to Amish communities in other parts of the U.S., but in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, these are by and large NOT people leading the simple life style of 150 years ago. In the typical Amish home, you'll find all the modern conveniences in the kitchen--they'll just be run by propane instead of electricity. No TV, to be sure, and there won't be a land-line telephone, but these days most of them have cells. No computer that requires being plugged into something, like cable or telephone wires, but they have lap tops. They will drive a horse and buggy for local travel, but if they need to do any serious traveling, they will take a train or a bus, or hire someone "English" (their word for all non-Amish) with a motor vehicle to take them (someone my father worked with this does this all the time for his "retirement job"). It isn't even unheard of for teenage Amish boys to keep a car out behind the barn--they are allowed to get away with this until they actually join the church. A few years ago there was a scandal involving Amish using and selling drugs. In short, the "Amish way of life" that most tourists see in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is more than half fraudulent.
That's an insider's view.
And you can see covered bridges in lots of places in the U.S., including New England.
