Free & Cheap Things to Do in Lancaster

Markets & Food

America's oldest continuously operating public farmers market, in business since the 1730s and housed since 1889 in a Romanesque Revival brick hall at the corner of Penn Square. Roughly 60 vendors sell PA Dutch sausage, soft pretzels, raw honey, sticky buns, and produce from Amish and Mennonite farms — most under $10 for breakfast or lunch on the fly.

Address: 23 N Market Street, Lancaster, PA 17603

Tip: Free admission. Open Tue, Fri, Sat 6am–3pm; closed Sun–Mon and Thu. Get there before 9am on Saturdays to beat the lines at Long's Horseradish and Hodecker's. Most stands take cards now; a few cash-only holdouts remain. Free street parking starts at 5pm and on Sundays.

Historic Sites

The Federal-style 1828 country estate of James Buchanan, 15th U.S. president and the only bachelor to hold the office. Restored to its 1850s appearance and filled with Buchanan's actual furniture, books, and personal effects, including the desk where he wrote the bulk of his pre-Civil-War correspondence. Part of LancasterHistory's 11-acre Tanger Arboretum campus.

Address: 230 North President Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603

Tip: Buy tickets online to save $2 ($18 vs $20). Tours depart on the hour Mon–Sat 10am–3pm, January 20–November 14. Tours are about 75 minutes guided. The 11-acre Tanger Arboretum is free, open dawn to dusk, and worth a walk before or after.

Parks & Nature

The county's largest park — 544 acres along the Conestoga River with 30+ miles of trails for hiking, biking, and horseback riding, plus the wheelchair-accessible Garden of Five Senses, a Mill Bridge covered bridge, the Shuts Environmental Library, and the seasonal public pool. Easy escape from downtown five miles south.

Address: 1050 Rockford Road, Lancaster, PA 17602

Tip: Free, open dawn to dusk year-round. Free trail map at trail kiosks and downloadable from the Lancaster County Parks site. The Conestoga Trail south through the park is the scenic walk. Pool and pavilions charge separately; the trails, Garden of Five Senses, and covered bridge are all free.

Arts & Culture

The preserved 18th-century rowhome and garden of Lancaster native Charles Demuth (1883–1935), one of America's pioneering Precisionist painters whose 'I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold' hangs in the Met. Three small galleries rotate exhibitions on Demuth, his Lancaster contemporaries, and modern American works on paper. The peaceful Demuth Garden behind the house is a downtown surprise.

Address: 120 East King Street, Lancaster, PA 17602

Tip: Admission by donation, suggested $10. Open Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat 10am–4pm and Sun 12–4pm; closed Mon/Wed. First Fridays of each month stay open until 8pm with free programming. Pair with the affiliated Lancaster Museum of Art three blocks north (135 N Lime Street, suggested $5 donation).

Parks & Nature

An 80-acre city park on Lancaster's west side built around a three-acre spring-fed lake — picnic pavilions, kids' playgrounds, a small free petting farm, tennis courts, and a fitness trail loop. The Long's Park Amphitheater hosts a free Sunday-night summer music series June through August that draws several thousand locals with their lawn chairs.

Address: 1441 Harrisburg Pike, Lancaster, PA 17601

Tip: Free year-round, dawn to dusk. Free Sunday-evening Summer Music Series concerts start at 7pm on the amphitheater lawn — arrive by 5pm in peak summer for a good lawn spot. The annual Long's Park Art Festival (Labor Day weekend) is the year's biggest event and free to walk through.

Shopping & Strolling

A village of 42 shops, restaurants, and an inn arranged around a working canning kitchen in Intercourse, ten miles east of downtown Lancaster. Free to walk through; watch the Kettle Kitchen team hand-make jams, relishes, salsas, and pickles in the front window. The shops sell quilts, Amish furniture, candies, and handmade leather goods. Free Friday-evening summer entertainment in the courtyard.

Address: 3529 Old Philadelphia Pike, Intercourse, PA 17534

Tip: Free admission and parking. Open Mon–Sat 9am–5pm; closed Sundays (as is most of Amish Country). The free canning-kitchen viewing window runs Mon–Fri mornings — best in the early hours when production is in full swing. Whoopie pies at the bakery for $3 are the can't-miss snack.

History & Museums

A 100-acre open-air museum on the Pennsylvania Trails of History network, recreating a 19th-century Pennsylvania German farming village. Costumed interpreters demonstrate tinsmithing, weaving, pottery, and blacksmithing across 40 historic buildings, gardens, and heritage-breed livestock — the country's most complete look at the PA Dutch farm tradition outside an actual Amish community.

Address: 2451 Kissel Hill Road, Lancaster, PA 17601

Tip: $12 adults / $10 seniors and AAA / $8 youth 3–11 / free for kids under 2. Open Wed–Sat 9am–4pm and Sun 12–4pm; closed Mon/Tue. Active-duty military free year-round. Allow at least 2 hours; bring water and walking shoes — the village covers a lot of ground.

History & Culture

The starting point for visitors curious about Amish, Mennonite, and Anabaptist faith and culture — formerly the Mennonite Information Center, now part of the broader Mennonite Life organization. A free 17-minute documentary 'We Believe' plays every half hour, the on-site full-scale Biblical Tabernacle reproduction draws devout visitors, and the staff helps plan personalized Mennonite-guided Countryside Tours of nearby Amish farmland.

Address: 2215 Millstream Road, Lancaster, PA 17602

Tip: Free visitors center and 'We Believe' documentary. Open Tue–Sat 9:30am–4pm, March through December. The 2-hour Mennonite-guided Countryside Tour rides along in your vehicle and starts at $100 (worth it for groups of 2–4 splitting the cost). Reservations required for Countryside Tours.

Quirky Landmarks

A 1931-founded family pretzel bakery in a tiny brick building on the southwest edge of downtown Lancaster. There's no formal tour, but a viewing window along the side of the building lets visitors watch the team hand-twist sourdough pretzels and pull them from the oven all morning — a quiet, free, distinctly Lancaster snack stop.

Address: 716 South West End Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603

Tip: Free to watch through the viewing window. Bakery store open Mon–Fri 7am–5pm and Sat 8am–noon. Hand-twisting happens 7am–3:30pm weekdays — go before lunch for the most action. A bag of fresh-from-the-oven hand-twisted pretzels runs $5–10.

Historic Sites

The 1719 Hans Herr House is the oldest dwelling in Lancaster County and the oldest Mennonite meetinghouse still standing anywhere in the Western Hemisphere — a sandstone Germanic dwelling quarried on-site by the first Mennonite settlers from the Palatinate. The adjacent Lancaster Longhouse on the museum grounds tells the parallel story of the Susquehannock people who occupied this valley before European settlement.

Address: 1849 Hans Herr Drive, Willow Street, PA 17584

Tip: Open April through October only, Friday and Saturday 10am–4pm. Tours depart at 10:00, 11:30, 1:00, and 2:30 and last about 75 minutes. Group tours by appointment Tue–Thu. Five miles south of downtown Lancaster; plan a half-day with the Longhouse plus the Herr House.