Where Do the Amish Go for Vacation?

Every year, nearly 5,000 Amish (and some Mennonite) snowbirds from Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania take charter buses 1,200 miles south to Pinecraft, Florida, a little beachside community jokingly called "Amish Las Vegas." In some ways, an Amish beach vacation is a lot like everyone else’s: flip-flops, food, shuffleboard tournaments, socializing—and electricity. Some of the teenagers even get away with bikinis and sunbathing. That’s a pretty stark contrast to the strict dress code at home, which is probably why some community members like to say, “What happens in Pinecraft, stays in Pinecraft.”

This story originally appeared in the September 2014 issue of mental_floss magazine. Subscribe to our print edition here, and our iPad edition here.