Take a Tour of Amana

Visiting the Amana Colonies in Iowa? Need a handy app that will help you get around the 7 villages of this National Historic Landmark? You can take a driving tour and learn about the historic sites in the 7 villages or a walking tour of the largest village, Amana. This is the official app provided by the Amana Colonies Convention and Visitors Bureau and includes a listing and description of the major businesses and visitor attractions.

Our FREE app has interesting photos and information about the Amana Colonies’ communal past along with current photos and information. Take a tour or search for business/attraction information. When you are in the Amana Colonies you’ll want to be connected with this app.

When Village Voyage Tours are able to resume, we will update this webpage and post to our Facebook Page, “The Amana Colonies Convention & Visitor’s Bureau.”

Below you will find information on those tours. Both the Amana Heritage Museum and the High Amana General Store will operate on their normal hours, so check with the Amana Visitors Center to find out when they are open!

You’ll discover many interesting things when visiting the Colonies, but the most fascinating is our unique history.  The best way to learn and understand this history is to take our two hour Village Voyage Tour.

• The first stop is at the main campus of the Amana Heritage Society.  An award-winning video that helps explain our history and the communal era (1842-1932) will set the tone for the tour.  You will have some questions about life during this time or how things have changed or not change and your guide will gladly explain.
• The second stop is in Middle Amana at the only surviving intact communal kitchen.  Here you’ll learn about shop street and then enter the kitchen and discover how 40 people were fed 5 times a day, what the meals were like, and how nothing was wasted.  It is a fascinating look at something we all take for granted, dinner time.  A special sampling tour is available on Friday’s (11 am only) that includes a light sampling lunch of traditional Colony foods.
• Our third stop is to the High Amana General Store.  This is a trip down memory lane.  The store seems frozen in time, tin ceilings, old display cases, in fact, it’s like walking back in time 100 years.  Everything is original except the products that are sold and the clerk.
• The final stop is at the old Homestead Church.  Each village had its own church but today the Homestead Church is no longer used for services and has been given to the Amana Heritage Society.  You’ll be able to enter the church and learn about the Amana Church Society religion.  Sit on the plain pine benches that are still used today and learn about the beliefs of the church members and how it is different or similar to your religion.