Harvest Hosts

I gave them my email address & don’t feel lonely anymore, they email me daily! Decided it wasn’t for me after reading some reviews, BUT, obviously some people can’t live without it…. YMMV….

:) Hi, I stayed at one Harvest Host, and it was for free. I am not a member. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Most stays are for one night only.

All, or most, are in a field / parking lot with no hook-ups.

Most seem to be at Wineries; We don't drink.

They want you to buy something at each place. I will if they have anything that I can use, or eat.

Some are located at museums. I like museums. Once again you will be camping in a parking lot.

You can't get a list of places unless you join. I would like to know what is available before I join.

Most of them want a reservation first, partially because some of them only have room for one RV.

Not sure if I can run my generator, which I might need since there are no hook-ups.

Once again, I am not a member. Correct me if I'm wrong.

ROBERTSUNRUS wrote:
:) Hi, I stayed at one Harvest Host, and it was for free. I am not a member. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Most stays are for one night only.

All, or most, are in a field / parking lot with no hook-ups.

Most seem to be at Wineries; We don't drink.

They want you to buy something at each place. I will if they have anything that I can use, or eat.

Some are located at museums. I like museums. Once again you will be camping in a parking lot.

You can't get a list of places unless you join. I would like to know what is available before I join.

Most of them want a reservation first, partially because some of them only have room for one RV.

Not sure if I can run my generator, which I might need since there are no hook-ups.

Once again, I am not a member. Correct me if I'm wrong.

That's pretty much my understanding.

If I'm expected to buy $30-40 worth of merchandise, I can just get a site with electric 9 out of 10 times.

I really don't get the refusal to share the sites. How do I know if there are any that will meet my needs?

The recommendation for purchasing is $20, not $30-$40. They do ask you to call ahead to make sure they can accommodate you as most places have limited availability. I don't drink a lot of wine, but many of the wineries offer other items for sale and some have cafes/restaurants. There are also significant churches on the list.

I will be taking delivery soon on my "new" to me coach and it is equipped with lithium batteries and some solar, so I thought boondocking would be a good option occasionally. I don't have a problem with RV parks, but they have gotten crazy expensive in the last year or two, with little difference in the way of amenities. But I will continue to use RV parks as well, and hope to include state parks more than I do now.

My dog doesn't like RV parks. He hates traffic noise and will spend all his time indoors rather than hear it. I finally bought a membership to see if staying at wineries or other low=key places would work better for him. I'm thinking he would like that a lot better. He likes other animals and dogs and cats.

Dale

Scottiemom wrote:
The recommendation for purchasing is $20, not $30-$40.

For a quick overnight just wanting to plug in, most of the time we can find a place for only $20-25 for the night and if you're just staying a parking lot, you can do walmart for free.

Really only makes sense if you are planning to patronize a lot of wineries anyway.

Good info. I never liked Walmart as all night traffic but that changed with covid. And some Walmarts are actually nice, like Ticonderoga, NY. Where are these parks $20-25 night with electric? I'm all over that! Im going cross country in spring. Planning mostly one and two night stops on way out and back.

I joined to see what was really on the list, to find the local Wineries that allow overnight, and have not used it yet. I did look in my local area, and there were some commercial places and some places owned by people who just like to host other RV'ers. Here are the current statistics:

Wineries 771
Farms 1546
Attractions 1194
Breweries & Distilleries 545
Golf Courses 0
Boondockers Welcome 3295
Total 7352 / 7789

We've been members for years.

We really enjoy using H H whenever we take a long road trip. We use them en-route, not as destinations. Most of the H H locations have been some of the nicest locations we've ever camped at. Some - not so much. But even the un-nice ones, you're only there for an overnight, so who cares, really. The nice ones are super memories. Some of the best memories are the conversations with the small business owners who developed these wineries, farms, breweries and so on. Wonderful success stories of the American dream. If you like meeting people, and you can engage them in conversation about themselves, it's a real win.

I consider the expectation of a small purchase to be a very fair trade-off for the experience of staying overnight in a unique location. Heck, even at Walmart or Cracker Barrel, if you boondock in their parking lot you make a purchase, don't you?

The issue of having to become a member to learn the locations is an essential part of the business model. If the locations were made public, then why would anyone join? Why would hosts agree to let just anyone park overnight in their location with no accountability and no expectation of any benefit of doing so?

Members are expected to produce a current membership card when they arrive, and Hosts are expected to ask for that card and to keep track of who has stayed. If you, as a non-member, managed to discover a Host and stay overnight, you essentially gamed the system. If that's what floats your boat, well - OK then.

-Speak

Their website has a map showing approximate locations of hosts.

We looked to see if a membership would be good for an Alaska trip. As above, one night stops heading somewhere else seems to be the best case scenario.

We use their facilities twice, we paid full price the place was clean and well cared for. the space was larger than most other places we have seen.

We are not members, but I'd stay there again.