Harvest Hosts - RV Camping

After an RV trip to Yosemite in May, we planned a stop for one night at Wine Tails. It was truly a magical place! The gracious hosts, Colette & Grady, went out of their way in hospitality. As we sipped on eclectic wines and conversed with them & fellow customers we found ourselves having a lovely experience. Colette & Grady have a gift of making everyone feel comfortable as if you’re hanging out with family or friends in their living room. This place is a real gem! From the moment you walk into Wine Tails (love their logo!), you get the feeling you are snug inside a wine barrel! Don’t miss seeing the attention to design detail in the beautiful woodwork throughout the venue. We had so much fun! The hosts even picked up pizza for us. Seriously, the wines we sampled were fabulous (and we’ve tasted wines all over the world). At night’s end, we bought several bottles of wine. We also bought some fresh, organic eggs that look like Easter eggs of many colors. Colette even educated us about her chickens and the proper handling of fresh eggs. We will definitely come back for a visit here and stay in the nice RV space behind their store. Be sure to plan ahead & check their hours of operation as they are currently open Friday-Sunday. When you arrive, you need to check in first before parking. Highly recommended & dog friendly! Hopefully, you will get to meet “Jacks”, their sweet rescue dog.

Harvest Host was advertised as a way to stay at unique and safe locations while maintaining a style of roaming freedom that is part of the appeal of RV Camping. However, it seems due to its growing popularity, it’s pretty much impossible to book same-day stays through Harvest Host anymore. Most sites were booked out for a month at least! We paid the annual subscription and attempted to use the app along a drive, but after calling every host within a specific radius in California, no one has availability. Some hosts seemed apologetic about it while others seemed exasperated at the stress load of managing RV hosting. We ended up finding 1 host about 1 1/2 hrs out of the way, so we were able to experience at least 1 host site but for the price and promise, we were expecting a different travel experience buying into the Harvest Host subscription. I’d like to think this is just growing pains for Harvest Host and that eventually we can go back to easily booking same night stays. But most likely, given the way campsites book out months in advance in California, Harvest Host will likely end up going the same route and be an exclusive book-in-advance-only system. Wish I could take back my annual subscription purchase. Not sure we’ll ever be able to use this again.

I am new to Harvest Hosts. A friend told me about it. My wife and I were already planning a large driving trip using our cabover camper to visit family. We made a similar trip in 2017 and stayed at rest areas, Walmart parking lots, etc. The 2017 trip was OK because we were really just seeing people and not trying to see the sites. That trip had many 12 to 14 hour days of driving. I wanted this trip to be more relaxing and only drive an average of eight hours a day. I just completed planning the trip. I wanted this trip to be more relaxing and only drive an average of eight hours a day. I just completed planning the trip. Thanks to Harvest Hosts member facilities we will be staying at 10 vineyards, Bristol Caverns, and Windrush Alpacas. All the people that I spoke with were friendly and enthusiastic! On the downside, there are no Hosts in Nevada. Big Sky Brewing in Missoula MT never answered their phone (5 calls in 8 days and didn’t answer my Facebook Messenger message). These two minor inconveniences are Nevada and Big Sky Brewing’s loss since we typically spend $100 when we stop at a vineyard or brewery.