This review of Harvest Hosts is a little different from a traditional review. We’ll cover the places we stayed using Harvest Hosts. We absolutely love Harvest Hosts and can’t imagine our travels without it. If you don’t have any RV memberships this is one you should have!
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When we got ready to leave Yellowstone in the fall of 2021 we were making our way to Texas to spend the winter. We try to use our existing memberships to save money on our travels. Currently, we have memberships at Thousand Trails, Passport America, and Escapees. So why would we need to add another membership to our arsenal?
The simple answer is because Harvest Hosts has some amazing places for a single-night stay when transiting the country.
A Harvest Hosts experience is so much more enjoyable than staying in a Walmart parking lot, overnight parking at a truck stop, or boondocking at Cracker Barrel in between full-service campsites! Plus, we get to experience whatever our host has to offer and we haven’t been disappointed yet.
Subscribe to Harvest Hosts and get 15% off.
Get your discounted rate. No matter how much Harvest Hosts raises their price in the future, this deal gives you access to the discounted rate forever.
Harvest Hosts has become one of our favorite memberships to use while transiting the country. On our way from Yellowstone to Texas, we stayed at five different Harvest Hosts locations. A pinball-themed brewpub, an air museum, a dairy farm, an apple orchard, and an alpaca farm. All of them have been wonderful places to stay one night while making our way to our final winter destination. If you’re an RVer this is one of the memberships to definitely have.
The Harvest Host program allows you single overnight stays at local businesses like farms, vineyards, breweries, distilleries, museums, golf clubs, and country clubs. Harvest Hosts suggests a minimum spend of $20 to support the business you stay at to show your appreciation to your host for the hospitality.
What is Harvest Hosts
Harvest Hosts is a membership program that provides access to a network of wineries, farms, breweries, museums, and other unique attractions that invite self-contained RVers to visit and stay overnight. For a yearly membership fee, Harvest Hosts’ members are invited to stay at hundreds of interesting locations around North America and experience new opportunities to explore and enjoy the RVing lifestyle. The company’s goal is to provide meaningful experiences for RVers and Hosts alike.
Our Harvest Hosts Stays
Tilt Würks Brewhouse and Casino – Miles City, MT (October 11, 2021)
This was our first Harvest Hosts stay. A small farming town in Eastern Montana, Miles City was a good stopping point after our drive from Billings.
Tilt Würks Brewhouse and Casino. It’s a Pinball themed brewery and casino. Dinner, drinks, and a free night stay in the parking lot.
Our purchase here was dinner and drinks in the bar. The staff was really friendly the food and drinks were great! The only downside to this stay is train tracks back to the parking lot and trains go by quite often.
Fargo Air Museum – Fargo, ND (October 15, 2021)
Our second Harvest Host location was at Fargo Air Museum. One of the slides on our motorhome got stuck when we tried to extend it here so we didn’t enjoy the location as much as we would have if we weren’t stressing out.
I did take a quick tour of their museum where they have a nice little collection of vintage aircraft.
Our purchase here was a tour through the museum. The staff was friendly.
Stensland Family Farm – Larchwood, IA (October 16, 2021)
Our third Harvest Host location was Stensland Family Farm in Larchwood, Iowa. This is a four-generation farm. We met 92 yr old Art and one of his sons Doug who gave us a mini-tour of the calf nursery and the milking robots.
They have a small store (with awesome ice cream) at the farm and also some retail locations in Sioux Falls, SD. It was interesting to learn about how the robots milk the cows with no one having to be around. This has been Lisa’s favorite Harvest Hosts stop since she got to feed the calves.
Our purchases here were yummy ice cream and a half-gallon of milk. Everyone we met from the family was really nice and welcoming. The staff in their shop in Sioux Falls were friendly as well.
Kimmel Orchard and Vineyard – Nebraska City, NE (October 23, 2021)
Our fourth Harvest Hosts location was Kimmel Orchard and Vineyard outside Nebraska City, Nebraska. This is a true harvest place, an orchard, and a vineyard.
Lesson learned here, gnats can fly through your screens on your RV. Since it was after apple harvest time there were some rotting apples on the ground. While it was a bit warm outside it wasn’t warm enough for the A/C so we opened the windows. Around the rotting apples were gnats. We ended up with 100’s of them in our motorhome. For days, we were killing them until we finally figured out to suck them up in the vacuum.
Our purchases here were wine tasting, some hard cider, tequila jelly, and strawberry margarita mix. The staff was very friendly and helpful. Even though we aren’t wine drinkers much we had a good time sampling their selections and even liked a couple.
TX-Ture Farm – Aubrey, TX (December 27, 2021)
Our fifth Harvest Host location was TX-Ture Farm “Texture” in Aubrey, Texas. We chose this location kind of last minute.
We had been staying about an hour and a half North of there at Lake Texoma Thousand Trails where we had our slide issues fixed. Once the slide issues were fixed we scheduled to have a washer and dryer installed in our motorhome. We got the washer and dryer installed at Camping World in Denton, TX.
Not knowing how long the installation would take we didn’t want to travel too far and put us getting in after dark. So we chose TX-Ture Farm only about 25 minutes from Denton. Farms are Lisa’s favorites so this one was right up her alley. TX-Ture Farm is a small family farm that is Growing for the Senses. They produce memorable experiences and natural handcrafted products from the farm’s alpacas, lavender, honey, gourds, and Christmas trees.
Our purchases here were an alpaca toy and a hat.
The owners Russell and Annamiek along with their sons, Sean and Chris were very welcoming and friendly. Chris gave us a tour and introduced us to the alpacas. We got to feed them and ask questions Chris is a true expert about the animals.
D.H. Lescombes Winery & Tasting Room – Deming, New Mexico (March 28, 2022)
Our sixth Harvest Host location and first winery was D.H. Lescombes Winery & Tasting Room in Deming, New Mexico. This is New Mexico’s largest winery, with locations throughout the state. This location has a winery and a bistro.
The staff was really friendly when we arrived and told us where we could park. We arrived and parked in the large level lot. An hour or so after we arrived more RVers started showing up.
Our purchases at this location were lunch in the Bistro and a few bottles of wine.
The bistro has a small selection of items on the menu. We both had the Chicken Parm Sandwich which was very good.
If you have dogs be aware there are lots of goat heads that get stuck in their feet.
Boogie’s Brewery & Distillery – Deming, New Mexico (March 29, 2022)
We wanted to spend a couple of days in Deming on our way to Arizona so we booked two separate Harvest Host stays while we were in town. This was our second of back-to-back stays in Deming. Thankfully we made those plans as a big wind storm came through and would have kept us in town anyway.
Boogie’s Brewery & Distillery is away from town a bit, making it nice for a quiet stay. They have plenty of parking for a bunch of RVers passing through. While there is plenty of room to park the area is dirt and we had a big dust storm that day. Our motorhome was full of dust. The rustic feel of the bar was nice as was the staff. While they didn’t have any beer of their own ready when we came through, we tried some other New Mexico brews. We wanted to do their Taco Tuesday deal but it didn’t start till later and we were ready to eat earlier.
This is the first Harvest Host location we were able to socialize with other RVers that were staying the night as well. It was an enjoyable evening.
We tasted their cinnamon whiskey and coconut rum. Both were delicious. The cinnamon whiskey is smooth and much more gentle than other cinnamon whiskeys I’ve tried which I thought was great! It reminded me more of a cinnamon toothpick than a harsh whiskey. My wife loved the coconut rum and I thought it was good too.
Our purchases at this location were drinks at the bar. We also wanted to purchase bottles of their cinnamon whiskey and coconut rum. They told us they didn’t have labels for their cinnamon whiskey yet so we couldn’t buy that at the time but we did buy a bottle of coconut rum to take with us.
Conclusion
Harvest Hosts has quickly become one of our favorite RV memberships. The variety of places you can stay definitely bumps them to the top of our list for overnights along the way to our final destinations. With the very reasonably priced membership and a bit of money for a souvenir or meal at each stop, it comes in way cheaper than staying at an actual campground for one night. The membership fee pays for itself after staying at 2-3 hosts.
We look forward to seeing many more interesting places in our travels using Harvest Hosts.
Are you members of Harvest Hosts? What have been your favorite places to stay? We’re always looking for neat out-of-the-way places to put on our list of must-sees. Thank you for reading our article. If you have any comments or questions we’d love to hear from you below.
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What an interesting website this is! My hubby is interested in owning an RV. That is all he talks about as of recent. Wait until I tell him about Harvest Hosts membership and its accommodations for RV travel! Your website is incredibly unique and Iwill be back to gather further details about RV travel. Very informative review. It is much appreciated!
Terese
Thank you very much for the comments Terese! We love RVing! It has been on of the greatest things we’ve ever done. It’s not as easy as some people make think it is but it is still a great experience. Harvest Hosts has been one of the best memberships we’ve purchased. It’s easily paid for itself in the few times we’ve used it so far. Let us know if you start RVing.
Rob
After reading your RV experiences especially with Harvest Host, I wish I had an RV! There are so many interesting places to visit at every stopover. Definitely better than a Walmart parking lot! I used to work at Walmart and wondered why there were RV’s there overnight. Now I know why. If those RV’rs were members of Harvest Host they may have had a better time than visiting Walmart.
When you plan a trip now do you try to arrange your stopovers mainly at Harvest Host sites instead of the other ones you mentioned?
Cheers.
Edwin
Thank you for your comments Edwin. There are so many great places in this country to see and explore. Harvest Hosts have been great for getting to some amazing places and seeing some sights in the areas where we’ve stayed. We’ve never stayed in a Walmart parking lot and don’t plan to. It’s just not our thing. All the Harvest Hosts locations we’ve stayed at are lovely places to spend a night.
When we plan a trip we try to keep our legs to around 300 miles max. If our main destination is further than that we try to plan a Harvest Host stop along the way. It breaks up the trip and we get to see some interesting places along the way in our travels.
Rob
I have to share this with my parents. Too many times they’ve had to park their RV in a Walmart overnight when traveling back and forth from my house to theirs (we live 19 hours apart). It’s perfect that they accommodate one night stays, as that gives my parents a way to break up the driving. I love that they can also get an experience out of it. I’m kind of jealous that I don’t have an RV now.
Thank you for your comment Alicia! Definitely share this with your parents. It is a great program. If they add Boondockers Welcome which is a sister program that Harvest Hosts recently bought it nearly doubles the places to stay. I think the add on is like $45. We haven’t done it yet as Harvest Hosts has been adequate for our use so far. Staying at a Walmart always seemed a bit shady to me, that’s why we looked into Harvest Hosts to begin with.
I think that Harvest Hosts are worth the investment. I’ve seen glimpses of these on the road during vacation. My father is a truck driver, so I found this concept appealing because I wonder how much he knows about this experience. In my opinion, Harvest Hosts are a dream come true and fulfilling, R&R-based vacation.
Where did you learn about Harvest Hosts? Are there any ways to rent or purchase land associated with these areas? Does the price vary during the holidays or off-seasons? Are there any perks to making Harvest Host feel sweeter than home?
Thanks for the excellent article!! I will be on the lookout for these options the next time I yearn for an adventure or find myself ready to cool down during an evening drive.
Thank you for your comments. Harvest Hosts is well worth the $99 investment and even better with the 15% off link I provided. With the membership, members can visit and stay overnight at any of their 2566+ stunning locations without any camping fees!
We first found out about Harvest Hosts from a fellow RVer. They highly recommended it as we do now. There are no ways to rent or purchase land associated with these areas, although you could buy or have a piece a property and sign up to be a host with Harvest Hosts. They are adding new hosts every month.
The price to stay at a host site is free once you’re a member there is no difference between holidays or seasons.
Thanks again for reading our article.
This is a really fascinating page, from the idea of visiting these places while moving around in Recreational Vehicles to the way all these images on the page were captured, so amazing and full of adventures. This is a lifetime experience I would never want to miss. All the wine tasting, travelling from place to place while discovering and exploring is the type of lifestyle i have been longing to live. Truly Amazing!
Thank you for your comments Paul. It is a great lifestyle. While we don’t stay at Harvest Hosts all the time. We do like to stop and spend a night while traveling cross country. It beats staying in a truck stop or Walmart parking lot for sure.
This seems like a pretty interesting program. It is a smart initiative and I give props to whoever who thought about this idea. I am not really much of a drinker so I don’t think that this is meant for me but I have friends and family who love drinking so I will be sure to share this article with them
Thanks for your comments Aubin. Harvest Hosts is more than wineries and brew pubs. Our favorites have been the farms we’ve stayed at.