It took us over a year and a half on the road full time to try Harvest Hosts and I wish we hadn’t waited so long! Here’s our experiences with some campgrounds in the Northeast!
First, what is Harvest Hosts? It is a membership that allows self-contained RVs to park at a business. There are SO many different types of places you can stay! Just in the Northeast, we stayed at a fun center, a winery/brewery, a museum, a Harley Dealer and another brewery. There are churches, golf courses, farms, and SO many more! It’s an annual fee around $100 or so (you can save 15% if you use our link!) and if there is availability, you can park at the location. It is encouraged to spend $20 at the place. I’ve had folks joke that it’s a really expensive membership because you spend WELL over the $20 at each place. Most of the locations don’t have hookups (water, electric and sewer), which is why you need to be self-contained. Some let you run a generator if you have one.
But it is a much nicer stay than a rest stop or truck stop. It’s also nicer to have a confirmed place to park at night than hoping for the best. These stays are good for longer stretches where you need a stop over.
When we traveled to the Northeast in the summer of 2022, we were able to stay at Thousand Trails campgrounds for a number of states, but there were a few that either didn’t have a Thousand Trails or the Thousand Trails campground didn’t meet our criteria (good internet, decent roads, and full hook ups). So we finally signed up and again, I wish we hadn’t waited so long! We’ve now stayed at five different Harvest Hosts and each one was a really wonderful stay.
Our first stay was at Otter Creek Fun Center in Danby, VT. This place was so fun! We felt like kids again getting pizza and playing video games.
There was a massive outdoor golf course. They also had ice cream and we got a very tasty ice cream sandwich.
It was easy access and we parked no problem.
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Next we stayed at Over The Moon Farmstead in Pittsfield, NH. This was a really interesting location serving cider, mead, beer, cheeses and draft root beer. We enjoyed our cheese and drinks while listening to live music. It was pretty hot in the RV (we don’t have a generator or solar, so we couldn’t run our AC), so we pulled out our chairs and sat outside in the shade of our RV. We were rewarded near sunset with a hot air balloon taking off in “our backyard!” The next morning, we got up to watch the sunrise because the view was so great and TWO hot air balloons took off!
On our way back south from Maine, we stayed at American Heritage Museum in Hudson, MA. It was another hot stay and we stayed outside the RV as much as we could. This is a really impressive museum that lives up to the high reviews. When we went in to do the tour in the morning, an employee offered to give us a private tour of the hanger. There were SO many amazing cars and planes in there. The tour in the museum was really incredible too. So much American history and one of the largest collection of tanks in the world.
After that, we stayed at Ocean State Harley-Davidson Shop in Exeter, RI. This stay was probably our top Harvest Host because we had access to power!
We were also able to hook up to water after the shop was closed. We were able to run our AC and take showers after sweating it out the night before, which was just amazing.
We got to meet the famous Ham the Beagle! I was a little worried about purchasing something here because we don’t have a Harley, but I found a great shirt and a deck of cards.
To finish out the East Coast, we stayed at Hangman Brewing Company in Claymont, DE.
After we parked, we spent several hours in the brewery where Bret enjoyed a flight of beer and I enjoyed pretzels, chips and a non-alcoholic beer.
We also went on a night with live music.
It was relatively quiet in the parking lot and we got in and out without issue.
If you want to check out Harvest Hosts, you can save 15% with our link. I waited a few months to share this because I wanted to make sure we really liked this membership. Sharing affiliate links to things we actually use and like is really important to us. You won’t pay anything additional, and we get a little extra if you do sign up. If you do, let us know where you stay!
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