25. Harvest Hosts: Our Experience

We got a Harvest Hosts membership before our 7 week Utah & Arizona trip. We used it 3 times during the trip on the drive out and drive back.

Our first night, we stayed at a nice Alpaca farm in upstate NY. It was a great first experience with Harvest Hosts. Jordan loved see the Alpacas and it was a quiet location with a great sunset. This one was dry camping.

We also stayed at an Alpaca farm on the return journey where they had a beautiful property and a nice pond that Jordan also loved, in addition to the alpacas and new puppies! This one had a 30 amp hookup for a small fee. At both alpaca farms, we got alpaca products - socks, hat, doll, all of which are great.

Our other stay was at a ranch that had an electric hookup as well, and had different frozen meat and other stuff available for sale to support them.

While these were all great experiences, we chose not to renew our membership. Here is why:

• Most are limited to single night stays, so that is pretty much when we are traveling long distances across the country. After traveling all day, you just want to set up, eat, wind down, and go to sleep. Arriving at someone's business requires more effort in coordination, small talk, touring around, supporting the business, etc. At least with Jordan at the toddler stage, it's too much to want to deal with currently.

• While the yearly membership fee isn't that much, we found ourselves spending a lot to support the businesses, more than was suggested. It's just how we are. We were thankful for the place to stay and the people were so nice that we wanted to do more, and it was nice stuff. So in the end, we weren't saving any money, and were actually spending more than a normal RV park.

• Our trips are so fast-paced and action-packed that we aren't really looking for more experiences on the long drives.

  
  

We did enjoy the alpaca farms, but will hold off for a year or two before trying out Harvest Hosts again.