6 Harvest Hosts That Made Our 2025 RV Travels Interesting

Every year on the road brings a new batch of memorable Harvest Hosts stays, and 2025 was no exception. If you’re new to Harvest Hosts, it’s one of our favorite ways to break up long travel days and discover small businesses we’d never find otherwise- wineries, museums, farms, roadside gems, you name it.

This post highlights six of our overnight stops across Illinois, Ohio, Wyoming, Colorado, and Wisconsin. These aren’t full deep-dives- just quick, honest impressions of each stay, what we loved, and whether we’d go back. If you’re planning a route through any of these states, hopefully this helps you pick a few fun stops of your own. Let’s dive in!

What is Harvest Hosts?

If you haven’t heard of Harvest Hosts, it’s one of our favorite ways to find unique overnight stops while RV traveling. Instead of parking at a regular campground or Walmart, Harvest Hosts lets you stay for free (after membership) at places like wineries, farms, breweries, museums, and all kinds of small businesses around the country.

Here’s how it works: you pay an annual membership fee, and then you get access to a huge map of hosts. When you’re planning your route, you can message a host to request a stay, usually just for one night, and in exchange, you support the business in some small way, like buying a bottle of wine, some fresh produce, or a souvenir.

If you want to check it out, here’s our affiliate link to Harvest Hosts.

Pink Elephant Antique Mall- Livingston, IL

We spent a night at Pink Elephant Antique Mall in January on our way to Missouri. As the name suggests, they’re primarily an antique mall- but they’re really so much more. There’s also a candy shop, retro diner, and they’re probably most well-known for the eclectic statues and other large objects outside. We did a little shopping in the antique mall and ate dinner in the cafe- which was surprisingly good. We were the only Harvest Hosts guest there that night, so we could choose where to park- so we slept right next to the UFO!

After I had already started writing this post, we ended up staying at the Pink Elephant again in November. This was also after leaving Missouri, but this time was on Thanksgiving since we left MO early to beat a snow storm. So we’re extra grateful for them letting us staying on the holiday, even though they were closed!

Slaughterhouse Brewing Co.- Auburn, IL

In February, on our way back from Missouri, we spent the night at Slaughterhouse Brewing in Auburn. We actually ended up there on Superbowl Sunday, so the place was not very busy. At first it was just the bartender and her daughter, but at one point another couple came into pre-game before a party and they were very friendly too. We really enjoyed the beers here and everyone was very nice. The actual parking area was in the alley behind the bar and was literally right next to the train tracks, so not the greatest- but we liked the actual brewery so much we would stay there again. As I was working on this post, I found out they’ve now closed their public retail and are only doing private events- but it looks like they are still hosting Harvest Hosts guests.

Since I started writing this post, Slaughterhouse has gone through a change. They no longer run the public bar, they only do events- but they are still accepting Harvest Host guests.

The Vineyards at Pine Lake- Columbiana, OH

We stayed at The Vineyards at Pine Lake in June and it was such a pleasant experience overall! This was our first stop of the year where there were other Harvest Hosts guests, but they have such a large parking lot that there was plenty of room for everyone. They even have a few electric sites (run off their light poles), but those were already taken when we got there. We made it in just before the kitchen closed and we enjoyed wood-fired pizza and wine from the balcony overlooking the lake. (Harvest Hosts Booking Link)

Tumbled Rock Brewery & Kitchen- Baraboo, WI

In July we stayed at Tumbled Rock Brewery & Kitchen on our way to South Dakota. The Harvest Hosts parking is across the street from the actual brewery/restaurant (which is two buildings) next to an abandoned building they also own but don’t use. It wasn’t the nicest parking lot, and felt weird being by an abandoned building, but there ended up being 2 other Harvest Hosts rigs so that made it feel safer. The actual restaurant was nice, but the food was a bit overpriced and not as good as it should have been for the prices. I did really liked that their beer flights came with snacks, though! The staff were friendly and nice here too, which is always a plus with Harvest Hosts.

Pine Bluffs Distilling- Pine Bluffs, WY

We stayed at Pine Bluffs Distilling in August just to be able to say we stayed in Wyoming. Getting to the distillery is a little rough- it’s just outside of town and the road it’s on is under some major construction. Once we got there, we were parked next to the silos and all was good. The staff were very friendly and we enjoyed trying out their whiskeys- a flight for Josh and a cocktail for me. When we went in to get our drinks, there was a local company doing an event there. At first it felt a little awkward being the only outsiders, but people were nice and the manager even offered for us to grab food from their buffet.

Red Granite Ranch- Livermore, CO

In August we also stayed at a Harvest Hosts site in Colorado just to check off Colorado. Red Granite Ranch is an alpaca ranch and we really enjoyed our stay. However, getting there was rough. We came in from the north and it was a long stretch of the most washboarded gravel road we’ve ever seen. It was absolutely terrible. If you come in from the south (which is how we left), it’s still gravel but much better maintained. Once we got there, though, everything was good. The ranch is owned by a husband and wife, and they each took us on part of the tour- first a side-by-side ride around the property, and then a walk-through of the alpaca barn. In the morning, we joined the staff in the barn for weighing the babies and even got to weigh a few ourselves! Not only are the owners really nice, but so are their crew.

P.S.:

If you haven’t tried Harvest Hosts yet, we seriously can’t recommend it enough. It’s such a fun way to mix up travel days, meet locals, and stay at some truly unforgettable spots—think wineries, farms, distilleries, even museums. You can join through our Harvest Hosts affiliate link to start planning your own stays (and it helps support The Roaming Nelsons, too!).

As Harvest Hosts affiliates, we earn commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you.