When my husband and I purchased an RV, it was with the understanding that we were not looking for the ordinary experience of staying at an RV park where you’re two feet away from your neighbor with tons of people roaming around…that’s not to say that a situation like that isn’t right for a family or a couple looking for the social aspect of camping, it’s just not the experience we envisioned for ourselves.
While doing some research on dry camping {aka dispersed camping or boondocking}, I came across a site called Harvest Hosts that seemed like a perfect fit for our vision of camping. Harvest Hosts {HH} is a membership program that invites self-contained RVers to experience unique overnight stays at over two thousand {and quickly growing} distinctive business locations across the United States. There is a annual fee to join Harvest Hosts, at the time of this print the fee was $99 {search for discount codes, there are usually some floating out there}, but the good news is that the HH locations do not charge a fee to stay at their property.
The way the program works is that HH gathers a community of businesses such as wineries, breweries, farms, and more who offer up a section of their land for self-contained campers to enjoy experiential encounters such as waking up to a vineyard view, staying overnight with Alpacas, visiting a museum or any other number of unique experiences. The caveat here to not paying a fee to stay on the property, is that it is “suggested” that you patronize their business by buying a bottle of wine, or a t-shirt, or whatever product they sell. The upside to this is not only are you staying at a unique location, you are receiving a monetary item or souvenir that you might have purchased anyway, and you’re supporting a local business. It’s really a win-win.
When my husband and I had to make a quick trip to Livermore with the furries in tow, I decided to see if HH offered a location in Livermore and I discovered Leisure Street Winery. It was as simple as making a phone call to them and reserving a spot. Each location will have their own protocol, but from reading different reviews, most of them seem to operate under simple procedures.
We were pleased as we were driving out to Leisure Street Winery {LSW} to see that it was a rural setting surrounded by vineyards. LSW has a large, fairly level gravel parking lot that made it pretty easy to level our rig. We were able to find a spot right next to their tasting room patio with a view of a large vineyard. This location does have a restroom located off the tasting room patio and is available for HH guest’s use {no shower}. LSW allows several campers to stay overnight so you might have others parked in the lot as well. On our visit in December, we were alone which was nice.
We arrived around the dinner hour, but owner Rick Volpatti came out {he lives in a separate dwelling on the property} and opened the tasting room for us. We chatted with Rick and his brother as he served us a wine tasting flight and we truly enjoyed the wines and bought 2 bottles from him. We then retreated to our camper in time for a gorgeous sunset and ate our dinner. It was a very pleasant encounter and we would definitely stay here again.
SUMMARY
Destination: Leisure Street Winery | Livermore, CA
Reservations Required: Yes | Call Owner Directly {Must Be A Harvest Host Member}
Dog Friendly: Yes
Nearby Attractions: Close to downtown Livermore for shopping and restaurants; many wineries in vicinity
No Ordinary Road Trip 