There’s seemingly countless RVig apps that you can sign up for these days, ranging from Harvest Hosts to Thousand Trails—so it can be a bit overwhelming to determine which of them makes sense for your RVing style. Boondockers Welcome is a popular program that allows you to spend up to five nights at a fellow RVer’s home, property, or business—all for a reasonable annual membership fee. Sounds like a good deal? It definitely is—but it’s also definitely not for every RVer.
My husband, Justin, and I have stayed with close to one hundred Boondockers Welcome hosts over the last few years and know all the pros and cons of its membership. So, after paying for the membership out of our own pockets, here’s an honest and unbiased review of the Boondockers Welcome program after we’ve personally used this to camp all over the country.
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Our experience with Boondockers Welcome
Before we get into the nuts and bolts of the program, you may be wondering why you should give a fig about what Justin and I think about the program.
Well, we actually have a pretty unique experience with the program, having used it in various stages of our RVing career:
- We’ve used it when we had a homebase and were simply weekend warriors in our RV;
- We’ve used it during prolonged RV trips, ranging from a couple weeks to a couple of months; AND
- We’ve use it as full-time RVers that live in our trailer.
So we kind of know when it’s a useful membership to have—and when it may be a total waste.
What is the Boondockers Welcome program?
Once you have signed up for a Boondockers Welcome membership, you’ll get access to the Harvest Hosts app (which is the parent company of Boondockers Welcome), where you can search for and book campsites for up to 5 nights with over 3,600 hosts, spread across the U.S. and Canada.
Boondockers Welcome hosts are private individuals that are nice enough to open up their property to other RVers, which can range from a parking pad at an oil change place in the middle of a dense urban city to a sprawling open field in a winery in the remote countryside. Approximately 75% of Boondockers Welcome hosts offer electrical or water hookups.
Beyond the membership fee, you generally do not need to pay any additional fees to camp at these sites. There are a handful of situations where you may be requested to pay additional fees:
- Hosts may charge a nominal fee, at their discretion, for electrical or water hookups, ranging from $5-25 USD per night, which are clearly listed on their booking page. In our experience, of the hosts that offer hookups, about half of them are kind enough to offer them for free, while the other half charge a small fee.
- Occasionally, a small handful of hosts have asked for a nominal donation if we stay for 3+ days, but how much we give and even if we give it is totally at our discretion.
With extremely rare exceptions, Boondockers Welcome hosts that we’ve encountered are not trying to turn a profit by charging these fees and are, instead, just trying to cover their costs so they can continue opening their home to fellow RVers.
How much does a Boondockers Welcome membership cost?
There’s different tiers of the Boondockers Welcome program.
“Boondockers Welcome” Plan
This is the traditional Boondockers Welcome program described above, which gives you access to over 3,600 campsites all across the U.S. and Canada.
If you’re only interested in Boondockers Welcome, there’s a $79 annual fee. But you can get 15% off your membership by using the promo code BWFRIENDS15 at this link.
“Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Hosts” Plan
Boondockers Welcome was once a stand-alone program, but, as mentioned above, it was purchased by Harvest Hosts a few years ago.
Harvest Hosts is kind of a similar program to Boondockers Welcome. It’s an annual RV membership service, where you get access to staying at over 5,200 unique properties across the U.S. and Canada, from a brewery in Maine and a lavender farm in Oregon to a llama ranch in Idaho, for a one night stay (although some hosts do offer additional nights). In exchange, members are expected to patronize the business by purchasing some of their products or services.
We wrote a whole review about Harvest Hosts, but, in short, if you like camping in quirky sites or you frequently make long road trips where you need a place to camp for a night, Harvest Hosts is a super useful program.
This is the membership option that Justin and I have and use all the time. We use:
- Boondockers Welcome, if we’re staying for several days somewhere there’s not a lot of dispersed camping options, like larger cities, the east coast of the U.S., or Canada, and
- Harvest Hosts, if we want to stay in cities (for example, we camped for two nights in Savannah, Georgia at two different breweries); want to stay someplace unique (for example, we’re camping at a maple sugar shack in Vermont this autumn); or just need someplace to stay overnight that’s a bit nicer and more fun than a Walmart.
The standard rate for a combined Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome membership is $169 per year, but again, you can almost always get 15% off by using the promo code at the top of the banner on this Harvest Host site.
“Harvest Hosts All-Access” Plan
The highest tier of Boondockers Welcome membership includes all of the benefits mentioned above, plus access to camp at almost 400 golf courses and country clubs.
This tier costs $179 per year, which, at just $10 more per year, this seems like a no-brainer if you’re into golf at all. Just remember, the expectation with Harvest Hosts is that you will purchase the business’s products or services, so if you are not prepared to book a tee time, this upgrade may not be worth it for you.
If you’re interested in getting this option, the discount codes on the Harvest Hosts website usually don’t work, but I have a secret workaround for our awesome readers!
You can buy a Harvest Hosts Classic membership, using this link to their website for a unique promo code discount, and then upgrade to a Harvest Hosts All-Access membership within your membership dashboard. Who doesn’t like saving money?
What kind of RVers can join the Boondockers Welcome program?
There are a few requirements for joining the Boondockers Welcome program.
You must be a self-contained RV, meaning you must have an interior toilet and holding tanks or bladders for wastewater inside of your RV. You also must be in some kind of RV, like a travel trailer, campervan, motorhome, truck-camper, and pop-up camper—things like tents, minivans, cars, or pick-up trucks are not allowed.
Harvest Hosts lists a few extra restrictions that Boondockers Welcome does not—namely, that outdoor cooking facilities may not be used. To be honest, while Boondockers Welcome does not explicitly prohibit this on their website, I would think a lot of hosts would not be super keen on RVers doing that either. We’ve camped in quite a few residential driveways with Boondockers Welcome that are just a few feet away from the neighbors and I’m guessing those hosts probably wouldn’t be too crazy about you cooking outside your RV.
Additionally, not all Boondockers Welcome hosts have electrical hookups, so you should have a sufficient battery to camp without hookups for the length of your stay. Some, but not all hosts permit the use of generators, so be sure to check the host’s listing before arranging your stay.
In short, you’ll need a self-contained RV with respect to your toilet, waste water, and cooking set-up, as well as be self-sufficient with respect to water and power.
Benefits of Boondockers Welcome
It’s an affordable and safe way to camp.
As full-time RVers, Justin and I boondock on public land as much as we can—it’s usually more private than campgrounds, offers a much more beautiful setting, and, best of all, is free!
However, there’s certain parts of North America where this kind of dispersed camping is super hard to come by, like larger cities, the eastern coast of the United States, or Canada. Accordingly, our only options are to camp at paid campsites (which can be extremely expensive!), hop around Walmart parking lots or the like every night, or stay at a Boondockers Welcome site.
For example, every couple of winters, we wind up hanging out in Florida for a few months. There’s extremely limited dispersed camping in Florida and most campgrounds there cost, at a minimum, about $35 per night, with most of them costing well over $60 per night.
Instead of shelling out a ton of money every day, we find Boondocker Welcome hosts, who allow guests to stay up to 5 nights, around the areas we want to stay. These sites serve exactly the same function as a campground would—we work remotely from our computers or leave our trailer behind when we go on adventures.
Additionally, staying with Boondockers Welcome hosts is a really nice option to use as a pit stop if you’re making a long drive in your RV or are only going to be in an area for a short period of time. If you’re really only going to be sleeping in your RV for a night, what’s the point of paying for an expensive campground, when there’s a nice and friendly host that’s happy to have you stay for free instead?
I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of money we’ve saved on using Boondockers Welcome here.
Plus, it’s so much nicer to stay in one spot for several days in a row than having to move around free sites, like Cracker Barrel or Walmart, on a nightly basis—not to mention it feels a lot safer. We’ve never felt unsafe at a Boondockers Welcome property—I unfortunately can’t say the same about Walmart parking lots.
You get to stay in unique settings
One of our favorite parts about Boondockers Welcome is that, oftentimes, you get to wake up in really cool places.
Don’t get it twisted—this definitely isn’t the case with all Boondockers Welcome sites, but we’ve stayed at a LOT of them that are quite interesting. For example, we’ve camped at a peppermint farm near Bend Oregon; a pistachio farm in Southern California; a church camp in rural Florida (with its own all steel drums Beatles cover band!); and a stunning lot in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert outside of Big Bend National Park in Texas.
These definitely were way more unique and memorable camping experiences than just staying in a regular ol’ campground.
You meet really nice people
Boondockers Welcome hosts don’t get compensated, other than some minor perks, like a free membership for themselves. They’re just REALLY nice people who are RVers or are interested in RVing that want to help people by opening up their property to them.
Over our Boondockers Welcome stays, we’ve had a wide variety of hosts—some that we never got to meet in person and others that we’ve shared a drink (or three) with over a bonfire. Some have greeted us with freshly baked cookies and muffins or vegetables from their garden, while others have invited us to enjoy their hot tub at our leisure or left firewood for us at our own private fire pit.
We’ve never encountered a host that was overly intrusive—everyone that we’ve encountered has just been incredibly kind, welcoming, and respectful. And we are sure to be just as kind, friendly, and respectful in return.
The app is user-friendly
I’ve been a Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Hosts member for quite a long time. Previously, the app was, for lack of a better term, basically unusable, but, in recent years, they’ve made significant updates to the app to make it much more user-friendly.
For example, you can search a specific town or even along a route for hosts; you can filter hosts by their availability or whether they have electrical or water hookups; and can request to book a site directly through the app (in the old days, you had to email or call hosts directly to book with them).
Their map also has some cool layers that you can apply, like nearby dump stations, cell service coverage, and weather.
It’s still not perfect—sometimes, it will let you request dates from hosts that are not yet available—but, for the most part, it’s a pretty straightforward and easy to use app.
Drawbacks of Boondockers Welcome
Campsites are not always scenic or private
While some Boondockers Welcome sites are absolutely gorgeous, in our experience, you’ll be camping in someone’s driveway or in their backyard more often than not.
This is especially true in more densely populated areas—for example, we’ve stayed with hosts in Portland, Oregon; Tampa, Florida; and Reno, Nevada where we camped in a driveway that’s just a few feet from a busy sidewalk and a few yards from the next house over, which usually does not feel particularly private. We’ve also stayed in people’s backyards that, well, understandably look like normal people’s backyards, with spare tires or rusted machinery laying about.
If you’re using your RV as just a vessel to remotely work or as a basecamp to explore the surrounding area, this really isn’t a big deal—what’s the difference between camping in a driveway and a crowded campground? However, if you’re RVing to relax and enjoy nature, this may not be the right vibe for you.
It’s worth mentioning that the Boondockers Welcome app offers photos and user reviews of each listing—so you should know, before going into an experience, whether you should expect to be parked in a scenic pasture or a cramped driveway.
Hosts and campsites have inconsistent booking requirements
Boondockers Welcome sites are definitely not one-size-fits-all.
Some hosts only allow you to book two weeks in advance, while others allow booking a year out. Some hosts only allow you to stay for one night, while others allow you to stay for five. Accordingly, if you’re trying to plan a big trip in advance (for example, RVing around Florida for a few months), it can be a bit logistically challenging to coordinate.
Additionally, given the fact that you’re staying at a normal working person’s property, who is letting you use the site out of the goodness of their heart, you may have to be a bit more flexible with some things, like when you arrive or leave a site, as compared to staying at a paid campground.
There are limited sites for larger RVs
Given the fact that many of the sites in more urban settings are in driveways or backyards, these hosts often have length restrictions of no more than 25 feet (although, if you have a travel trailer, most of them have separate tow vehicle parking if you’re willing to unhitch). Accordingly, I wouldn’t plan on doing a ton of camping in the middle of a city if you have a Class A RV or enormous fifth wheel.
Additionally, many larger cities have banned having motorhomes or trailers parked in front of residential houses—so it’s not unusual in more densely populated areas to see hosts that only accept campervans. This hasn’t been a huge issue for us, as trailer owners—I think it’s really only impacted us finding hosts in the Miami and San Antonio areas—but it is something to be aware of if you’re a non-vanlifer, like us.
What kind of RVer is right for the Boondockers Welcome membership?
To sum it up, here’s some of the kinds of RVers that would benefit from a Boondockers Welcome membership:
- You are a full-time RVer or someone who camps frequently that’s interested in finding a more affordable camping option in areas that don’t have dispersed camping, like cities or the eastern side of the United States.
- You frequently make long drives in your RV and need a safe, comfortable, and cheap place to serve as a pitstop along your route.
- You use your RV to work remotely or as a basecamp for adventures around the surrounding area and aren’t necessarily looking to be one with nature during your stay.
Boondockers Welcome may not be for you if:
- Your setup does not meet the basic requirements of a Boondockers Welcome membership (see above).
- You have a long or large RV and are interested in camping in more densely populated, urban areas.
- You exclusively want to camp in beautiful natural settings.
I hope this Boondockers Welcome review is helpful in determining whether a membership was right for you. Do you have any questions about this unique program? Let us know in the comments below!
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