Best RV Places to Overnight (Short-Term)

Our Favorite and Not-So-Favorite One-Night Stops

Getting from one fabulous destination to the next, sometimes you need a place to stay for just a night or two. RVers have several options to cover those in-transition spots. Some are free, some are sketchy, and some are well worth driving out of your way for.

With just the two of us, life on the road can be lonely sometimes. So, beyond providing a basic parking spot, our favorite one- or two-night option gives us a chance to meet people and enjoy memorable experiences. I'll tell you about it below, but first, here's the lineup of RV short-term stays with all the pros and cons based on our real-life experiences.

Walmart parking lots: Not just an overnight parking place; it's a great one-stop stock up destination. Be sure to call ahead, though, because not all Walmarts welcome overnight RV parking. The best one we ever parked in was in Aspen Colorado—beautiful pine trees and clean air. But many Walmarts are located in less-than-stellar neighborhoods, some are frequented by large trucks with their engines and generators roaring all night, and sometimes you just don’t feel very safe. As our daughter Melissa would say, “Ew. No.”

Cracker Barrel: Boy, are they welcoming to RVers. Every Cracker Barrel has five or six extra long parking spaces at the back of the restaurant designated for buses and RVs. Arrive early to mid-afternoon to ensure a spot, and often there’s enough space to put out your slides. Pro tip: check out satellite images so you know exactly which driveway to use and where those RV parking lanes are. Then thank the restaurant by eating a meal inside (such a hardship!). Still, be aware that some locations are next to low-budget hotels and noisy freeways. Not always the best ambiance.

Pilot, Flying J, TA Travel Centers: Some, not all, offer designated overnight parking for RVs, but again, with big semis close by, you may not have a quiet night. But maybe that's white noise to your ears. No fee, although you can appreciate a few amenities such as the convenience store and showers, and maybe even a dump station.

Loves: Loves recently stepped up their RV appeal by installing dedicated RV camping with full hookups at many of their locations throughout the country. You can even reserve a spot and enjoy pet parks and laundry facilities. A few locations have separate RV parks, away from all the truck noise. At $30-55 per night, this option isn’t free, so take that into consideration.

Dispersed camping areas: If you’re fortunate, you might be able to locate a free Bureau of Land Management (BLM) dispersed camping area somewhere on your route. Many of these areas are beautiful and quiet, but the trade-off is no hookups and maybe no dumpster or dump station. Also, some are quite remote, far from grocery stores and gas stations. Still, it’s worth searching to see if one works for you, and most allow longer stays.

Our Favorite RV Places to Overnight

All of those are realistic RV places to overnight for itinerant travelers like us. Most are about convenience. But one option consistently provides more than just a place to park: Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome.

Picture this: You’re driving through the middle of Kansas. Not much in sight except forever fields and metal windmills. You pull off the highway and follow a series of country roads to an 80-acre farm in Pretty Prairie, Kansas. There’s plenty of space to park more than one big rig, and one stellar spot near the barn has hookups. Good thing, because it’s 90 degrees and humid outside.

The owner of the farm walks out to meet you, asks where you’d like to park. Besides the hookups spot, you could drive farther back and park anywhere next to a large fishing pond, one of three on the property. One pond even has a zipline across it and a dock with a small rowboat, all available for your use.

When you struggle to align your rig in the space next to the barn, the owner happily backs it up for you. He then invites you into the house to meet his wife and have a cup of tea or coffee. A retired mailman, he shares how his grandfather originally owned 160 acres. Over the years, he says, the family sold off half the land. As the youngest son, our host inherited the remaining 80 acres.

The next morning, you take a walk around the property and notice a cleverly rigged spiral slide attached to a huge tree—must be for the grandchildren. Through a gap in the trees, you see a clearing with a beautiful natural setting for a wedding or large family party.

And in the zipline pond, you spy a large bullfrog sitting motionless on the mudbank. He ignores the clumps of grass you toss at his head. Finally, he leaps, and the stillness of the water is broken by a surprisingly small plop! as the frog disappears.

All this for a $15 donation toward the cost of the hookups if you want; no pressure.

So, you tell me. Loves, Cracker Barrel, or Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome? For us, the $169 yearly membership fee for Harvest Hosts is a steal that pays for itself quickly, especially compared to RV park rates these days. We’ve stayed at beautiful locations with exotic names like Chicken Bacon Ranch, Sunny Hill Farm, the Frontback, and Tobacco Road. One place in Kentucky offered us use of the above-ground pool, which I took full advantage of. Another owner was a pilot whose property in Florida included a grass runway—look both ways and up before crossing! A location on the Hudson River was gorgeous, close to Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park and Franklin Roosevelt National Historic Site at Hyde Park.

A System that Encourages Everyone’s Best Behavior

Of special note is the accountability aspect of Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome. It works like this: You use the app to find a suitable location for your rig size and apply through for an overnight stay. Your prospective host approves or denies your request. Some places even allow three- to five-night stays. After your stay, both you AND your hosts have the option to leave a review on each other. What a great way to encourage everyone’s best behavior! Roger and I recently read a few reviews on us we’d missed a few years ago—how sweet to discover we made friendly impressions on our hosts.

So if you’re an RVer or a wannabe RVer, I just want you to know that Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome changed the way I thought about overnight stops. Beat the loneliness factor by staying with Harvest Hosts and turn strangers into friends. Because the journey isn’t just about sightseeing—it’s about connections. And where you park for the night isn’t just a necessary interruption—it can help shape your story.

A few more things to know about Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome (and BTW, this blog post was not sponsored by Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome, although I’d be over the moon if it was!):

• Most Harvest Hosts locations do not include hookups.

• If you’re staying at a winery, farm, etc., it’s courteous (and often expected) to make a purchase. We don’t drink, but we’ll buy dinner or snacks if available.

• Arrive during daylight hours if possible (always a good idea for RVers).

• Always follow the host’s specific parking instructions.

We’ve parked in plenty of convenient places, with and without great amenities. But the most memorable are the nights we spent next to someone’s barn, pond, or river. Places where we heard frogs croaking and roosters crowing. Places where, if we visited today, we’d find old friends.

Got a story of an unusual overnight stay, whether in an RV or not? I’d love to hear your story in the comments below.

If you appreciate RVing tips and hacks, check out these posts:

Why RVers Celebrate Pull-Throughs

Before We Knew Better: Packing for RV Life