If you own a vintage trailer or just want the glamorous experience of staying in one, here’s a great summer destination for your next RV road trip: Chillville.
This uber-cool, glamping RV park for Airstream and vintage trailer aficionados is located in the heart of Eastern Washington state’s best wine making region. Perched on the outskirts of quaint Walla Walla, a friendly little college town with a laid-back attitude, Chillville is riding the wave of this growing mecca of top notch wine, arts and food.
Chillville started making headlines last year, when a duo of globetrotting entrepreneurial Washington women placed a cluster of refurbished, glamorous vintage guest trailers on a plot of land near the tiny municipal airport. Taking advantage of a great location adjacent to hand-crafted wine and beer making and just five-minutes to downtown Wallla Walla, Chillville set out to bring a glamorous camping experience to visitors.
After a couple of months of being in business, the the owners quickly discovered that while customers would stop to admire the carefully-selected, glamorous RVs of yesteryear, they wouldn’t want to spend money staying in them. As a result the Chillville owners have since adjusted their accommodation choices to include modern trailers.
Guests without trailers can book a stay in an all-new Airstream, like the cute little 2015 16′ Airstream Bambi trailer. Or, visitors can go Hollywood in the park’s most recent acquisition, a 34 foot, 1983 Airstream Excella that was used as a set trailer for the classic David Lynch TV show, Twin Peaks.
If you happen to be a vintage trailer fan yourself and you own one of these beauties, you can camp at one of Chillville’s dry camping spots for $50 a night. To sync with the ambiance of Chillville, all guests who bring their RV to the property must have a vintage RV of their own.
Ready to Go Workglamping?
The Walla Walla region has a fast-growing reputation for gourmet food and wine tasting. But with few RV camping amenities this close to the main attractions, demand is growing for Chillville accommodations. As a result, the park is in search of workamping camp hosts between April and October. Camp hosts will help out with basic groundskeeping duties like:
- checking and changing propane tanks
- garbage management
- maintaining cleanliness of common areas
- maintaining cleanliness of outdoor areas around campers.
In exchange for 8 to 10 hours a week for a minimum of six weeks, camp hosts get 30-amp water and electric site with laundry and use of the RV dump. All camp hosts must have their own vintage trailer accommodations.
Visit the Chillville website for more information.
Often called “The O.G. of full-time RVing,” Rene Agredano and her husband Jim Nelson hit the road in a fifth wheel trailer in 2007, after their dog Jerry lost a leg to terminal cancer. Sixteen years later they are still traveling and sharing their nomadic adventures at LiveWorkDream. As a self-employed wordsmith, Rene shares her expertise for many RV industry videos, publications such as the Escapees RV Club Magazine, and has authored numerous books, including the Essential RVing Guide to National Parks, and Income Anywhere, a guide to earning money on the road. She has been featured in global media outlets including the PBS documentary “NATURE: Why We Love Cats and Dogs,” The Guardian Sunday Edition, and the Dan Pink book Free Agent Nation.
WE have a 2007 airstream would that qualify for camping in the dry spots?