Inside the luxury Airstream trailers at AutoCamp, where you can spend the night in a travel trailer and see what it’s like.
Question from Bonnie
Hi Debra,
I have some health issues and have been stuck in Mi for 10 years. I have an older home and am going to sell. I am considering a RV full time for a couple years.
Just want to get out and live again.
Does anyone here live in one?
I know new ones are toxic but what about a 4 years old one? If it had a lot of real wood cabinets etc would it be doable? There are so many models that look nice and could be comfortable. Just a thought.
Debra’s Answer
This is something Larry and I are considering also and have been researching for the past year or so. You’re smart to ask lots of questions and find out as much as you can before making this decision.
I’m interested, too, in the experiences of people who have done this.
I can tell you some things we are doing.
1. Can you live in a space that small full time?
What we’ve been doing is working on reducing our stuff. This is a process. It’s not something you are going to do overnight. I think everyone has way more stuff than we actually use. We’ve released a lot of things we weren’t using and we still have more.
2. What is essential to have for your way of life?
For the past year Larry and I have been living in two small rooms: a bedroom and an office. But we also have access to a whole house with a kitchen and bathroom and garage and garden and everything else. Coming from a 1600 square foot home this is a big difference. For me, I need space to work. I prepare my own food, so I need a kitchen.
3. Do you really want to travel around to a different location on a regular basis?
I love to travel. I would love to travel and bring my home with me so I have everything I need and know I have a toxic-free environment at the end of the day. But Larry and I have also taken a fair number of road trips in our 30 years together and when you are moving from place to place frequently you are in a strange place over and over. You have to find everything and get oriented over and over again.
Some of you may remember the year Larry and I drove across the country in his Mercedes powered by vegetable oil. That was a fun adventure, but every day we had to arrive in a new city and find some vegetable oil. It was fun at first, but then got tiresome.
I think if we were to do this, we would pick and place and stay for a while and then pick another place. But I’m not sure I want to be a nomad. I like having a home base. I like belonging to a community. I like building relationships.
I would strongly recommend to anyone considering this to take a road trip in a car or van and see what it’s like. Some people clearly thrive on this, and other’s don’t.
4. Can you get an RV that is nontoxic or retrofit a used one to meet your needs?
It can be done. I know Larry and I can do it because we’ve been remodeling houses nontoxic for 30 years. But can YOU do it? Do you have the knowledge and resources and skills?
We just recently found AutoCamp , which is a small chain of “hotels” made up of Airstream trailers. They have them in Guernville, California, on the Russian River, Santa Barbara, and Yosemite. You basically get to have the Airstream trailer experience overnight.
Larry and I live 20 minutes from Guerville so we drove over there last week and looked around. It was beautiful. Like walking into a luxury California-wine-country version of summer camp. We couldn’t go inside a trailer because all of them were booked for the night. We’re going to LA this week and tried to stay at AutoCamp in Santa Barbara, but they were completely booked for the night we would be passing through. We’re going to LA this week and tried to stay at AutoCamp in Santa Barbara, but they were completely booked for the night we would be passing through. Read about how we peeked inside an Airstream trailer at AutoCamp Santa Barbara on our way home from LA.
Here some articles about the realities of life on the road from different viewpoints:
LOS ANGELES TIMES: The beautiful Airstream myth and painful RV reality of life on the road
A SMALL LIFE: Things I Wish I Knew Before Living Full-Time in an Airstream
AND THEN WE SAVED: Living Tiny: Seth And Drea’s Airstream – Home Tour
There are lots more. I searched for “airstream living” to find these, since we’re specifically considering an Airstream only (for aesthetic reasons but also because they are exceptionally well-built and originally the least toxic).
We have talked to a few dozen people throughout the years and this does work most of the time. I know that when it was time to replace or update their RV beds, cushions, curtains and mattresses, our clients found it hard to find replacements. This is White Lotus Home comes in, we have made a number of custom size items for inside RVs. Please keep us in mind if you guys do run into any of these issues. So far, I have not heard of anyone doing this in our industry with a new RV, I am sure the older ones may be best since they should have outgassed a lot and maybe somewhat safer.
Wish you guys lots of luck and give you credit for doing this, I know sometimes I wish I was on my own Island 🙂
One day…. Thank you guys and Debra for always being so helpful!
Marlon Pando, Owner of White Lotus Home
We are in the process of buying an RV. I cannot tell you how hard it has been looking for something I can tolerate. My husband fell in love with the design of the Grand Design Imagine. Within a week of it being in our driveway, we are both on steroids from the formaldehyde off gassing. Our RV dealer has done right by us, and we are now the owner’s of a 2004 Newmar class A. Real hardwood floors, Corian cupboard tops, and real wood cabinets. The previous owners did not use any plugins or Febreeze, so we’re hoping to breathe happy. (Pun intended – smile)
To our surprise on getting the owners manual out on the new trailer, there were two or three pages of warnings about chemical sensitivity, the use of formaldehyde and off gassing in a new RV.
Airstreams, according to their videos, are not supposed to off gas, even when new. We are not close to a dealer, and there were no used airstreams in our neck of the woods, but this would have been my first choice.
We also found used campers full of scents and mold. My husband thought one of the campers might be ok. I was telling him there was a funky odor. When we opened the front through and through hatch, the smell of mold hit me, and I was soon sitting on the ground with my head spinning.
Just wanted everyone to know that formaldehyde in the RV industry is a real problem. Be careful if buying anything other than airstream or extremely high end. They would seem to be a better option for those we chemically sensitive individuals.
Yes formaldehyde is a real problem.
As we were driving back from Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago we drove by an Airstream dealer, so we’re making plans to go back and take a look once I’m done with my website transition. It’s pretty easy to find used Airstreams here. Again, we’ll start to look soon and I’ll report.
Even though we didn’t spend the night at AutoCamp Santa Barbara, we did stop in as we were driving by. It’s very different from AutoCamp Russian River. Russian River is very large with maybe 50 or more Airstream trailer around a beautiful clubhouse. Santa Barbara is six Airstream trailer in the corner of an RV park. No office or other services, More like if you were staying in your own trailer.
We walked around the entire RV park and when we got back to the Airstreams a young couple was just packing their car to leave/ We explained we were considering spending the night and asked if we could take a peek. They were very friendly and said yes.
We were very pleased.
Because I only had a few minutes, I didn’t check out the materials, but I didn’t get a blast of toxic odors when I walked in like you would in a hotel room. It was much more spacious than I expected it to be. There was a good size bathroom at one end and a nice bedroom at the other end, with a kitchenette in the middle. Of course, they are using Airstream trailers of all sizes, so each is unique. But I could see us making this space work.
If we could actually book the room, I would stay here. We’re coming again in February so maybe we should book now.
Also consider Avion we bought a 1977 28 foot ,used but maintained well. I was never sorry. Real wood cabinets, no plywood to get slivers on. No allergies for me in it.
We lived in a 2005 camper with four dogs and a 10 year old for 3 months. It was nice. I just missed having the acreage to let the dogs out on and the privacy that you lose by being in campgrounds. Most people we ran across were not as conscious and well mannered as we were. And we always tried to park away from everyone as we have four German Shepherds but even if we were the only ones in the park, someone would come park right on top of us. So I am glad we only had to do that for a short time. We moved to Michigan and I am not happy with this state (high cost of living, insurance higher than California rates) etc. Thought it would be like Wisconsin where we have lived before but it is not. It is pretty, that is about the best I can say for Michigan.