When Matt Swinderman was fixing up the two dozen-odd campers and trailers at Cañon City’s Starlite Vintage Resort a couple years back, he often found himself relighting pilot lights for propane water heaters, coaxing sputtering refrigerators back to life, and otherwise preserving the 50- to 70-year-old hardware that gave the campground its period-accurate sparkle.
Outside of the well-preserved, turquoise counters and cloth curtains, however, it was something of a losing battle, the 33-year-old said.
As guest-services and maintenance specialist at the nationally known resort, he quickly realized that — unlike other rolling, road-ready campers and trailers — these stationary lodgings were more about nostalgia than perfectly preserved innards that are invisible to most guests.
Why worry about kitsch if the kitchenette doesn’t even work?
“Now they’re pretty easy fixes,” Swinderman said, having upgraded appliances, plumbing and air conditioning in the 30 or so units with modern, energy-efficiency devices. Anything visible, in or outside the camper, still looks as classic as can be.
“It’s very different than going to a hotel or motel, where all you can do is hang out in a restaurant or the lobby,” he added, noting that Starlite offers disc golf, playgrounds, karaoke nights, a heated pool and sauna, a library and “hayrides” on the back of a 1965 fire truck.
Year-round bookings at Starlite, which increasingly include family reunions, weddings and corporate retreats in addition to friend and solo outings, are still surfing a for vintage stationary-trailer rentals, according to the company and industry reports. It doesn’t hurt that USA Today named Starlite No. 10 on its list of the in May.
They’re in good company. Overall, vintage-trailer rental options range from unique campgrounds like Starlite, which snags Royal Gorge visitors from that attraction a few minutes to the south, but also easy-to-find sites of varying size from northern Colorado to New Mexico — all well within a few hours’ drive on the Front Range and Interstate 25 and usually close to hiking, biking, rafting and picnicking spots.
Some Colorado sites are off-the-grid and proudly so, with self-contained water, propane and bathrooms. But with battery power required and resources limited, you’ll need to watch your consumption or else run out before the stay is over. Fortunately, vintage trailers are everywhere; you can find a Scamp trailer 5 minutes from Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Lakewood if you decide to stay at (for about $150 per night, including tax) or numerous options at higher elevations. (Just don’t expect to be lighting many campfires up there.)
Marquee brands such as Shasta, Airstream, Avion, Spartan, Aristocrat and others have returned to prominence at RV parks for “baby boomers wanting to take a trip down memory lane to millennials discovering this fun ‘new’ style,” said reservation-management site Campspot, which serves more than 3,500 public and private campgrounds in the U.S. and Canada.
These days, guests are demanding more energy-efficient options as part of an overall turn toward sustainability, according to an April industry report by . Vintage remains a popular choice for summer vacationers because it offers modern, hotel-style amenities with intimate, neighborly social experiences, in addition to plenty of sleek, mid-century eye candy.
When renting a stationary beast, remember the seemingly mundane things that can make all the difference in comfort, such as ceiling height, size of sleeping arrangements, and how the camper is oriented toward the sun or scenic views. It’s not dissimilar to the things to consider when parking your own RV on-site, except that you don’t have to worry about driving it off-site when you’re finished.
Some trailers and campers are stocked with food and period board games, offering a one-stop “immersive” experience, according to Swinderman.
That still makes basic functionality crucial. Knowing how to work a camper toilet (with foot pedals to flush, and more water required to keep the tank clean than some toilets) is important, but so are the upgrades visible through website photos and Google reviews.
A proper, full-trailer restoration starts from the inside out, said Donnie Hennop, who runs the company in Pine. Common repairs he sees include replacing rotten wood and rehabbing old furniture (versus replacing it with look-alike items) and structural issues. If you’re choosing a vintage trailer, it’s important to set your expectations to “modest,” at least by modern standards, he said.
Of course, that’s the appeal in the first place.
“People rent them because it’s an experience they’ve never had,” he said. “And as a result, most people don’t realize how small some of them are until they get to living in them for a couple of days. You can expect twin beds, not king-sized, because that’s just how they built them in the 1950s and early ’60s.”
Rental options for stationary, vintage campers range from campgrounds to single-site Airbnbs that may or may not offer water, electricity and other hookups, so compare them according to your needs. About 3 miles outside of the tourist-friendly Santa Fe, you can rent a one-bed, one-bath trailer with desert views and Wi-Fi for about $108 per night , with a solar-powered hot tub and yoga deck only a few steps away.
Amid those trailers, separated by small piñon trees, are a shared fire pit and grill, so don’t go looking for complete isolation. You’ll also have a rough it, just a little, with a composting toilet that works without water and requires a hand crank to churn its contents. One vintage trailer site enjoyed by this writer, just outside Taos, N.M., in Arroyo Hondo, featured four separate trailers and plenty of space for kids to run around, with mountain views and no other signs of civilization in sight.
That’s different than resorts that happen to have vintage trailers but aren’t focused on them, such as New Mexico’s upscale and spa-focused , which offers about 160 square feet of space in its restored units (rentals cost about $300 on weeknights, and $320 on Fridays and Saturdays, before tax). Single sites are also quieter than a place like (outside Taos), which injects personality into its carefully arranged mini-neighborhood of trailers with names like Donna, Jazzy and Thelma (at roughly $184 per night, pre-tax).
It all depends on what you’re looking for.
“With vintage campers, it’s all about what fits your vibe best, because there are so many options and so many themes,” Starlite’s Swinderman said. “Some people want a cozy time capsule, and others want to entertain. Either way, you’re choosing to step back into a different era.”
