Since launching in downtown Santa Barbara in 2013, minutes from the Santa Ynez Mountains, AutoCamp has reinvigorated the notion of ho-hum camping accommodations. Instead of a bland zip-up tent, one can shack up for the night in luxury tents, sleeping campers, prefab cabins, or Airstream trailers.
Joining locations in the Russian River Valley redwoods and Yosemite National Park, AutoCamp’s first East Coast outpost is slated to open in Massachusetts on an old RV campground in Cape Cod this summer. “We didn’t want AutoCamp to be recognized as [only] a California brand, but a national one,” says Todd Wynne-Parry, AutoCamp’s chief growth officer, of the expansion.
Partnering with designers like Matthew Rosenberg of Los Angeles firm M-Rad and San Francisco-based Lauren Geremia, AutoCamps feature a unified look, one that Wynne-Parry describes as “lumberjack chic, like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater house” combined with midcentury influences in both the suites and clubhouses.
Yosemite National Park features a freshwater pond and pool
“As more people move to urban centers, they realize they have more of a need to go outside,” he explains. AutoCamp, then, offers an “approachable, aesthetically pleasing way to enjoy the outdoors,” he says. “If you don’t like to camp in the traditional sense, this gives you a chance to go outside and have nice accommodations at the same time.”
With feel-good perks like communal campfires and outdoor grills, AutoCamp epitomizes the nostalgic, back-to-basics fun highly coveted among today’s tech-weary experiential traveler. That’s why there are plans to further strengthen AutoCamp’s presence. Soon after Cape Cod is underway, another property in a yet-to-be-named location will make its debut, with the goal of opening five more sites by 2021.
Wood adds a rustic quality to the lounge at AutoCamp Yosemite National Park
The midcentury clubhouse at Yosemite National Park, from designer Lauren Geremia
Communal firepits are a perk in the clubhouse; the Vista suite at Yosemite National Park
This article originally appeared in HD’s March/April 2020 issue.
