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2022-07-13 14:57:34 By : Ms. Dracy Yuan

"Dolly's Fantasy Camper" is located in Maryville, Tennessee, about an hour's drive away from Dollywood. Booking a one-night stay cost $218.81 including taxes and a $45 cleaning fee.

You can read more about my experience here.

I'd never been inside an RV before, much less spent a night in one, so I found a few aspects of my stay surprising.

I was surprised to find that cabinets throughout the RV weren't just for storage — they also held household essentials like toilet paper roll holders. In a setting that small (the camper measures 20 feet long), even the insides of cabinet doors helped maximize the utility of the space.

In this RV, the wastewater tanks needed to be emptied every day. My hosts messaged me through the Airbnb app to ask if they could drop in and handle that while I was out, which was fine with me.

I found it similar to housekeeping at a hotel, but it was still different than the non-mobile places I've stayed before.

As I started settling into my RV for the night, I found that unpacking even a few things immediately took up more space than I anticipated and made it look messy. My backpack alone took up an entire booth in the small seating area. I opted to unpack just the things I needed to cut down on the clutter.

I was grateful for the RV's air conditioning unit during the blisteringly hot Tennessee summer day, but the weather cooled down significantly at night and made my mobile home a bit chilly. I was glad I'd thrown a sweater into my suitcase at the last minute just in case, and wore it over my pajamas.

There was plenty of light inside the RV, but walking to and from the car would have been difficult without my phone's flashlight. Next time, I'll bring a stronger light source.

While staying in an RV with air conditioning and running water probably qualifies more as "glamping" than camping, it was a bit unnerving knowing there wasn't as much distance between me and the elements.

I found that an advantage of staying in an RV is that the outdoors feels so close and accessible, almost like another room. And with a skylight above the bed, I felt like I was sleeping under the stars.

Axel Springer, Insider Inc.'s parent company, is an investor in AirBnB.

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