WEST MICHIGAN -- You've probably heard of Airbnb, but what about Hipcamp?
It's a California based company helping people discover and book camping experiences around the country, including right here in West Michigan.
Hipcamp will allow you to get to places in the middle of the woods or even 'glamping' sites with beds and bathrooms.
Provision Family Farms near White Cloud will give you the more rustic style camping in the middle of the woods. After a short walk with Luke Eising and his son John buckled in on his back, visitors pass plenty of pigs, cows and chickens as they work back to a private spot to set up camp.
"We're at the facilities for the camp site, here's a little bucket toilet its called," says Provision Family farms Hipcamp host, Luke Eising.
Provision Family farms gives you the kind of camping with outhouses, tents and no electricity.
"They don’t really do much when they're here; they seem to pretty much pull up chairs and sit around a fire and let their minds slow down for a bit. I think that's something that we really need in our culture, some time to do that and it's hard to do that when you have your iPhone out, but we don’t even have cell phone reception here so you're off the hook," says Eising.
You can escape off the map with one simple click using Hipcamp. Once selecting your campsite of choice you make a reservation and start counting down to your stay. Even if you aren’t the traditional camper and want to glamp, as many say, there are places such as Art Farm Fennville that have beds and bathrooms.
"I have a glamping site with a beautiful outdoor tent with an antique bed and beautiful linens for 65 bucks. I roast coffee here you know you get a different experience and probably a little more artsy than going and pitching your tent in the Manistee Forest," says Art Farm Fennville Hipcamp host Christine Currie.
You can find sites on Hipcamp from as low as $30 a night to a couple hundred dollars. It all depends on what style outdoor adventure you want, but it's all about getting outside.
"I think it's opening a wider scope of getting more people out in nature and at the end of the day that helps everybody just getting out and enjoying it," says Currie.
Back near the Manistee Forest at Provision Family Farms...Eising says all his visitors enjoy their stay and the number of campers continue to increase. Eising was actually the very first Hipcamp host in Michigan getting to share his little slice of heaven.
"We get to live in a place where people go to vacation and I don’t think the seasons haven’t changed around here once when I wasn’t pretty thankful for being in such a beautiful place," says Eising.
The Hipcamp community engages folks to escape to beautiful places all over the country and recently now all around Michigan.
After Luke Eising started using Hipcamp three years ago at Provision Family Farms there are now some 20 places around Grand Rapids to use the site.
