If you’ve never spent the night in a vintage travel trailer at the Shady Dell Trailer Park in Bizbee, Arizona, you owe yourself a trip south, and pronto.

The Shady Dell, which opened in 1927, still operates in the traditional way: If you have your own travel trailer, you can pull in, pay the fee, and park for the night, but the Shady Dell’s real appeal is the 10 restored vintage trailers that reside permanently on the lot, like motel rooms on wheels.

We stayed in a 1957 El Rey a couple of years back when we were road-tripping through Arizona, and we couldn’t have enjoyed our stay more. Bizbee’s a delightful little town, and the Shady Dell can’t be beat.

Be sure to have lunch or breakfast at Dot’s, a restored diner built in the 1950s by the Valentine Manufacturing Company of Wichita, Kansas. It resided for years at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles before being transplanted to the Shady Dell in 1996.

To learn more, peruse this recent Toronto Star story on the Shady Dell or visit TheShadyDell.com.