You signed a 13-week contract in Austin or Round Rock. Congrats. Now comes the part nobody warns you about: finding a place to live that does not swallow your entire stipend, trap you in a year-long lease, or drop you into the middle of Austin traffic and Austin rent.
Here is the move more travel nurses are making. They skip the apartment hunt and the extended-stay hotel, and they base a little east of the noise at Great Escapes Elgin instead. Quieter, cheaper, and still a straightforward drive to the hospitals.
If you are searching for travel nurse housing near Austin, this one is worth your two minutes.
The quick answer
Great Escapes Elgin at 16740 Albert Voelker Rd in Elgin, TX offers affordable monthly, full-hookup RV sites built for long assignments, a calmer and lower-cost base than an Austin apartment or extended-stay hotel. It sits an easy drive east of Austin and Round Rock, within commuting range of the St. David's, Ascension Seton, and Baylor Scott & White campuses. For nurses, the move is to request monthly availability for your contract dates.
The math apartments do not want you to do
Standard apartments near the Austin and Round Rock hospitals want a 12-month lease. You have a 13-week assignment. That mismatch alone knocks out most of them, and the few that go short-term jack the rate up to "why am I even doing this." Austin rent is not exactly known for being kind, either.
Extended-stay hotels solve the lease problem and create a new one. You are paying nightly for a single room, your "kitchen" is a mini fridge and a coffee maker, and your housing stipend is gone by week six.
A monthly RV site flips the equation. You bring your rig, or your travel trailer, or that camper van you have been living your best life in, and you pay one flat monthly rate with full hookups. Elgin runs some of the more affordable monthly sites in the Austin area, with flat rates that start in the mid-$500s per month plus electricity, and the rate stays put instead of climbing every busy weekend. For a lot of nurses, that gap is real money. Money for the next contract, the student loans, or honestly just a margarita on your day off. See current options on the RV sites page.
Traveling with a partner, a friend, or a fellow nurse? Ask about buddy sites
Here is a nice perk if you are not doing this solo. Elgin has back-in "buddy sites" designed to park two rigs together, so if your partner travels with you or a nurse friend took a contract at the same system, you can set up side by side instead of across town from each other. There are also roomy 60-foot back-ins and 65-foot pull-thrus if you are running a bigger rig. Tell us your setup and we will match you to the right site.
Safe, quiet, and actually a community
Let us talk about the thing that matters most when you are working three twelves and sleeping at odd hours: you want to feel safe and you want to actually rest.
Elgin sits out past the city noise on quiet, well-kept grounds. This is not a gravel lot behind a gas station. It is a real resort, which means clean bathhouse facilities, on-site laundry so you are not hauling scrubs across town, a camp store for the things you forgot, and a private clubhouse with a full kitchen when you want more room than the rig.
And there is a community here. Other travelers, snowbirds, weekenders, full-timers. After a brutal shift you can decompress at the pool, keep loose in the fitness center, fire up one of the covered grill patios, or just sit at your site under a big Texas sky instead of staring at a hotel ceiling. See the full amenities list. It feels less like crash housing and more like somewhere you actually want to come home to.
Yes, your dog comes too
Here is the dealbreaker a lot of nurses have, solved. Elgin is pet friendly, with a fully fenced dog park, so your dog is not staying behind with a friend for 13 weeks. Bring them along, let them stretch out, and come home to your own dog waiting at the door instead of an empty hotel room. After a long shift, that hits different.
Close to the hospitals, minus the hospital-district prices
Location is the quiet superpower here. From Elgin you have a clean, predictable drive west toward the big Austin and Round Rock health systems without paying the premium that comes with an apartment built right next to a medical campus.
The St. David's, Ascension Seton, and Baylor Scott & White networks run campuses across the metro, and Round Rock in particular has a tight cluster of them on the north side. You get a reasonable, repeatable commute of roughly half an hour to forty-five minutes depending on your campus, which matters a lot when you are clocking in before sunrise and you do not want your drive to be a daily gamble. You get the access. You skip the price tag. That is the whole pitch.
Who this is actually for
This setup works best if you are:
- A travel nurse, travel tech, or allied health pro on a 4-week, 8-week, or 13-week Austin or Round Rock contract
- Already RV-curious or RV-living and tired of leases that do not fit your life
- Watching your housing stipend and wanting to keep more of it
- Traveling with a partner, a pet, or a fellow nurse and wanting room for all of it
- Someone who wants safety, quiet, and a little community instead of a hotel hallway
If that is you, a monthly site here is one of the easiest housing decisions you will make all year.
Frequently asked questions
Is there monthly RV site availability in Elgin for travel nurses? Yes. Great Escapes Elgin offers extended-stay, full-hookup monthly sites built for longer assignments. Availability shifts with the season, so the best move is to request current monthly availability for your contract dates.
How far is Elgin from the Austin and Round Rock hospitals? Elgin sits just east of the metro, a straightforward drive of roughly 30 to 45 minutes to the Austin and Round Rock medical campuses depending on which one you are assigned to, including the St. David's, Ascension Seton, and Baylor Scott & White networks.
Is it cheaper than an Austin apartment or an extended-stay hotel? For most travel nurses, yes. A flat monthly RV site rate with full hookups typically costs less than a short-term Austin apartment lease or a nightly extended-stay hotel, which helps stretch your housing stipend further. Elgin's monthly rates are among the more affordable in the area.
Can I book just for the length of my contract? That is exactly what the monthly sites are built for. Tell us your assignment dates and we will line up availability to match.
Do I need to own an RV? You will need somewhere to park and live, whether that is your own RV, a travel trailer, or a rented rig. The resort provides the full-hookup site, amenities, and community.
Is it safe for someone living alone and working night shifts? Yes. The resort sits on quiet, well-kept grounds with clean bathhouse facilities, on-site laundry, a camp store, and a real community of longer-term guests, which makes it a comfortable base whether you work days or nights.
Is Great Escapes Elgin pet friendly? Can I bring my dog? Yes. Elgin is pet friendly with a fully fenced dog park, so your dog can travel and stay with you for the whole assignment.
Your contract is temporary. Your housing headache does not have to be.
Travel nursing is hard enough without fighting a lease, blowing your stipend on a hotel, or settling for somewhere that does not feel like home. A monthly site at Great Escapes Elgin is affordable, safe, quiet, close enough to the hospitals, and genuinely a nicer place to land between shifts.
Dates fill up fast, especially during peak contract seasons, so do not wait until move-in week to figure this out.
Request Monthly Availability at Great Escapes Elgin, or call the park at (512) 648-2800, and lock in your spot for your next assignment.