Rialta Coffee Tour
Welcome to The Rialta Coffee Tour! My name is Don Niemyer. I lived in a 99 square foot Volkswagen Rialta with my wife and two kids for three years while I traveled the nation seeking out America’s best coffee houses. I write about coffee, my Rialta, simplicity and mininalism. Some of my favorite posts include Why The Rialta is the Best RV on the Road, Moments, Pigtails Flyin’ in the Wind, 5 Things I learned by Being Homeless, and Thanksgiving Chicken Fiasco 2012.
Below are some other links that might help guide you, but meanwhile, please note that as of January 2016 I am blogging at www.DonNiemyer.com, and I’d be honored if you’d join me there! I also started a coffee shop in a tiny house called Story Coffee Company which might interest you, so check that out too.
Now cut me some slack here, ’cause I don’t know who you are or why you came. But if you’ll give me a second, I can get you right where you need to be. Check it out…
The Rialta is all about my RV. It is an amazing machine that sleeps all four of us comfortably, has more than sufficient amenities, gets 18-20 mpg, and has been my family’s home for over 2 years. We moved into it in preparation for our move to Colorado, but ended up staying in Portland for 2 more years, during which time we have camped on the streets, never hooking up and living off battery power we generate by driving around.
Simplicity and Minimalism reflects some of my thoughts about living in a tiny space for over three years with four people. We had to get rid of most of our earthly possessions, trim our budget to bare bones, and learn how to keep things verrrrry simple.
The Coffee Shops is where you come with us on a National Coffee Crawl. We seek out the best shops and look for insights into what makes them amazing, with special emphasis on innovations, trends, and interesting features. We hope to incorporate some of the ideas we see into our next shop in Colorado!
So once again, thanks for stopping by! I really appreciate it. If you have any questions feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best. For now, I gotta get back to enjoying a great cup of coffee, my sweet family, and my tiny coffee house. Cheerio!
We're Doing This 
wow, I had no idea. I can hardly wait for a few moments to sit down and begin to read your journey. I don’t know how I missed this. Since I have a love for all things coffee, community and granola…I know i will enjoy your blog immensely!
Beautiful! Love the spirit of the whole thing.
Some day i will have an rv.
I will enjoy following your journey!
Beckie-acquaintance friend of Michelle Patterson
Hi guys, couldn’t find a contact email for ya’ll — was wondering if I could use one of your pics from The Rialta Coffee Tour: Living Simply, Drinking Coffee (Part 2), the one of the the sterling coffee coaster, on my website. I’m the letterpress printer for the two different coasters they use (as well as the letterpress printer for labels and other stuff for Clive Coffee). Thanks! — Jenn
PS Love the blog. When I was six, my parents rented their house out for a year and we lived on an empty beach in Baja in a little RV for a year. Pretty much the best thing ever!
Just bought a 2003 QD this past summer and love it. We were lucky to find one with only 10,000 miles on it. The tires were hardly worn but we replaced them anyway. Really looking forward to reading more of your adventures.
What an amazing adventure that you are on and what an wonderful experience for your children. Thanks for letting us read about it.
We have a Realita and love it. However, I keep reading about how great it is to have a curtain behind the captain chairs. I want to do this. Can you please tell me in greater detail how you did this? What did you use for the curtain and how do you hold it up?
We got 4 little pinch clips, about 1-2 inches long, that we simply screwed into the wall. Work great. Then we use a solid colored, black blanket that blacks everything out.