Like summer camps for kids, "Family Camps" provide lots of fun activities in the Great Outdoors; lodgings and meals included, too. Lodging might be as rustic as a tent-cabins with no electricity; some family camps, however, have lodges or even inn-style accommodation.
Activities range from typical outdoors recreation and night-time campfires, to stilt-walking, gourd-painting, yoga, and cheese-tasting excursions. You can also find a family camp for seasonal fun, such as New Year's Eve, maple sugaring, Halloween. Musical families can even find a musical family camp.
(Alphabetical) Deer Valley Family Camp, Pennsylvania
Photo courtesy of Deer Valley Family Camp.
Deer Valley is a year-round family camp run by the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh; driving time is 2 hours from Pittsburgh, three hours, from DC. Deer Valley has 742 acres with woods, hills, fields, and a lake for watersports and fishing in summer, ice-fishing and skating in the winter time. Lodge has fireplace and activity rooms, and meals are served in a lakeside dining hall.
Frost Valley YMCA Family Camp - New York State
Forstmann Castle, just one of your lodging options at this family camp!
This family camp -- in New York state's popular Catskill Mountains; driving time is 2-1/2 hours from Manhattan-- has 6000 acres, lake activities, winter activities, Maple Sugaring weekends; platform tents, cabins, lodges, country inn. Note: Family Weekends are offered in Spring, Fall, and Winter - i.e. not during summer weeks.
Hulbert Outdoor Center - Vermont
Gingerbread house photo courtesy of Hulbert Outdoor Center.
The Hulbert Outdoor Center -- on Lake Morey, with 1000 acres of forest nearby -- offers many programs, including several family camps each year. Check out the special New Year's Family Camp, with snowshoeing, stories by the fire, ice-cutting on the lake, and more.
Medomak Family Camp, Maine
Photo courtesy of Medomak Family Camp.
Medomak has over 250 acres including a mile of lake shoreline. Guests stay in pine one-room cabins; grownups and kids can try over two dozen activities led by counselors: archery, sailing, fishing, arts and crafts, tennis, yoga... Even a Maine cheese & beer tasting. Location is a 3 hour drive from Boston, 90 minutes from Portland Maine.
YMCA of the Rockies - Colorado
Photo courtesy of YMCA of the Rockies Family Camp.
YMCA of the Rockies has two centers in Colorado-- Snow Mountain Ranch and Estes Park Center-- and both offer a bonanza of recreational activities during summer-time. Participate as much or as little as you like in scheduled programs, sign the kids up for outdoorsy day camps; or just go take a hike in the woods. This family camp is open year-round; look for seasonal fun at Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the Holiday Season.
