Adults of all ages are paying $1,000-plus to play like kids at summer camp again — and they say it's worth it

Yahoo

3 days ago

Where tug of war and 'tini time' unite.
For Jaime Gullotti, the week away couldn't have come at a better time.
'I was going through an ugly divorce, and my parents were like, 'You need to go do something new,'' the 43-year-old office manager from New Hampshire tells Yahoo.
Gullotti was intrigued by an ad she saw on social media for 'Camp' Camp, a summer camp for LGBTQ adults in Maine. She had relished her childhood summers at sleepaway camp and was curious about how the experience would translate into adulthood. So in 2014, she packed her trunk and headed north. Turns out, camp was just as good as she remembered.
'It was just really fun,' she says. 'It was all the things that you want on a vacation: lots of activities, really good food and really good people.'
Fast forward to today: Gullotti has been to 'Camp' Camp every summer for the past decade and also volunteers as a group leader. She has a tight-knit community of camp friends and even met her partner of 10 years on the grounds.
'You go on a vacation and say, 'It was really nice to meet you,' but then you never keep in touch,' Gullotti says. 'At camp, I've become not just vacation friends but actual friends with these people.'
Fulfilling a need
Why would a grown adult willingly sleep in a cabin with strangers, eat food from a mess hall and participate in wacky team-building activities like Olympic games and lip-sync battles? For Mike Farley, who has been to Camp No Counselors events across the country for the past 14 summers, it's a break from reality with some of his favorite people.
'Looking forward to the experience is one thing, but looking forward to seeing those people in that setting makes it fun,' the 42-year-old operations director from Orlando tells Yahoo. Last year, he went on a cruise with 25 friends from camp, and in March, 30 of his buddies descended upon Orlando for a mega-birthday celebration.
More and more adults are seeking out adventure, friendship and fun in the woods: Yelp's 2025 trend forecast notes a staggering 347% increase in searches for adult summer camp between 2023 and 2024. In an era in which more than half of adults under 44 feel lonely or isolated most or all of the time, camp can be a powerful antidote to the lack of connection so many are experiencing. At camp, age is just a number. In 2024, for example, 'Camp' Camp hosted Gen Z-ers, octogenarians and everyone in between.
'When you put aside what you do for work or what circles you would normally run in, things feel so much more open and easy,' says Makyla Harvey, 22, a digital marketing specialist from Maryland. She has attended Camp Social, a women-only retreat, for the past two years and is returning again this summer. 'I connected with women in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.'
At camp, attendees get to relive (or experience for the first time) that all-American, Parent Trap-style summer. Campers can sign up for quintessential camp activities such as boating, archery and arts and crafts, while on-site bars, gourmet meals, live music and nighttime skinny dips add grown-up excitement. Camp No Counselors runs Slip 'N Slide flip cup and morning ''tini time' — 8 a.m. espresso martinis to start the day strong. At Club Getaway in Connecticut, you can sign up for inflatable jousting and let loose at a toga party.
'At some point you have to grow up, but what's that look like?' asks Farley, who swears by arts and crafts as the ultimate hangover cure. 'Why do I have to? I can still do all the same stuff.'
Finding your kind
Some camps are out to make the experience life-changing in more ways than one. Campowerment, another women-only summer camp in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, offers an inner child workshop that helped Jennie White, a mental health and wellness counselor and advocate for children with special needs in New York City, heal from a childhood trauma.
'It gave that little girl breath,' says White, 43. 'It brought her out of that experience, and she was actually allowed to play and experience wonder in a way that I've never thought possible.'
Upon her return, White left an abusive relationship, went to graduate school and learned how to drive — literally putting her in the driver's seat of her own life. She says being with other women made her feel safe during such a vulnerable experience. That's intentional, says Chelsea Leader Gold, Campowerment's CEO.
'It feels very protected,' she says. '[You are] in the sanctity of sisterhood. When you put women in an intentional space and with programming that allows them to explore, really cool stuff happens.'
Gullotti agrees that being with like-minded people makes for an especially meaningful experience: At 'Camp' Camp, 'we all have queerness as a common denominator,' she says.
But at the same time, part of the fun of camp is meeting people you'd never come across in daily life.
'You have different jobs, you have different circles of people, but when you're at camp, you might be holding a tug-of-war rope with this person, and all of a sudden, you have the same set of interests,' Farley says.
Cozy vibes — for a cost
Another draw of the experience? Screen-free time in nature. Instead of doomscrolling after dinner, for example, nights are spent hanging out in front of the campfire with s'mores or yukking it up at the talent show. At Camp No Counselors, photographers capture the experience and send pictures out after camp ends so campers can just enjoy being in the moment.
'I go and put my phone down for three days,' Farley says. 'You don't need it. If something happens at your job, what are you going to do? You're out in the woods.'
Bear in mind a few days of roughing it can carry a steep price tag. A week at 'Camp' Camp is $1,975, while a weekend in the Poconos at Camp Social will set you back nearly $900. The (sold-out) Labor Day weekend session in New York at Camp No Counselors is $1,000, and four days at Campowerment will cost you nearly $2,000.
A place to do you
At camp, adults can strip away the persona they have in the real world to be true to themselves. 'Camp' campers, for example, are encouraged to try on new pronouns and dress however they're most comfortable. At Campowerment, campers are not allowed to share their occupation for the first 24 hours.
'Otherwise, it would become a networking event,' Leader Gold says. 'This is a place where we can be all the other parts of who we are.'
That might include karaoke queen, amateur archer, capture the flag crusader or any other identity that doesn't often get air. But there's also the option to put all of that aside and just rest. Everyone's camp experience looks different.
'It's almost like freshman year of college,' Farley says. 'You have access to all of these things, but no one's watching you, so you don't have to do any of it.'
Importantly, if you do want to do something, there's no pressure to do it well. Harvey says she appreciates that there's no 'competitive, mean girl energy' at Camp Social. For three blissful days, 'Kumbaya' really is a state of mind.
'It's like stepping into the Barbie movie,' she says.
'Literally a before and after'
It's no surprise that after one memorable summer at camp, many people return. At Campowerment, for example, more than half of the attendees are repeat campers. Veterans like Farley and Gullotti take new campers under their wing, hoping they have the same transformative experience they did.
'It is literally a before and after for me,' Gullotti says. 'I would not have the community that I have now, the partner I have now or the life that I have now without camp.'
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