Escape DC and Channel Summer-Camp Fun at These Weekend Getaways

Memories of summer camp stay with us long into adulthood. And while you can never truly go back, what if you could create the magic all over again? Here are four places to recapture those carefree days—with outdoor activities, log cabins, and of course, campfire s’mores.

Quintessentially Camp

Capon Springs & Farms

This family-friendly retreat measures time in typical camp style: Each day begins with raising the flags and ends with guests returning to their room for an 11 pm curfew. The hours in between are full of classic summer activities with a distinctly Capon Springs twist: Swimming means floating in pools piped with warm-spring water, unwinding is a soak in the Roman-style baths, and a round of traditional golf often gives way to fling golf, a mixture of lacrosse and golf that the resort helped popularize in West Virginia. The fun doesn’t end after dark, thanks to lit tennis courts that allow for pickleball games before quiet hours.

In 1932, Lou and Virginia Austin bought the spring to bottle and sell water, and they began rehabilitating the property’s resort during the 1950s. Today, grandson Jonathan Bellingham runs the accommodations, and the spring water is still the property’s beating heart. It flows through taps in the guest rooms and even makes its way into the resort’s signature beer, brewed by longtime Capon Springs guests at Lost Barrel Brewing in Middleburg.

There’s an old-fashioned charm to the 4,700-acre mountain resort, whose season runs May through early November. Stays are punctuated with bingo nights, campfire sing-alongs, hot-dog roasts, and running races. Embodying the spirit of bygone days also means no air conditioning in the 14 cottages or main-house guest rooms, instead relying on fans. Like summer camp, nearly everything is included: three all-you-can-eat meals a day, served either family-style or as a buffet, as well as most sports and activities. Access to the golf course, spa, and new escape room costs extra.

Drive time from DC: One hour and 40 minutes.

Riverfront Retreat

Fort Lewis Lodge

This lodge’s idyllic location on the Cowpasture River, considered one of Virginia’s cleanest, is ideal for cooling excursions such as tubing, kayaking, or a dip in the property’s swimming hole. Set on a working farm and surrounded by forests and rolling hills, the rural escape offers other choose-your-own adventures, such as instructor-led yoga and fly-fishing classes or self-guided biking and birding.

You don’t need to arrive with your name printed on each item of clothing or check the schedule for your daily chores, but bells at 9 am and 7:30 pm mark designated breakfast and dinner times. The lodge is a family affair: Meals are cooked by owner Caryl Cowden, who has operated the lodge with her husband, John, for more than 35 years. Now son David and daughter-in-law Erin are modernizing the property, adding two luxurious cottages to complement the lodge rooms and rustic log cabins. All accommodations have air conditioning.

Though there’s plenty of opportunity to get in touch with your inner camper, you can also find grown-up touches such as a nightly pre-dinner wine-and-beer hour and a reservation-only wood-fired sauna. (Jumping between the hot sauna and the river is an obligatory activity.) S’mores can be purchased nightly, and a stargazing deck is a dark spot to point out constellations.

Drive time from DC: Three hours and 15 minutes.

Opulence in the Mountains

The Grand Lodge at Nemacolin

If you want to indulge in summer fun but prefer to leave memories of dirt and bugs in the past, head to this posh take on an Allegheny Mountain retreat. Set within the resort’s 2,200-acre campus, the Grand Lodge began welcoming guests last fall, following a renovation of the property’s oldest accommodations. The lodge has 56 suites where bunks are replaced with four-poster beds, chandeliers act as flashlights, timed showers are swapped for soaking tubs, and most notably, butler service supplants counselors.

Like the best of summer camps, Nemacolin forms a world unto itself. (You can even fly directly to the property.) You’ll fill your days with open-air pursuits typically found at camp: rock climbing and ropes courses, horseback riding through the woods, archery, and off-road Jeep adventures. More elevated options include golf lessons from a pro at one of the resort’s two championship courses or swimming in dual pools with luxurious cabanas and poolside drinks.

Once you’ve tired out, grab a seat around the fire pits on the Grand Lodge lawn. S’mores are available each night on request, offering an opportunity to commune with your “bunkmates” under the stars.

Drive time from DC: Three and a half hours.

Free-Spirited Slumber

Outpost Inn

Modeled after hippie communes from the late ’60s and early ’70s, Outpost Inn opened earlier this year in western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s a bit of a journey to get there from here but is a worthwhile trip that can be combined with a stop in Asheville or a destination hike in Pisgah National Forest, which boasts some of the highest peaks in the East as well as Sliding Rock, a 60-foot natural water slide that drops into a pool. The property’s 14 small yet comfortable rooms are styled with midcentury nostalgia, featuring hand-sewn quilts, Scandinavian-chic furnishings, deer heads, record players, country antiques, and buffalo-check plaids. A coffee bar in the lobby pours espresso drinks, paired with housemade banana bread.

Wake up to see the sun rise over the peaks or get cozy around three fire pits for s’mores in the evening. The inn is a base camp for day trips in the mountains, and staff act as the camp counselors, directing you to the best waterfall hiking trails, fly-fishing guides, craft breweries, and secret swimming holes.

Need a break from high-energy activities? Take a stroll to the town of Highlands, a small, artsy enclave. For an adult spin on arts and crafts, book a class at the Bascom, an art center on a former horse farm, where you can hone your painting skills or throw pottery on the wheel. It’s a ten-minute walk from the inn.

Drive time from DC: Eight and a half hours.