East Coast Camps for Families to Venture to This Summer

Interest in family summer camps is on the rise—though they’re hardly new. For some families, they’re a decades-old tradition—with campers returning year after year. In fact, last year the über-popular Deer Valley YMCA family camp in Pennsylvania opened registration with a waitlist. The American Camp Association says it’s seen more camps adding family programming in recent years in response to increased popularity.

You can see the appeal. The camps are a way for kids to experience sleep-away camp without separation anxiety—for either children or parents. For some, it’s an opportunity to take a family vacation that actually feels like a vacation for parents, too—meals and entertainment are included, and daily itineraries are preplanned for everyone. For some clans, it’s simply an opportunity to get outside and connect.

Whether the nostalgia of your own childhood is calling or you want a new summer adventure, these family camps on the East Coast are worth checking out.

Camp Kippewa

Registration: Currently open.

Dates: August 10–15.

Rate: $3,400 per cabin for up to four people; $675 each additional person; ages 3 and under free.

Distance from DC: A 90-minute flight to Portland, then an hour’s drive.

Camp Kippewa, on Lake Cobbossecontee in Monmouth, is traditionally an all-girls camp, but each summer it opens up for a six-day, five-night session welcoming parents as well as both boys and girls. Activities include all the things a traditional summer camp is made of: water sports such as canoeing, kayaking, standup paddleboarding, waterskiing, and wakeboarding; other sports including tennis, basketball, volleyball, kickball, and soccer; plus arts and crafts, a ropes course and climbing wall, and campfires with s’mores. Chef-prepared meals are part of the experience, too. And while there’s wi-fi onsite, families are encouraged to leave computers at home.

Camp Seagull & Camp Seafarer’s Embark Family Camp

Registration: Currently open.

Dates: August 10–15, plus the weekends of May 16–18 and August 29–September 1.

Rates: $634 a person for YMCA members; $706 for nonmembers.

Distance from DC: A five-hour drive.

While it offers land activities such as ziplines, golf, tennis, archery, and arts and crafts, this YMCA camp in North Carolina, south of the Outer Banks, is known for its water focus: fishing, canoeing, kayaking, paddleboarding, environmental discovery, swimming, sailing, and more. Campers sleep in open-air cabins, some of which face the Neuse River.

Camp Tockwogh

Registration: Opens January 13.

Dates: August 17–24 (families can attend the full week or just the first or second half), plus the weekends of May 23–26 and October 3–5.

Rates: $814 per camper ages 16 and up; $670 ages 12–15; $494 ages 6–11; $402 ages 3–5; ages 2 and under free.

Distance from DC: A two-hour drive.

Each family gets its own cabin at Camp Tockwogh in Worton, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore. Activities include swimming at the pool, arts and crafts, a ropes course, mountain biking, archery, sailing, waterskiing, paddleboarding, and horseback riding.

Forest Lake Camp

Registration: Currently open.

Dates: August 16–22.

Rates: $1,195 per camper ages 16 and up; $995 ages 6–15; $795 ages 3–5; ages 2 and under free.

Distance from DC: A seven-hour drive.

Activities at this camp in the Adirondacks include everything from fencing and fishing to soccer and sailing, with families encouraged to decide for themselves whether they’d prefer to stick to the day’s suggested schedule or form their own itinerary. Families stay together in stone-and-log cabins—though tent camping is available for a discounted rate. Some additional activities can be included for an extra fee, such as horseback riding, whitewater rafting, and powerboating.

Medomak Family Camp

Registration: Currently open.

Dates: Weeklong sessions all summer, beginning June 22.

Rate: $1,550 a person for ages 13 and up; $1,440 ages 5–12; $1,290 ages 2–4; under age 2 free.

Distance from DC: A 90-minute flight to Portland, then a 90-minute drive.

A day at Medomak can be very structured, with optional morning walks and stretches before breakfast, a series of peer-group activities, then afternoons of swimming, canoeing, and kayaking on Washington Pond. There are daily art projects as well as evening activities—such as bingo and barn dances—followed by a campfire. All activities are optional for parents and “highly encouraged” for children. (The camp is ideal for ages 5 and up.) Adult-only activities include massage therapy, beer and cheese tastings, and an outing to a distillery. Meals—including one lobster dinner—are served family-style and made in small batches using local ingredients.

This article appears in the January 2025 issue of Washingtonian.

Amy Moeller

Fashion & Weddings Editor

Amy leads Washingtonian Weddings and writes Style Setters for Washingtonian. Prior to joining Washingtonian in March 2016, she was the editor of Capitol File magazine in DC and before that, editor of What’s Up? Weddings in Annapolis.