A unique twist on the summer family vacation has been around for over a decade, yet remains known only to a relatively small number of families. Vacationing at a Family Camp is a trend recently highlighted by Parade, Child, Family Fun and Frommer’s Budget Travel magazines as well as The New York Times, Boston Globe and Baltimore Sun, yet most people don’t quite grasp the idea of going to camp with their kids. Family camps (think grown-up-friendly summer camp with one-week-long sessions, comfortable beds and good food) are known for wholesome, unplugged, old-fashioned fun, and are popular with the typical modern-day, overscheduled family. Parents and kids, busy going from school to soccer games to dance lessons to scout meetings to tutoring, want a chance to unwind in a pristine setting far removed from the daily grind, as written about in Family Fun magazine. And families really like the idea once exposed to it, with camps averaging a fifty percent return rate. Our Mom and Dad “campers” have been telling us for years that the main reason they come back is that they leave content and relaxed, like they just had a “real” vacation; a feeling strangely absent after their week at the beach or Disney World. As for our kid campers, their biggest complement is that they don’t want to leave camp at the end of the week.
