Our Annual Guide to Summer Camps 2026

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Options for your youngster(s) to live, learn, and grow

SUMMER CAMPS

The Big Adventure

When I was nine years old, my parents sent my older brother, Jack, to “sleep away” camp. Despair does not begin to describe the depth of his homesickness, outlined in agonizing detail with each plaintive letter he sent home from the Greenbrier Boys Camp. I was intrigued. Sleeping in a tent? Traveling to a new state? Swimming? Horseback riding? Arts and crafts? Sign me up. I immediately began lobbying to be sent to Greenbrier’s sister camp, Camp Alleghany for Girls.

Fast forward to the summer of 1979, when my mom deposited me and my brand-new footlocker in a shady glade on the banks of the Greenbrier River in the Allegheny Mountains. Accompanying me were my faithful “stuffies,” Pinkie and Little Teddy (I believe Big Teddy was too large to make the cut), and a brand-new footlocker filled with the many items we had dutifully ticked off the camp-issued packing list. I loved that footlocker, which felt like a magic carpet, equipped to whisk me away from Kilmarnock, Virginia – the beautiful but very rural town on the Chesapeake Bay where we lived – to exciting destinations unknown.

I loved sleeping in that tent that my older brother’s letters had conjured. I also loved the new friends I made (including the granddaughter of Bob Hope, who left me starstruck), and “Baby Boats,” which involved using insect repellent to remove the red printing from milk cartons, into which we placed votive candles that we floated down-river at night, singing sweetly nostalgic songs. I loved knowing that the counselors had a private getaway, “The Purple Palace,” and dreamed that one day I, too, could be a counselor, leading activities and participating in what struck me as very grown-up conversations (they were most certainly not, as all our counselors were teenagers).

I loved receiving care packages and letters from home, and I loved Gorp trail mix and S’mores, the ultimate camp junk foods. But love can be fickle. After two magical summers in themountains, I lost interest in my footlocker, which no longer smelled of adventure and “big things,” but, rather, musty staleness. And I became interested in new lists, including the class roster of the boys in my new fifth-grade class. I have long since traded my footlocker for a suitcase, but I have never lost my taste for adventure and big things, just as I have never forgotten the words to a particularly poignant song: “Sail, Baby, Sail. Out across the sea. Only don’t forget to sail back again to me.”

Jill Deupi, J.D., Ph.D. , Beaux Arts Executive Director and Chief Curator, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

From a Grateful Camper

Summer camp is the quintessential American childhood experience. Some of my best memories from growing up were made at camp with my twin brother. And I remember the feeling of accomplishment when we would convince our friends to convince their parents to put them in the same camp as us for the summer – big win for a kid. Summer camp always felt like the greatest gift our parents could give us. They sent us to a place for 10 weeks where there was no homework, no studying, and no school uniforms. We weren’t sure how we earned this privilege, but we didn’t ask questions. My brother and I spent those glorious summer months planning our future NBA careers and learning how to talk to girls we liked. (Not sure we got better at either of those things, but it’s always fun for a kid to dream!) I would argue that summer camp is equally as important in a child’s development as school. It is where we learned to explore our interests without the requirements that came with being students. I will always be grateful to my parents for allowing us the opportunity to go to great summer camps and make friends with people we are still friends with to this day.

Joe Roque, Development Manager, Torre Companies

Deep Into the Woods

My “camping” experience was as an Eagle scout with a Bronze Palm, a Paul Bunyan Award, a second-degree Order of the Arrow, and a “God and Country” award. Among my summer experiences, I spent a week at Camp Philmont (wilderness camping), another at Camp Sebring (learning water rescues, knot tying, shelter building, fire starting), one camp hiking in Colorado (wilderness training), one camp in the Dry Tortugas (survival experience), one camp in the Smokey Mountains  (winter wilderness training), and one camp six days in the Everglades. There are so many life lessons I learned in scouting that I apply today, from being able to secure a sailboat in a hurricane to surviving for days in the Everglades with flint and steel and one cooking pot, and of course, my hand ax. So instead of going to a camp to learn how to make a lanyard, my parents seem to have made the right decision [for wilderness camping]. In no way am I dissing [safer] summer camps – so many of my friends had years of incredible experiences, and they have very fond memories. I spent my summers camping and trekking through the woods. All were great experiences and learning life lessons.

Chip Withers, CEO, Withers Worldwide Transportation Systems, former Coral Gables City Commissioner

The Camp Counselor

While I did not attend summer camp as a child, the [Coral Gables War Memorial] Youth Center became my second home and gave me my first taste of public service volunteering as a summer camp CIT (Counselor In Training). I earned record community service hours for which I was honored by then-mayor Don Slesnick at a City Commission meeting. You could say that the rest is history, as I made a lifelong career commitment to public service and to my professional love affair with the City Beautiful. That small opportunity as a junior at Coral Gables High School made a lifelong impact in my life. We don’t do enough to highlight the summer CIT program and how it shapes the youth in our community.

Carolina Vester, Coral Gables Assistant City Manager