Why adults are going back to summer camp

After dinner, the marshmallows came out. A group of nurses and support staff from a New York City clinic gathered around the campfire, sharing stories about childhood and how they got into the field. Above them, the upstate New York sky was full of stars. For a few hours in July 2026, the clinical titles and workplace hierarchies that normally defined this group of US health professionals disappeared.

Aleksey Aronov, CEO of VIP's IV, had brought his team to Camp No Counselors for a four-day weekend to unwind and bond.

“A lot of my staff members were new, and some were quite shy,” Aronov said. “But after the camp experience, everyone felt comfortable around one another, got to know each other better and bonded seamlessly.”

His team had arrived together. Other campers go looking for a group to belong to.

For adults heading to summer camp, the draw goes beyond childhood memories. Some are turning to camp experiences to network or mitigate burnout, while others are seeking a way to make new friends. Whatever their reason, an increasing number of people around the world are finding that the summer camps of their youth are the perfect antidote to the pressures of modern adult life.

Mia Morin, 29, of Toronto and her husband attended YMCA Camp Queen Elizabeth on Beausoleil Island in Ontario, Canada in May 2025 to meet new people.

“We wanted to gather around interesting people, exchange ideas and do things together,” Morin says. “Going to YMCA Camp Queen Elizabeth was easy because nobody there was random. Since everyone has already selected the same thing, you have a starting point with something in common.”

Once a niche getaway for nostalgic campers, adult camps have exploded in popularity, offering weekend and weeklong retreats where grown-ups trade screen time and their comfy beds for campfires, sports, arts and crafts, and bunk beds. Unlike the children’s day and overnight camps, however, today’s adult versions often include grown-up perks, such as open bars, wine tastings, chef-prepared meals and wellness programming.

Yelp’s 2025 Trend Forecast showed searches for “adult camps” were up 347 percent from September 2023 through August 2024, compared with the previous 12-month period. The online directory of the American Camp Association (ACA) lists 85 adult camp programmes in the United States, and while the ACA does not track the number of adult camps year-over-year, it confirms that there has been positive growth in adult camp programming over the last decade.

As of 2026, the concept has expanded well beyond the US and Canada, with camps launching in destinations ranging from the Swiss Alps to the United Arab Emirates.

“The rising popularity of adult camps reflects a larger movement toward meaningful, in-person experiences we’ve been seeing through Yelp,” said Yelp’s trend expert, Tara Lewis.

“People are looking to unplug and foster connections in shared physical spaces. These camps give adults the chance to go analog, rediscover favourite activities, focus on wellness and make genuine connections," she added.

Just how much has the concept grown? When founder Adam Tichauer pitched Camp No Counselors to the reality TV contest Shark Tank in 2016, the sharks didn’t bite. Fast forward 10 years, and all the Camp No Counselors dates through 2027 have waitlists.