This is what all of your wealthy adult friends did this summer

In Kent, Connecticut, a two-hour drive from New York City, Club Getaway’s 300-acre property hosts youth, family, and adult-only camps. The latter — of which there were 13 dates this year — fittingly advertises itself as an “escape for your inner child.”

David Schreiber, Club Getaway’s owner, told BI that revenue for its adult segment increased 9% in 2024 compared to 2023.

Groups of friends can buy out a cabin, while solo travelers can join a shared one. The average per-person price of a four-person cabin is about $570.

But the affair becomes a bit boozier when adult camp is in session from Friday to Sunday.

Think mixology classes, pub hikes, paint and sip, and themed parties like “red, white, and brew.” (Don’t worry, you can burn off the alcohol at one of the workout classes.)

The three-day event in late August, which started at $600 per person, was Camp Social’s second year in operation. Still, it sold out in less than 10 minutes and accrued a 60,000-person waitlist, Liv Schreiber, the founder, told BI.

Schreiber, a social media influencer, spent her childhood summers at a sleepaway camp in the Poconos.

Now a grown-up, she’s done “the bougie stuff,” like vacations to Aspen, Colorado, and summers at the Hamptons’ Surf Lodge. However fancy, these trips just weren’t “filling her cup.”

“I just wanted to go back to camp as an adult, and I thought some other people may want to as well,” she said.

Beyond traditional camp activities, the women spent their weekend taking cold plunges in the lake and getting facials at a SkinCeuticals-branded cabin.

According to Camp Social’s founder, most showed up alone. Many left as friends.

“Your needs as an adult are the same as when you’re a kid,” Schreiber said. “You want to meet new people and relieve yourself of the stress you may have at home. You don’t want to feel lonely or left out.”

Us grown-ups feel isolated — 30% of adults reported feeling lonely at least once weekly over the last year, according to the American Psychiatric Association’s survey of 2,200 people in January 2024.

To combat this, young adults have been attending more face-to-face social events, whether it be running groups, reading clubs, or, in this case, summer camps — even if it means shelling out cash for the potential to make new friends.

“It doesn’t matter if you were raised on Park Avenue or a farm town,” Tereasa Surratt, the co-owner of resort Wandawega, told BI. “When you show up at camp, you’re wearing the same t-shirt and doing the same things.

Instead of a planned itinerary, Wandawega offers camp-like amenities and activities — like a treehouse, hatchet throwing, watersports, and vintage craft kits — that keep most guests hanging around on-site.

“You never know who’s going to be in the cabin next to you,” Surratt said. “Unlikely friendships are forged.”

There’s no age restriction, but Surratt estimates at least 80% of Wandawega’s guests are grown-ups, noting a recent influx in adult group bookings.

Perched atop a hill in the countryside of southern France, Camp Château hosts annual six-day women-only summer camps from July to September.

The mansion-turned-camp welcomes 50 women per session. About 70% show up solo, Philippa Girling, CEO and cofounder of Camp Château, told BI.

While the property has shared glamping tents, most “campers” sleep in large five to eight-person bedrooms inside the château. Guests can participate in electives like guided foraging, ceramics, jam-making, and “stitch and bitch.”

“We want them to give themselves permission to slow down and just be,” Girling said. “It’s incredibly restorative to be quiet and somewhere beautiful.”

Despite its nascency, the company now has a more than 13,000-person waitlist for next year’s dates, which start at 2,250 euros, about $2,500, per person.

Its 2025 schedule had been fully booked in five days — 15 months in advance.

Girling said her company is now exploring expansion options like more dates or properties.

The Standard in Miami Beach, Florida, and Four Seasons Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, both have annual adult summer camps.

A spokesperson for The Standard, Miami Beach, told BI that “Camp Standard” — a three-night affair in mid-August — saw a 50% growth in attendees from 2023 to 2024. It now plans to expand the program for 2025, which could include more dates or a longer event.

But instead of shared bunks, “campers” stayed in the hotel, paying about $2,120 per person for a solo room or about $1,570 for a double-occupancy one.

The majority of this year’s 120 guests went alone.

The luxe five-day event, available from Memorial Day to Labor Day, is as much a wellness retreat as a summer camp.

The full schedule includes a massage, a day trip to go destination snorkeling and diving, a swim at a waterfall, and a hike to a workout class with a view — all starting at $6,000 per person.

A spokesperson for the hotel told BI that the camp has averaged 16 bookings a year — mostly couples and girl groups — since its conception in 2022.

After all, there’s nothing more summer camp-like than a Four Seasons hotel.