Adult summer camp searches are up 350%. I spent four days at one on Lake Tahoe

The older I get, the more I appreciate Camp Good Shepherd, a Greek Orthodox camp in New Jersey that I attended more than a decade ago as a young adult. Now that I’m in my mid-thirties, some of the friendships I made there have lasted nearly 20 years.

According to Yelp data reported by CBS News, searches for adult summer camps have spiked nearly 350% in the last year, and I can’t say I’m surprised. So when I learned Reno Tahoe had created its own version of summer camp for adults, I needed to experience it for myself.

As I packed my bags, I was slightly skeptical. Apparently, pre-camp nerves don’t disappear with age. I was excited, with just enough anxiety creeping in: Will I make friends? Will I have fun?

Before I knew it, I was checking into the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa and Casino and the games were about to begin…

I flew to Nevada for Creator Camp solo, not knowing what to expect

Creator Camp is essentially summer camp meets a creator retreat, set against the crystal-clear waters of Lake Tahoe and the quirky downtown of Reno.

The tourism board launched the camp two years ago as a way for visitors to experience the destination alongside popular content creators. Campers are divided into tracks led by established travel creators, ranging from the Bucket List Family to Passport Lovers. Participants can be longtime fans of the creators, aspiring creators themselves or simply travelers looking for a new adventure.

As a first-time camper, I fell somewhere in the middle. I wanted to experience Lake Tahoe like I haven’t before, meet new people and learn from creators who had built careers doing something I love.

I wasn’t alone in flying solo. This year, 27 campers traveled from three countries, 14 states and 22 cities—and 17 of them arrived solo too.

That’s part of what makes adult camp so appealing. Making friends as an adult can be hard. Camp removes some of the awkwardness by giving a group of strangers a reason to eat together, travel together, try new things and, eventually, stop feeling like strangers.

The people were the secret sauce to my week at camp

From the Reno Tahoe staff to the creator track leaders and the campers themselves, the best part of Creator Camp was the people.

Anyone over 18 can sign up, and you don’t need thousands of Instagram followers, or even an Instagram account, to fit in. You also don’t have to be a content creator to get something out of the experience. But if you’re interested in photography, video, storytelling or building a brand, it’s difficult not to pick up something along the way.

Between activities, conversations naturally turned to…creating. Unlike attending a massive conference and hoping to catch a speaker for 30 seconds afterward, I was paddleboarding, and hanging out with people who had built careers creating content. If you wanted to pick your counselor’s brain about something, you could simply ask.

Spending four days surrounded by curious, creative people made me want to create more myself.

Lean into theme nights and nostalgic camp activities

Shortly after settling in, I headed downstairs for the first activity of camp: a Casino Royale welcome party.

It set the tone pretty quickly. This wasn’t going to be four days of sitting in conference rooms talking about Instagram algorithms.

Each camper joins one of four tracks, with activities that vary by group. Throughout the four days, everyone also comes together for experiences from a Burning Man themed block party in downtown Reno to a nostalgic field day.

My track leaders, Quin (@everchanginghorizon) and Jess (@jess.wandering), challenged our group to paddleboard five miles on Lake Tahoe.

Five miles sounded ambitious considering I’d never managed to stay standing on a paddleboard for more than a few minutes.

I was shaky at first, but that’s also part of the point of camp. When everyone around you is trying something new, failing suddenly feels a lot less embarrassing. Eventually, I found my balance and started feeling confident on the board.

The day became one of my favorites of camp. With 70-feet of visibility, the lake looked like the waters in the Maldives. Somewhere along those five miles, I stopped thinking about whether I was going to fall off the board and started realizing I was actually doing something I hadn’t thought I could do.

You’ll feel like a kid again—and you don’t have to worry about the planning

As a child, you don’t want to be told what to do. But as a grown man, I’m totally fine with someone telling me what we’re doing, when lunch is served and what I’m supposed to wear to the theme party that night.

Adult life requires an exhausting number of tiny decisions. Where should we eat? What should we do tomorrow? Who’s making the reservation? What time do we need to leave?

At camp, someone else has already figured it out.

There’s something freeing about waking up, looking at a schedule and simply going along for the ride. For four days, I didn’t need to plan the perfect Lake Tahoe itinerary or coordinate what everyone wanted to do. My biggest responsibility was showing up.

Nearly 20 years after my first camp experience, I realized the best parts of summer camp haven’t really changed. You try something new, make friends faster than you normally would and go home wishing camp lasted just a little bit longer.

Maybe that’s why adults are searching for summer camp again, and I can’t wait to return next year with some familiar faces.