Are you as excited for summer break as your kids are? If the answer is no, you probably haven’t lined up their summer camp schedule yet. We’ve got you covered.
Each year, Free Times + The State publishes exhaustive guides to regional summer camps – and we’ve picked our favorites from their roundups.
Whether your child is all about art, history, science or the outdoors, here are seven local + regional summer camps where your kids can HAGS (a.k.a. have a great summer, in yearbook slang). We’re lowkey jealous that we don’t have three months off to attend these.
🏕 Camp Cherokee | Blacksburg, S.C. (~2 hrs from Cola) | June 3-August 4 | $495 for members; $525 for non members | for ages 6-15 | register | This place gives us major Parent Trap vibes. Tucked away among 7,000+ acres of national parks + tree life, Camp Cherokee is full of summer camp classics like sailing, archery and rock climbing.
Photo by @campcherokee
🏕 Columbia Children’s Theatre: Camp Harry Potter | Columbia | July 9-13 | 9 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. | $200 | for students entering grades 4-12 | register | Is your kid a Gryffindor? Or a Slytherin? Find out with this Harry Potter-themed camp, where kids get to participate in Hogwarts themed “classes.” 12-year-old me is screaming with envy right now.
🏕 Adventure Summer Camp at Camp Hannon | Sunset, S.C. (~2 hrs from Cola) | June 3-8, June 10-15, June 17-22, July 15-20 | $600 | for kids 10-16 years old | register | This camp is for kids who love exploring and being adventurous, so if you’d rather sit inside and watch cartoons all day, this probably isn’t for you. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, this camp includes white water rafting, rock climbing and even a canopy tour.
Photo by @ylicamps
🏕 Columbia Sailing Summer Program | Lake Murray | June 11-15, June 18-22, June 25-29, July 2-6, July 9-13, July 16-20 | $300-350 | Beginner Optimist classes for ages 7-15 | register | This program teaches the basics of sailing – including knot tying and boat rigging – while also keeping water safety in mind. By the end of the course, kids will be able to steer + balance a sailboat… or even move up to the intermediate course to learn how to sail all by themselves.
🏕Dawn Staley/Frank Martin Basketball Camps | Columbia | Dawn Staley: June 11-14, June 16, June 25-28 / Frank Martin: July 30-August 2; commuter/overnight options available | register for Dawn Staley / register for Frank Martin | What sports kid wouldn’t want to spend the week with these basketball legends? Despite my lack of coordination, my 15-year-old self would have been all over this as a kid. Frank Martin’s camps even offer an overnight Father/Son camp.
🏕 Camp EdVenture | Columbia | June 11-August 10 | $195 | camps vary by age and subject focus | register | EdVenture offers too many camps to count – with cooking, acting, engineering + even detective crime solving. Plus, if you’re an EdVenture member, you can receive a 15% discount on camp tuition.
Photo by @edventurechildrensmuseum
🏕 Historic Columbia Summer Camp ‘68 | Columbia | July 9-13 | $160-200 | register | OK, y’all. I am extremely jealous of these kids. Summer Camp ‘68 lets kids embrace the flower power movement with tye-dying shirts + a groovy Summer Olympics relay, while learning about the music + history of 1968. A G-rated Wet Hot American Summer, anyone? Count us in.
Photo by @historiccolumbia
Reminiscing on your own childhood summer camps memories? Us, too. Here’s where our team went to summer camp in our youth:
Beth
Not-so-shockingly, I did musical theatre throughout my childhood, and because four productions throughout the school year apparently wasn’t enough drama for this musical theatre mama, I also attended as many theatre camps as I could over summer break. My favorites by far were the two-week intensive shows at Fabrefaction Theatre Company in Atlanta, where I performed in Little Women, The Wedding Singer, Annie and Zombie Prom over multiple summers. Peep me below as Grace Farrell in Annie (a.k.a. Daddy Warbucks’ girlfriend, the ultimate gold digger).
Chloe
For several years throughout elementary and middle school, my childhood best friends and I went to Camp St. Christopher on Seabrook Island. There we learned archery, how to sail, the skill of dousing yourself in bug spray and how to install a mini-fan and sleep without A/C for a week. Just kidding – it was really fun. And it sparked my enjoyment of kayaking. Ayo, riva.
Photo courtesy Joy Page Rodgers
Lauren
My version of sleepaway camp was always spent at the barn – with all the ponies… and apparently goats? That’s what happens when you’ve been known as the #weirdhorsegirl since the age of 5. When I wasn’t cuddling with my pony at the barn, I’d be watching my favorite TV show, The Saddle Club… (#TBT). That being said, my horse-crazed summers mainly consisted of daily pony rides + painting horseshoes with my fellow horse girls. Saddle up, y’all.
Nicole
I didn’t go to sleepaway camp as a kid – probably due to my weird allergies + tendency to nap a lot as a child. However, I did spend a lot of time on the lake with my family, just being a fashion icon (peep the life jacket/sunglasses combo) and enjoying gourmet meals of crustless PB&J sandwiches paired with Capri Sun (the epitome of class).
As you can see, I was too bougie to go to a summer camp as a little kid. But I guarantee that 11-year-old me would’ve been obsessed with the Harry Potter camp + Summer Camp ‘68 (my extensive Beatles trivia knowledge + tye dye shirt collection would’ve come in handy).
We want to see your old photos from summer camp – upload an old pic in a Facebook comment here, tag us in your Instagram posts or tweet us: @COLAtoday.
Are your kids going to any cool camps this summer? Drop those in a comment, too.
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