July 2025
Starting to feel a wee bit jealous as your kids regale you with all their camp adventures? Feeling nostalgic for cozy campfire skits, the endless possibilities of the arts & crafts cabin, or the thrill of a zipline? With family camps, parents can enjoy all the classic camp activities right alongside the kids!
Family camps offer an unparalleled opportunity to step outside your day-to-day, soak in a slower pace of life, and bond as a family through shared experiences. We’ve rounded up 11 options within a few hours of the Triangle.
1. Camp Kanata
| Location: | Wake Forest 13524 Camp Kanata Rd., Wake Forest, NC |
| Family programs: | Family weekend Mother-child weekend |
| Time of year: | Fall |
YMCA Camp Kanata offers camps for the whole family as well as special mother-daughter and mother-son weekends at its 150-acre wooded campus in Wake Forest. Packing all the fun of overnight camp into a fall weekend, families enjoy most of the typical summer camp activities plus special campfires, devotions, and family activities. The program allows cabin-sharing requests so you can bunk with other families and friends.
2. Victory Junction
| Location: | South of Greensboro 4500 Adam’s Way, Randleman, NC |
| Family programs: | Family weekend |
| Time of year: | Fall |
With a mission to enrich the lives of children with serious illnesses, Victory Junction offers medically-safe camp experiences for eligible children along with family weekends where the whole family can join in the fun. Activities include boating, fishing, arts and crafts, archery, sports, horse barn, mini golf, bowling, and ziplining.
3. Camp Royall
| Location: | South of Pittsboro 250 Bill Ash Rd., Moncure, NC |
| Family programs: | Family overnight |
| Time of year: | Fall |
As the nation’s oldest and largest camp for people with autism, Camp Royall encourages participants’ passions and interests while helping to build confidence, independence, and a willingness to try new things. Camp Royall welcomes the whole family with Family Fun Day and Family Overnight Camping events offered a few times throughout the year.
4. Camp Seagull and Camp Seafarer
| Location: | North Carolina coast near Arapahoe 218 Sea Gull Landing, Arapahoe, NC 2744 Seafarer Rd., Arapahoe, NC |
| Family programs: | Family week Family weekend Mother-daughter weekend Father-son weekend |
| Time of year: | Fall, spring, summer |
YMCA Camp Seagull and YMCA Camp Seafarer, located side-by-side along the Neuse River, offer several family camp options throughout the year. Choose from options for father-son or mother-daughter bonding, or bring the whole family along. Activities include ziplining, boating, archery, arts and crafts, fishing, and more. These programs fill up and typically open for enrollment in the fall.
5. Don Lee Camp
| Location: | North Carolina coast near Arapahoe 315 Camp Don Lee Rd., Arapahoe, NC |
| Family programs: | Mother-child weekend |
| Time of year: | Fall |
For over 75 years, Don Lee Camp & Retreat Center has run a unique faith-based environmental education and water adventure camp on the Neuse River. Each fall, the camp welcomes families for sailing, canoeing, archery, crafts, and s’mores at a mother-child retreat weekend operated by North Carolina United Women in Faith.
6. Camp Cheerio
| Location: | Western North Carolina 1430 Camp Cheerio Rd., Glade Valley, NC |
| Family programs: | Family weekend |
| Time of year: | Spring, fall |
With a mission to enrich the lives of children with serious illnesses, Victory Junction offers medically-safe camp experiences for eligible children along with family weekends where the whole family can join in the fun. Activities include boating, fishing, arts and crafts, archery, sports, horse barn, mini golf, bowling, and ziplining.
7. Camp Carolina
| Location: | Western North Carolina 1 Lambs Crk Rd., Brevard, NC |
| Family programs: | Father-son weekend |
| Time of year: | Spring |
Camp Carolina, an all-boys summer camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, offers father-son weekends each spring. These four-day retreats run from Thursday through Sunday and include horseback riding, mountain biking, fly fishing, rock climbing, tubing, hiking, ziplining, dodgeball, and more.
8. Ridge Haven Camp
| Location: | Western North Carolina 215 Rdg Hvn Rd., Brevard, NC |
| Family programs: | Family week |
| Time of year: | Summer |
Ridge Haven welcomes the whole family to its camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains for a few weeks each summer. Parents and kids can experience the full weeklong summer camp together, including group games, ropes courses, hiking, water play, and the unmatched thrill of launching off their 100-foot water slide. Ridge Haven is a ministry of the Presbyterian Church in America.
9. Camp High Rocks
| Location: | Western North Carolina 1234 High Rocks Rd., Brevard, NC |
| Family programs: | Family Labor Day weekend |
| Time of year: | Fall |
Camp High Rocks offers families an all-inclusive Blue Ridge Mountain adventure getaway with a private cabin and a wide range of classic camp activities like canoeing, rock climbing, archery, riflery, tennis, swimming, fishing, nature hikes, and crafts. Choose from a variety of self-guided activities or take advantage of expert instruction to learn together and build new skills.
10. Skyland Camp
| Location: | Western North Carolina 317 Spencer St., Clyde, NC |
| Family programs: | Mother-daughter weekend |
| Time of year: | Summer |
Skyland Camp, a historic girls’ camp nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, offers camp weekends in the summer designed for girls ages 6-14 and their moms, grandmothers, or aunts. Activities include horseback riding, archery, swimming, crafts, and evening campfires.
11. Falling Creek Camp
| Location: | Western North Carolina 816 Falling Creek Camp Rd., Zirconia, NC |
| Family programs: | Father-son weekend |
| Time of year: | Spring, summer |
Falling Creek Camp is a non-denominational Christian camp for boys founded in 1967 and located in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It offers several father-son weekends in the spring and summer, welcoming boys all the way from kindergarten to high school for father-son activities including rock climbing, fishing, canoeing, riflery, ziplining, ping-pong, foosball, and campfires.
Photo credits: Canva.