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The last time I got here to Club Getaway in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills was 2011 — I used to be 12 years previous, sitting on a crowded college bus with my iPod Nano blasting Grouplove’s “Tongue Tied,” carrying a black Hot Topic two-piece swimsuit and intensely knotting friendship bracelets for my associates, privately agonizing over how I used to be going to get out of most of the actions.
I’d been warned about camp — and particularly this one, a fun-for-all-ages spot catering to tri-staters for generations. There can be water sports activities, water tag, bungee leaping and ziplines — a nightmare lineup for my artsy, aggressively sports-hating preteen self. (Think Christina Ricci’s Wednesday Addams at Camp Chippewa in “Addams Family Values” — minus the homicidal tendencies.)
I had no thought that 15 years later, I’d be back — this time as an grownup, willingly signing up for the actions youthful me had been dreading.
Club Getaway is an all-inclusive, weekend-long sleepaway camp for adults 21 and older, sprawled across 300 lakeside acres in Kent, Connecticut. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
Over the past few months, I’d been listening to whispers that grownup summer season camps had been having a second, particularly among my fellow pressured Gen Zers making an attempt to have it all in NYC.
The thought is simple: Take a bunch of adults weary of metropolis life, work and the more and more sophisticated business of making associates, stick them in the woods for a weekend and give them permission to act like children again — full with bunk-style cabins, sports activities, swimming and s’mores.
Some of the more fashionable grownup sleepaway spots close to the Big Apple embody Camp No Counselors in the Poconos, ladies’s-only Camp Social in Pennsylvania and Retrofolk Summer Camp in the Catskills.
And, of course, there’s Club Getaway — a a lot older establishment that has been welcoming grownups since 1976, making it a pioneer on the scene. Last weekend, I used to be one of those adults hoping for a true escape from it all — and a probability to stare down my adolescent fears.
Held every weekend throughout the summer season, the over-21 packages embody “rustic-chic” lodging, meals, wine with dinner, more than fifty scheduled actions, themed events and live leisure. Prices start at $559 for a mattress in a quad-cabin and $869 for a solo cabin. Campers can signal up online.
The camp overlooks Leonard Pond, tucked into the scenic Berkshire Mountains. Campers get pleasure from swimming, boat rides and water sports activities every weekend. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
Owner David Schreiber told me the idea dates back to 1976, when founder Victor Fink remodeled his household’s struggling youngsters’s camp into an adult-camp model. The campgrounds flip 100 this 12 months — while Club Getaway celebrates 50 years of grownup weekends.
Today, roughly 200 to 250 adults descend on the property for a typical weekend, with the average camper around 36.
But Schreiber said the actions — from mixology lessons to workforce sports activities to themed events — are actually just a means to an end.
“People come here every weekend to have a great time and to be a kid again. Our team is here to help people meet new friends, and for many, even soulmates,” he said.
Even the blistering summer season heat couldn’t stop camper Anna Blue from scaling the camp’s rock wall to the top. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
In other phrases, the camp isn’t actually promoting ziplining. It’s promoting one thing that could be a lot tougher to discover in maturity: a ready-made social life.
“You come here, and now all of a sudden, you have your whole crew. You find your people,” he said.
Would I discover mine? I stepped off the Metro-North prepare from Grand Central at the Harlem Valley-Wingdale station on a Friday, where a shuttle was ready to choose up campers who had coordinated their prepare arrival occasions. Camp worker Louis loaded my baggage. Driving the group of about 10 campers up into the hills, he casually talked about rumors that the camp was haunted.
As an avid gothic-horror fan, I used to be immediately intrigued. I joked that pulling up to camp felt like arriving at “Friday the 13th’s” Camp Crystal Lake.
Crew member Tony took Matozzo, Buzin and longtime camper Fred Cordero for a sunny Saturday spin on the boat across the lake. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
Upon arrival, I checked into my pondside cabin I’d be sharing with three other roommates, and headed to completely satisfied hour under the campground’s main white tent, before sitting down to a family-style dinner.
Before long, we had been swept into a room with a dance flooring thumping with early-2010s hits — including, fittingly, “Tongue Tied.”
Fellow escaped Gothamite Carly Ziff, 34, of Midtown East, told me she’d never skilled sleepaway camp as a child — so she was making up for misplaced time.
“I’m a very nostalgic person. I heard about everyone here recreating their camp moments as a child, but I’m creating them now as an adult for the first time,” she told me.
This summer season, Matozzo returned to Club Getaway for the first time in 15 years, having first visited the camp as a tween in 2011. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
She made new associates, she said, at the camp’s “Paint and Sip” class where wine flowed — and was keen to push herself with kayaking and other out of doors actions.
“It’s funny, I don’t know if I would’ve appreciated this as much as a kid, but now I really do as an adult,” she said.
Sandra Florent of Irvington, New Jersey, got here with a pal to rejoice her fortieth birthday — and finally have the summer-camp expertise she missed as a child.
Lisa Buzin of Westchester is an avid water skier who also teaches Zumba and serves as a social host at the camp. She joined the weekend crew 5 years in the past after spending a decade as a repeat camper. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
Florent cherished stress-free by the water with a cocktail, making new associates from all over the world and bonding with fellow campers over actions like pizza-making and swimming.
“As an adult, it’s harder to make friends,” she said. “As a kid, I think you take for granted.”
Archery teacher Thomas Gray helped reporter Marissa Matozzo live out her Middle-earth goals — and really get a few arrows close to the goal. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
The next morning introduced a buffet breakfast — before I headed down to the lake for tie-dye and archery.
My suitably groovy shirt was a talent I inherited from my hippie mother; my archery expertise, sadly, weren’t fairly Legolas-level.
I landed two arrows close to the goal — child steps — before drawing the road at the zipline, SkyCycle, bungee leaping and mountaineering, fortunately cheering on my new associates from safer ground.
Between a scenic boat experience, a disastrous water-balloon toss and foam-sword preventing with a crew member sporting a Jason Voorhees masks — I used to be proper about the “Friday The 13th” vibes! — I shortly discovered there was never a scarcity of issues to do, or people to do them with.
Horror fan Matozzo was thrilled to finally meet Jason Voorhees himself — aka crew member David Aloyts — during the foam-sword-fighting class. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
Matozzo never anticipated to choose up a few sword-fighting expertise at summer season camp, but she was glad to add them to her arsenal. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
By Saturday evening, I used to be prepared for the night I’d been anticipating before I even arrived — the camp-wide “Party Like It’s 1926” costume bash.
I tied my long black locks into a fake bob, utilized my best silent movie make-up, slipped into a black cocktail gown, and headed down to the Boathouse, which the employees had remodeled into a Twenties-inspired speakeasy.
“I seriously can’t believe we’re still at summer camp,” camper Amanda Morrison, 42, mused as the evening’s festivities started.
The Hoboken resident was “no stranger to summer camps as a child,” but said she’d never skilled something fairly like Club Getaway. “The themed night decor is so intricate and detailed,” she said.
Outside, a roaring bonfire, s’mores and live music stored the camp nostalgia going late into the evening.
The camp’s “Crazy Olympics” put campers to the check with an all-out cha-cha line dance problem. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
After breakfast on the ultimate day, I headed to “visible injuryy Mary Bingo” — where comic and host Jeff “Bluto” Deliberato climbed into an ice-cold tub as campers gathered around him, drinks in hand, for music-themed bingo. I didn’t win, but the sight alone was well worth the price of admission.
By the ultimate lunch, I spotted that even though once again I’d arrived at camp nervous about the sports activities — I hadn’t been involved about being alone. And I wasn’t. I discovered myself surrounded by solo vacationers and teams of associates, principally in their 20s through 50s, all keen to introduce themselves, strive one thing ridiculous together and strike up a dialog.
On Sunday, a group of longtime alumni over 60 returned to camp to reminisce, reconnect and share recollections from a long time past.
This 12 months, Club Getaway celebrates its fiftieth anniversary as the Tri-State space’s longtime vacation spot for grownup summer season camp, drawing New Yorkers every weekend since 1976. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
Longtime employees member and sports activities teacher Lou Schioppo, 78, of Staten Island, had me reaching for a tissue when he told me how he met his spouse at the camp in 1976 — “she worked in arts and crafts!” — and married her soon after.
“I have so many stories, friends and my wife and children, all thanks to this camp. There’s nowhere else like it,” he said.
Fred Cordero, 64, of Montclair, New Jersey, and his spouse, Jessica Sporn, said they had been planning to renew their vows at Club Getaway — where they first met in 1998. They had been married within a 12 months.
“We’re going to renew our vows here for our 30th anniversary,” Cordero told me. “We’re together and our daughter is here on Earth because of this camp. I was 26 when I first came here. We met while dancing to ‘The Hustle’ in the Boathouse. We danced all night.”
City ladies like Sandra Florent, above, are escaping to Club Getaway for a style of grownup summer season camp — and a probability to make new associates along the best way. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
Club Getaway’s all-inclusive unfold serves up hearty camp classics, carving stations, contemporary salads and rotating sizzling entrees — with wine at dinner and loads of vegetarian and gluten-free choices. Matthew McDermott for NY Post
Cordero said he still loves the camp’s combine of actions and the possibility to meet new people — and summed up his origin story with a chortle: “Where else can you get to water ski, rock climb and meet your future wife all in one day?”
As for me, I didn’t meet my future husband — as far as I do know — but between the tie-dye, archery, foam-sword preventing, karaoke and lakeside cocktails, I made new associates, survived the sports activities and, for one weekend, let myself be a child again.
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