Adult summer camps in California
We track 13 adult camps in California. 9 are confirmed running for 2026. The local mix: arts, crafts & performance, classic sleepaway, sober & digital detox, geek, gaming & fandom, and more. 4 listings are no longer bookable or unconfirmed. They're kept below, labelled, so you don't plan a trip around a camp that quietly stopped running.
Not sure which camp?
Five questions, 60 seconds, one honest recommendation from the 68 camps still running.
Take the quizActive camps
-
Camp Improv Utopia
A nonprofit-run network of 18+ improv sleepaway camps where campers split their days between workshops with top improv instructors (Craig Cackowski among 2026 East faculty) and genuine camp fare like archery, axe throwing, and arts and crafts.
-
Camp No Counselors
The Shark Tank-famous brand that turned adult summer camp into a category, Camp No Counselors runs three-night, all-inclusive weekends at rented kids' camps in New York, California, and Texas.
-
Camp Sober Fest
A drug- and alcohol-free sleepaway camp for adults in recovery, mixing classic camp activities with meetings, workshops, and campfire fellowship at a lakeside camp in the Sequoias.
-
Dungeons & Cabins
Founded by professional dungeon master and game designer Sammy Glicker, Dungeons & Cabins books out a SoCal forest camp ('Paladin's Retreat') for weekends of interconnected multi-table D&D campaigns, where one table's choices ripple into another's.
-
Endless Summer Surf Camp (Adult Camps)
Running since 1992, this San Clemente institution holds dedicated adult sessions where campers sleep in tents at the fabled San Onofre surf break and take daily coached surf lessons with meals cooked at camp.
-
Grown-Up Getaway Camp (Sierra Nevada Journeys)
Outdoor-education nonprofit Sierra Nevada Journeys opens its 400-acre Grizzly Creek Ranch campus to adults for a weekend of ziplining, archery, crafts, and campfires in the Sierra foothills near Lake Tahoe.
-
Jazz Camp West (Living Jazz)
An eight-day jazz immersion for adults (teens welcome too) held at a rustic camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains redwoods.
-
Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp
The original rock fantasy camp, running for 30 years: campers are placed in bands, coached by touring pros, and jam with headline mentors like Roger Daltrey, Stewart Copeland, and Michael Anthony before performing at a famous venue such as the Whisky a Go Go.
-
Stanford Sierra Camp Alumni & Adult Weekends
Stanford's storied Sierra Camp on Fallen Leaf Lake devotes spring weekends to grown-up programming: a Memorial Day weekend with faculty lectures and wine-paired dinners, a women's Healthy Living Retreat, and affinity weekends like the Black alumni camp.
On hiatus, unverified, or no longer running
-
A-Camp (Camp Autostraddle)
Autostraddle, the internet's biggest indie queer women's publication, ran this beloved mountain sleepaway camp for its readership from 2012 to 2019, bringing 300+ queer women, non-binary folks, and trans campers together for workshops, panels, crafts, and performances.
-
Camp Winnarainbow Adult Camp
Woodstock icon Wavy Gravy's circus and performing-arts camp in Mendocino County has run a legendary grown-ups' session for decades, teaching trapeze, stilt-walking, juggling, and clowning to adults sleeping in tipis on Black Oak Ranch.
-
Camp Grounded
The camp that invented the digital detox genre: founded in 2013 by Levi Felix, Camp Grounded collected phones at the gate and gave grown-ups camp names, typewriters, and analog play across roughly 15 sessions in four states.
-
Camp Mighty
OG mommy-blog-era creator Maggie Mason (Mighty Girl) ran Camp Mighty as a camp-flavored Palm Springs weekend where readers worked on their 'life lists' between pool parties, talent shows, and crafts at the Ace Hotel.
Know an adult camp in California we missed? Suggest it.