These California Summer Camps Are the Best in the State

With summer quickly approaching, Newsweek's recent ranking of America's Best Summer Camps spotlights coast-to-coast facilities that stand out. These camps excel by providing opportunities for children to grow via healthy activities in beautiful, distraction-free outdoor settings.

California is home to six day camps that earned five stars, the ranking's highest recognition. These six facilities, all of which are accredited by the American Camp Association, span a wide swath of the state, and each allows for a unique summer camp experience.

Overall, the ranking, which was compiled with data analytics firm Plant-A, lists the country's top 500 camps, split into lists of 300 overnight camps and 200 day camps, spread across 43 states. It is based on more than 185,000 camp reviews from a survey of more than 30,000 parents as well as more than 699,000 social media reviews on Google and Facebook.

The camps were evaluated across 12 criteria, including selection of offered activities and programs, condition of camp facilities, staff experience and competence, camp security and safety, and staff-to-children ratio.

"As parents navigate the vast array of summer camp options, our ranking serves as a compass, guiding them toward camps that align with their child's interests, needs, and safety standards," Plant-A wrote about the ranking. "By leveraging our comprehensive list of America's Best Summer Camps 2024, families can streamline their search process and identify the ideal summer camp experience for their cherished young ones." ​

Check out the top Golden State day camps below.

Valley Trails

Valley Trails Executive Director Mike Stillson has been working for summer camps for 36 years. It is a passion that he has made into his career—a passion that he says benefits children greatly.

"The way I put it to parents is you go to school to learn your ABCs, your 123s and how to pass a test. At camp, you come to learn everything else you need to be successful in life," Stillson, who has been with Valley Trails for 26 years, told Newsweek. "They also learn that it's OK to make mistakes because what you do at camp is you surround yourself with people that are there to support you. So if you do make a mistake or you do fail, are they gonna help you pick yourself up? Dust you off, all that type of stuff? Absolutely."

Valley Trails maintains two locations near downtown Los Angeles—one in Tarzana that has been around since 1969, as well as a 200-acre ranch in Santa Clarita that was started 17 years ago. As part of the camp's appeal, the company's website touts its flexibility in regards to scheduling and transportation and its extended hours.

Stillson says the usual camp activities like archery—which is offered at Valley Trails, alongside other adventures such as rock-climbing, swimming and cooking—help to develop attendees' deeper personality traits.

"The kids are saying, 'Oh cool, I'm learning how to use a bow and arrow. I'm going to become Robin Hood,'" Stillson explained. "Sure, they're learning how to use that, but the bow and the arrow have absolutely nothing to do with archery. What we're actually doing is using these tools so the kids are actually learning about patience, resiliency, trial and error, making large adjustments, making small adjustments. Sometimes it's learning how to slow down your breathing so that you can actually be calm and be patient."

With a focus on each camper's personal development, Valley Trails' website paints a picture of attendees improving their communication skills, self-reliance and ability to collaborate and navigate real-world hurdles outside the summer camp setting.

Such goals, Stillson said, are central to the camp's mission.

"A camp is always an inclusive place where people can be themselves," he added. "Our goal is to figure out how we can make every camper grow in any way we can."

Woodward Tahoe

Focused on action sports, Woodward Tahoe's facilities provide ample opportunities for attendees to get moving.

The facility offers active campers a chance to discover the ins and outs of a 33,000-sq.-ft. indoor facility called the Bunker, which includes a skatepark, seven trampolines and three foam pits. Outside, the camp features 16 acres that contain six mountain bike trails, two parkour zones and three more skateparks.

"We got something for everybody up here, which is great," Woodward Tahoe Marketing Director Tucker Norred told Newsweek. "It's for all ages and ability levels when it comes to our summer camps."

Woodward Tahoe is in Soda Springs, a mountain community about 25 miles from Lake Tahoe. Beyond its skate- and bike-focused activities in the summer, the camp is also affiliated with the Boreal ski resort, which is open in cooler months.

For day-campers who are new to skateboarding and mountain biking, Woodward Tahoe offers both private and group classes. Instruction is also available for parkour, trampoline and tumbling.

"We have specialty classes for each sport," Norred explained. "We do have snowboards and skis with wheels [that] you're allowed to use our mega ramp into the foam pit with, so you can train year-round for skiing and snowboarding."

Norred added that athletes like mountain bike freerider Carson Storch and Olympic freestyle skier Eileen Gu have trained at the facility.

But such high-profile recognition does not distract from the camp's mission of providing a supportive environment where its younger, more inexperienced attendees can blossom.

"We give them the ability to try new things and break out of their comfort zone. Especially in today's day and age, especially in a post-COVID era, kids haven't left the house as much as they used to," Norred said. "There's a lot of skill-building that we do with them that's outside of the sport as well, helping them grow and mature."

Mountain Camp Woodside

Located in Northern California's Santa Cruz Mountains in the town of Portola Valley, which is near Palo Alto, Mountain Camp Woodside operates on a 63-acre spread where its "non-competitive program is designed to build confidence, grow independence, encourage friendships [and] healthy lifestyle choices and develop 21st century skills," according to its website.

"Our camp features impressive athletic facilities and well-maintained modern accommodations," Jim Politis, the camp's director, told Newsweek via email. "Key facilities include an Olympic-sized swimming pool, tennis courts, indoor gymnasium, dance studio, theatre stage, soccer fields, baseball field, art and craft rooms, and archery range."

The camp's website says it prioritizes a "back-to-basics approach" to outdoor recreation, and it follows a "free choice" format that allows attendees to create their own program by picking the activities they want to try.

"Additionally, campers enjoy dance, drama, and a unique offering of live-action role playing (LARPing)," Politis said. "Other notable activities include outdoor survival, swimming, rock band, and various sports and games that our many international counselors enjoyed as kids and they have brought to our camp."

Mountain Camp Woodside is organized around three central pillars: promoting cooperation and community, building a healthy lifestyle, and instilling personal confidence and a positive self-image. The camp promotes these qualities across a wide age range, as its day camp is available for children from kindergarten through 10th grade.

"We do try to intentionally 'bake' things like empathy, sympathy, cooperation, teamwork, and communication skills into our camp program," Politis added. "We feel that our camp experience is able to promote social integration, leadership skills, and a stronger sense of independence and resilience in our campers, and you see it reinforced summer after summer."

Camp Trinity at Bar 717 Ranch

Founded in 1930, Camp Trinity at Bar 717 Ranch is based on a family model in which campers engage in activities as though they are part of "a large ranch family in the mountains of Trinity County," according to the facility's website. Still owned and run by the family that founded the camp, the Gates family, Camp Trinity says it is the oldest accredited coeducational summer camp in California.

Swimming, hiking, riding, caring for animals, gardening, and making music and art are central to the Camp Trinity experience, which is touted as taking place in a "non-competitive setting" on 450 acres of mountainous terrain in Hayfork, California. Children are also encouraged to learn new skills like silk-screening, blacksmithing, baking bread and mending fences.

The camp puts forth that it is completely distraction-free: "There are no gadgets or electronics in campers' lives here. We work and play side-by-side, face-to-face, and completely unplugged," reads the "About Us" section of its website.

The fact that the camp takes place at an active ranch was reinforced during the second week of April when a crew of volunteers gathered at Bar 717 Ranch for its annual Spring Work Weekend, which this year involved burning back blackberry bushes, tending to pigs and preparing garden beds for springtime planting. The weekend also included several activities that sound like staples of any camping adventure: hiking to a river, seeing morning snow on Gates Mountain, hot cocoa by the fire and evening stargazing.

Santa Barbara YMCA Day Camp

The Santa Barbara YMCA Day Camp offers art making, STEM activities, sports and outdoor recreation, and field trips. Also, unique among the summer camps on our list, the program is arranged with various weekly themes, which the YMCA says ensures that "each week is a different adventure." Examples of past themes include a weeklong focus on science, a "summer safari" week that featured a zoo visit, or "blast into space," which involved space-related activities.

Outdoor activities like soccer and kayaking are presented on the camp's website, which says the facility offers children and teens the chance to take part in pastimes that "cultivate values, develop skills, nurture relationships and actively explore their own imaginations."

The Santa Barbara YMCA is one of 12 affiliated YMCA locations on California's central coast spanning from Ventura County northwest of Los Angeles to the coastal town of San Luis Obispo. The facilities offer their own programs and summer camp schedules; at the Santa Barbara location, summer camp runs from June 3 to August 25.

Apart from the traditional summer camp, some of the YMCA locations also offer summer enrichment camps that focus on learning about specific fields, such as science or cooking. These programs, though, can run for durations as short as one week.

K3 Martial Arts

K3 Martial Arts teaches children how to defend themselves with combat skills, all while having fun and avoiding sedentary couch-potato behaviors.

K3's website assures parents that attendees at its summer camp "are learning respect, discipline, and self-control, all of which will help them when they go back to school in the fall."

Beyond martial arts instruction, K3 says that it offers children the chance to do "tons of activities" while having ample opportunities to socialize. Also, the camp, which caters to all ages and backgrounds, says on its website that the experience it provides is both physical and intellectual for children, with an emphasis on mental skills like focusing and memorizing "that require them to use their brains."

K3 Martial Arts, which is located in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, told Newsweek that its 2024 summer camp is already full, so be sure to check early for the 2025 season. Beyond the summer months, K3 features year-round instruction on karate and Krav Maga, an Israeli martial art developed for military personnel that has been adopted by law enforcement and civilians worldwide. The facility also offers an after-school program for children, as well as martial arts-themed birthday parties.

"Martial arts classes benefit growing children far beyond the dojo and in many real-world scenarios. Our structured classes are meant to help develop coordination, physical fitness, mental strength, as well as gain valuable social skills," K3 says on its website. "Through positive reinforcement, we can bring out the best in your children to help them succeed in life."