🍂 Touring a Camp in the Fall: How to Get the Feel When the Campers Are Gone

Touring camps this fall has one downside: there are no campers there! No cheering at lineup, no kids yelling the director's name across the field, no bunk doors slamming. I wrote a whole article about what to watch for on a summer tour, and almost none of it works in the fall. So here is the fall version: how to get the feel of a camp when all you can see is the place, and how to still get a feel for the people behind it.

Start with what the camp offers in the fall

Camps know you can't see campers in the fall, so most of them build the fall around other ways to meet you. Look for an open house, a private tour, a home visit where the director comes to your living room, or a video call. Each one tells you something different. An open house shows you how the camp treats a crowd of strangers. A home visit shows you how the director talks to your child one on one. A video call is a fine first step before you drive three hours. If a camp offers more than one, take more than one. The camp that wants your family will make it easy. Every camp sets its own fall schedule, so ask each camp when they offer tours.

Ask for families, not just brochures

An empty camp can't tell you what the summer feels like, but a current camp family can. Ask the director for two or three families you can call, and ask for one with a first-year camper and one with a child about your child's age. Then ask those parents the plain questions: What surprised you? What would you change? How did your child feel on the bus home? How did the camp handle any hard moments your camper had? Listen for how fast they answer. Happy camp families talk fast.

What an empty camp still shows you

The place can't perform for you in the fall, which is exactly why it's worth looking closely. Walk through with your eyes open.

• ✔The bunks. Open a few, not the one they picked. Look at the beds, the cubbies, the screens on the windows, the shape of the bathroom. Picture your child in week four, not on day one.
• ✔The bathrooms and showers. Clean and dry in the off-season means someone cares year-round. Count the showers against the number of beds.
• ✔The dining hall. Ask to see the kitchen, not just the tables. Ask where the allergy line is and who runs it.
• ✔The waterfront. Even with the docks pulled in, you can see the lifeguard chairs, the swim area markers, and how far the lake is from the bunks.
• ✔The health center. Ask to walk through it. Ask who sleeps there overnight in the summer and where the nearest hospital is.
• ✔The grounds. Fall is when camps fix things. New roofs, fresh paint and torn-up fields are good signs if the director can tell you what's coming. Rust and broken steps with no plan are a different story.

Watch how the director talks about kids

In the summer, I watch whether the director calls kids by name. In the fall there are no kids to call, so I listen instead. Does the director tell stories about particular campers, the shy one who finally sang at the talent show, the boy who hated the lake in June and lived in it by August? Or does it stay general, the program, the facilities, the awards? A director who knows last summer's campers by name in the fall is the same director who will know your child's name in July.

Questions to ask the director in the fall

You have more of the director's time this fall than you ever will in July. Use it.

• ✔What share of your staff comes back each summer, and what share of your campers?
• ✔How old are your counselors, how do you hire and screen them, and what training do they get before campers arrive?
• ✔How many campers to each counselor in the bunk, and who covers the bunk when counselors have a night off?
• ✔Tell me about your staff.
• ✔How many of your counselors were campers here first? That tells you a lot about a camp.
• ✔What do you do for a first-time camper in the first three days? Who is watching for the quiet kid?
• ✔How and when will I hear from camp? Photos, emails, phone calls? What happens if I'm worried in week two?
• ✔When is the first phone call with my child?
• ✔How do you handle food allergies and dietary needs, and how is medication stored and given?
• ✔How do you handle homesickness, and when would you call me?
• ✔What is included in the price, and what is extra: trips, canteen, laundry, buses?
• ✔What is new for next summer, and what did you change after last summer?

Write the answers down in the car before you drive away. By the third camp, they blur together. I made a printable Fall Camp Tour Checklist with every question here and room for notes. Print one page for each camp you visit:

🖨️ Print the free Fall Camp Tour Checklist →

Then ask the camps, not just one camp

Fall tours are how you narrow the list. Before you drive anywhere, make the list itself. On Ten for Two you can sort camps by region, camp type, who attends, session length and price, tap the heart on the ones you like, and send one form so up to six camps get your request and reply straight to you:

Find camps on Ten for Two →

If your child won't start camp until the summer after next, you have time for one more step: visit this coming summer, while the campers are there. Nothing tells you more than seeing a camp in session. My summer tour guide has the tests for that day, from the director test to the mayonnaise test, and a printable checklist to bring along.

Ten for Two is the all-in-one resource for finding the perfect sleepaway camp. I built it because I wish I'd had it when I was the one standing in an empty camp in the fall, trying to picture July.