SUMMER
Day camps in the Berkeley/Oakland/Albany/El Cerrito area
including spring and winter break camp offerings
Residential
camps in Northern California (& beyond)
plus some
internships, family camps & international programs
by Tom Lent
Introduction to the Guide
This guide covers over 180
camps, including day camps in the Berkeley/Oakland/Albany/El Cerrito
area, (concentrating on Berkeley and the northern end of Oakland, but see below
for info on camps in the other side of the hills) and overnight
resident camps, internships and
family camps from around Northern California - with a few from
farther afield of particularly unique interest to California kids beginning to
sneak in, including international programs.
I generally have not listed
programs that are an hour or less per day or run for less than two weeks
(except residential camps and spring and winter break offerings). The majority
of the camps are for primary school age children, but I have expanded to
include more middle and high school age camps as they have come to me.
A note about reviews: Reviews are based upon surveys I
did of parents at
GETTING MORE
INFORMATION: This
listing is not comprehensive. There are more camps out there, both general and
specialty (arts, music, drama, science, sports). Below are listed a number of
useful resources for your exploration:
AAUW Summer Program Information Fair
Is a way to get a wealth of information in person about these and other camps
in a few hours. It is free and held in March each year in the Scottish Rite
Center at 1547 Lakeside in
American Camping
Association
(925-933-0666 www.acanorcal.org) Check
out the Norcal section for more camps on the east side of the hills,
Bay Area Kid Fun (http://www.bayareakidfun.com/pages/campsgeneral.html)
covers the greater Bay area with camps and other kid fun listed by city.
Bay Area Parent (http://sanfrancisco.parenthood.com/)
has lists of Bay area camps in its monthly magazines (one for the
CampPlanIt.net (http://www.campplanit.net/CampPlanItLocation.aspx)
covers camps in the entire Bay area and includes search tools to help parents
select camps by type and location, calendar functions to help find camp schedules
that fit into their summer schedules and online registration options for some
camps.
East Bay Regional Parks (http://www.ebparks.org/activities/daycamps)
Provides a complete listing of all the camps hosted in the parks, plus a
“campership” program to help low income families afford the cost.
goCityKids (http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/browse/topcat.jsp?area=199&category=79)
has a good online listing of day camps and other family friendly stuff by
neighborhood through out
Parent Press (http://www.parentspress.com/)
publishes extensive camp listings for the whole Bay Area in the March and April
editions of their monthly news magazine. Last I checked it was not available on
line. You will have to search out the print edition at YMCAs kids stores and
other such family friendly spots in the area.
NATIONAL: More camp listings in the Bay area and the rest of the country can be
found at www.findcamps.com and http://www.summer-daycamps.com/
and http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/choose/
What to do the rest of the time?. How do you find cool things to do
in the Bay Area the rest of the time when they are not in camp? The Berkeley
Parent’s Network (see link above) gathers parent recommendations and
discussions and Bay Area Parent (also above) provides calendar listings. And
don’t miss Kiddie Koncierge (www.kiddiekoncierge)
another parent labor of love with lots of recommendations for fun kid friendly activities
- and some good kid travel info and stuff for parental escapes as well.
Act early. Camps are
filling faster every year. While many camps don't publish their schedules until late February or
March, and some have room in some sessions right into the summer, others fill
as early as mid February (Kids n' Clay, LHS, the Cal Sports & Science combo
and Skateboard camp, Ha-Ha-This Away and some residential camps for example).
Act now if you want one of these programs.
Some of the fee & date information here dates back to the summers of 2002 and
2003, the last years that I
attempted the increasingly heroic task of comprehensively updating the entire
list. The list has grown and my time has shrunk for updating this site
now and I am no longer able to gather and incorporate reviews or update fee,
schedule and program information. The
parenthetic number at the end of each listing (02) will tell you when I last
updated it. Luckily most camps now have
web addresses that are linked here so you can check yourself for updates that I
may not yet have learned about or had a chance to incorporate here.
This has been a labor of
love, not a profitable enterprise, started when I was first trying to wade
through the confusion to figure out where to send my son after his kindergarten
year. Once I had gathered a bunch of information, I figured I should share it.
I do the best I can, but no guarantees about the accuracy information are made.
I have less time now to keep up with it than I used to but hope it still is helpful
to you.
Read about Day
Camps
Read about Overnight
Resident Camps
Return to Tom Lent’s Information Center
Submit Updates
& New listings
Comments? E-mail them to me: tominfo@igc.org