East Bay Regional Parks Camps
Park’n It Day Camp is a traditional summer day camp program that takes place Monday to Friday from 9am to 4pm in various East Bay Regional Parks. Camps feature hands-on experiences under the care of our highly-trained staff of recreation leaders, lifeguards, and naturalists. Your child will learn about our park ecology, play games, make art projects, go fishing, hiking, and swimming, and enjoy field trips to other parks.
Parent Q&A
Parent Reviews
Parents, please Sign in to post a review on this page.Our daughter has really enjoyed summers with the UC Berkeley Youth camps and Trackers Earth.
Berkeley’s general activity camps allow you to rank activities at enrollment based on camper interests and some include swim lessons. My daughter loved meeting the Cal student counselors from all over the world.
Trackers Earth has made some positive changes after a rocky period post-COVID closures. If you want outdoor time and nature-based activities, they are great. My daughter loved all the tracks she tried, so never could settle in one. She still plans her clothes and packs her daily bag based on their readiness training.
We also recommend reading up on the East Bay Regional Parks camp options. They differ by location, but we’ve had good experiences in Contra Costa County locations and with Jr Lifeguard camp in Alameda.
Check out the multitude of camps run by the City of Oakland, City of Berkeley, City of Piedmont, East Bay Regional Park District, etc. We had a great experience last summer with the City of Oakland's boating camp (they also teach sailing for older kids like yours!) and with EBRPD's camp for young kids. Camps run by public agencies tend to be much more affordable as they are essentially subsidized by tax payers. Typically you'll get a resident discount, but won't necessarily need to be a resident to participate.
I have sent my kids to Park'n It at Lake Temescal for the last few summers, and will send my younger child again this year. The kids have fun, they're outside, and it's professionally and competently run. The emphasis is on traditional camp activities like singing silly songs, arts & crafts, and engaging with nature (swimming, hiking, etc.). The presence of many "leaders in training" is nice, because it provides for a mixed-age group. My only complaint is that the check-in line runs pretty long, especially the first morning. If you can live with that small wrinkle, then it is an incredible value, and I recommend it.