{"id":34192,"date":"2026-08-09T08:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T03:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34192"},"modified":"2026-08-09T08:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T03:09:34","slug":"summer-camps-for-the-children-of-the-rich-and-famous-literal-helicopter-parents-private-jets-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34192","title":{"rendered":"Summer Camps for the Children of the Rich and Famous: Literal Helicopter Parents, Private Jets and More"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paywall\">A trip between New York City and a camp in Maine\u2014which can take upwards of six or eight hours in a car\u2014may take around an hour and a half each way by air, and, depending on aircraft, could cost $8,000 to $15,000, according to Wiesenthal. Quite the taxi fare. \u201cIt\u2019s not atypical that a round-trip flight to a camp can cost more than the camp itself,\u201d Wiesenthal says.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"AssetEmbedWrapper-iJvQnD cOWUYC asset-embed\">\n<div class=\"AssetEmbedAssetContainer-fnduJP iaVSwI asset-embed__asset-container\"><span class=\"SpanWrapper-kFnjvc eKnjjD responsive-asset AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-gaAbQ hXaxHA asset-embed__responsive-asset\"><picture class=\"ResponsiveImagePicture-jKunQM gjCCFj AssetEmbedResponsiveAsset-gaAbQ hXaxHA asset-embed__responsive-asset responsive-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image may contain Aircraft Helicopter Transportation Vehicle Person and Helmet\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ResponsiveImageContainer-dkeESL cQPiWi responsive-image__image\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a6c9d8dbef4e25b0b8baf69\/master\/w_120,c_limit\/BLADE_Landing_Hamptons_1%20(1).jpg 120w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a6c9d8dbef4e25b0b8baf69\/master\/w_240,c_limit\/BLADE_Landing_Hamptons_1%20(1).jpg 240w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a6c9d8dbef4e25b0b8baf69\/master\/w_320,c_limit\/BLADE_Landing_Hamptons_1%20(1).jpg 320w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a6c9d8dbef4e25b0b8baf69\/master\/w_640,c_limit\/BLADE_Landing_Hamptons_1%20(1).jpg 640w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a6c9d8dbef4e25b0b8baf69\/master\/w_768,c_limit\/BLADE_Landing_Hamptons_1%20(1).jpg 768w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a6c9d8dbef4e25b0b8baf69\/master\/w_960,c_limit\/BLADE_Landing_Hamptons_1%20(1).jpg 960w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a6c9d8dbef4e25b0b8baf69\/master\/w_1280,c_limit\/BLADE_Landing_Hamptons_1%20(1).jpg 1280w, https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a6c9d8dbef4e25b0b8baf69\/master\/w_1600,c_limit\/BLADE_Landing_Hamptons_1%20(1).jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"100vw\" src=\"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a6c9d8dbef4e25b0b8baf69\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/BLADE_Landing_Hamptons_1%2520(1).jpg\"\/><\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"BaseText-fEwdHD CaptionCredit-cUgOGk gsdIcD hRFzlA caption__credit\">Courtesy of Blade Urban Air Mobility<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The camps themselves can cost upwards of five figures. This year, <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/raquettelake.com\/parents\/dates-tuition\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/raquettelake.com\/parents\/dates-tuition&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/raquettelake.com\/parents\/dates-tuition\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Raquette\u2019s tuition<\/a> is $17,800, plus a $600 canteen fee, $275 for transportation, and additional costs for the <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/thecampspot.com\/catalog_packinglist.aspx\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/thecampspot.com\/catalog_packinglist.aspx&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/thecampspot.com\/catalog_packinglist.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">required uniform<\/a> items, which this year, based on the packing list and camp store pricing for female campers, add up to a minimum of $1,147.60 for the logo-stamped shirts, sweats, jackets, swimsuits, and more that campers wear, and can fluctuate up several hundred dollars more depending on choices and extras. Tuition for these tony retreats has always been premium, but has gotten even more expensive in recent years; according to <em>Town &amp; Country,<\/em> in 2017, Raquette Lake\u2019s tuition was listed as just over $13,000. An American Camp Association analysis of <a data-offer-url=\"https:\/\/www.acacamps.org\/blog\/sponsored\/2026-camp-booking-pricing-trends\" class=\"external-link text link\" data-event-click=\"{&quot;element&quot;:&quot;ExternalLink&quot;,&quot;outgoingURL&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.acacamps.org\/blog\/sponsored\/2026-camp-booking-pricing-trends&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.acacamps.org\/blog\/sponsored\/2026-camp-booking-pricing-trends\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">data from activity booking platform Sawyer<\/a> showed that camps raised their prices 20% between 2024 and 2025, on top of the previous year\u2019s 23% increase.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Elizabeth Weprin, a content creator based in Boca Raton, Florida, posts to her more than 46,000 Instagram followers as \u201cYour Jewish Boca Mom,\u201d with most of her content focusing on camps and colleges. She put both of her daughters, now 26 and 23, through eight years of Raquette Lake, with both returning for a year as counselors-in-training after aging out. Though Weprin didn\u2019t attend sleepaway camp growing up, several of her husband\u2019s family members are Raquette Lake alums, and her glowing experiences over the years with the camp mean that she\u2019s still a presence at annual visiting days, showering her younger nieces with snacks, Neosporin, and goodies like this year\u2019s hot-ticket toy request, squishy NeeDoh cubes. Now, as she did back when her daughters were campers, Weprin flies commercial to Albany or Syracuse, then rents a car and drives the remainder, stopping at a Walmart Supercenter along the way for the requested snacks and other items.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A trip between New York City and a camp in Maine\u2014which can take upwards of six or eight hours in a car\u2014may take around an hour and a half each way by air, and, depending on aircraft, could cost $8,000 to $15,000, according to Wiesenthal. Quite the taxi fare. \u201cIt\u2019s not atypical that a round-trip&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.vanityfair.com\/photos\/6a6b8876d3516984c32c64c0\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/VF0726_Summer-Camp_Tout.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}