If city living has gotten a bit intents or you’re just simply looking to get away for the summer, we may have just found the perfect spot for you!
And it’s called Camp Wandawega, the camp where social distancing is a way of life! Located on Lake Wandawega just an hour and 45 minutes away from Chicago. the beautiful Wisconsin hideaway is an idyllic lakeside resort, perfect for reconnecting with nature and relive the good old summer camp by trying your hand at all kinds of camp activities, sleep in rustic cottages or rough it out in a Scout tent.
The camp, which oozes quirkiness and fun, has had quite the history! Now it is a family-ran camp but Camp Wandawega started off in 1925 as a prohibition-era speakeasy for Chicagoans looking for some fun and liquor. Later on in the 1930s, it turned into a bawdy house owned by a Swedish madam and it only became a legal camp with the establishment of the Wandawega Lake Resort in the 50s, only to be purchased later on by Latvian refugee priests who used it as a hideaway and turned it into a summer Church camp before it was purchased by its current owners.
While at Wandawega you’ll be able to practice safe social distancing by going hiking, biking, fishing, canoeing, kayaking and cannonballing into the lake. But if you’re interested in group activities, the camp also offers a wide range of counselor-led programs that go all the way from macramé and stitching to archery and Raccoon Roping, an incredibly interesting activity which calls for lasso making and raccoon catching.
Whether you’re more of a rustic cottage person or you like to rough it out in a Boy Scout tent Wandawega has a spot for you. Camp Wandawega is open all year long and offers a wide variety of lodgings from Boy Scout tents and a tipi to A-frame cabins and a bunkhouse for more than 24 people. The camp also has a totally awesome treehouse with giant swings and the more modern Hillhouse equipped with all the modern commodities you may need.
While social distancing comes naturally at this lovely retreat, Camp Wandawega has established new health and safety measures to make sure everyone gets to experience all the “no-frills joys” it has to offer. These new measures not only include ramped up cleaning of the lodgings and contactless check-ins but also the closing of communal areas such as their main lodge and Airstream “Church Key Lounge.” Guests are also encouraged to go fully stocked so that you don’t have to visit local grocery stores although no contact food deliveries are also available.
Camp Wandawega requires reservations prior to your arrival on camp, so make sure to book your spot ahead of time or you might have to sleep in your car for the night!
See also: 10 Weekend Getaways Outside Chicago
Practical information
[Featured image: @campwandawega]