Minnesota

With over forty different land and water activities to choose from, campers at Camp Lincoln and Camp Lake Hubert can build an impressive skill set over the summer—in mountain biking, trap shooting, martial arts, dance, crew, fishing, and more. You name it, Camp Lincoln–Lake Hubert probably offers it. Campers are allowed to explore five new activities every three days, making it the perfect setting for the child still searching for his or her place. The boys’ and girls’ camps (Lincoln and Lake Hubert, respectively) are separate, but there’s an option to join at coed camp—a ten-day program that runs at the end of summer. Parents have the option to get involved, too, with a special family camp program that allows for a rare family vacation with no cell phones or electronic devices.

The idea behind Concordia Language Villages is to create a study-abroad experience Stateside (it's part of Concordia College). Concordia offers fifteen different language-immersion programs—in Spanish, German, Finnish, Arabic, and more—for kids of varying ages and language levels. (There are year-round programs for toddlers even, but the summer sleepaway camps are typically for kids ages seven to eighteen, with shorter one- and two-week programs for younger students, and then longer four-week programs available for older kids.) The programs are organized by language, and the different language "villages" are spread between five locations in Minnesota. "Village passports" are stamped at "customs," campers engage in activities relevant to the language they are studying (whether that be fútbol or martial arts), and they enjoy "local" cuisine (whether that be Swedish meatballs or kimchi). Concordia also offers family, adult, and educator programs.