Overland camps

[Anonymous]

Any recent reviews on Overland travel camps? Rising 9th grade boy considering a 2-week northeast hiking / kayaking adventure, but we don’t know much about this company.

Fun? Safe? High quality counselors?

Also, any issue for him if he would be on the older side of the age group at 14?

Appreciate the feedback.

[Anonymous]

Never heard of it. I would check the Camp forum where you will probably get better responses.

[Anonymous]

My son did it last summer. Great experience and he loved it- northwest expedition. Overland has been around forever and is a very reputable company. Everything was well organized and the communication was great. They are less commercial than some of the other camps my kids have done - they don’t try to make you order stuff through them, they don’t send you a million emails (they definitely do email you, but not a constant barrage), and many of the counselors are former campers. Looking into the international ones now.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend whose kids have done these for several summers and rave about the company.

[Anonymous]

Ditto. It seems hard core in a good way. Very expensive compared to other summer experiences, though, so there's not a lot of economic diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son did it last summer. Great experience and he loved it- northwest expedition. Overland has been around forever and is a very reputable company. Everything was well organized and the communication was great. They are less commercial than some of the other camps my kids have done - they don’t try to make you order stuff through them, they don’t send you a million emails (they definitely do email you, but not a constant barrage), and many of the counselors are former campers. Looking into the international ones now.

NP- thank you for sharing your experience. Could you kindly share the ones you would not recommend? We are looking at some for out DD14 and really don’t have unbiased reviews to go by.
Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I went to an information session at a friend's home in Arlington the fall before Covid hit and met the founder and was very impressed. We didn't do it only because of Covid canceling everything. My friend's children loved it. They did a challenge program. If we had done it, my daughter would have done one of the service/language trips, the challenge ones are not her vibe.

[Anonymous]

Love this - our daughter did two and was thrilled. A little pricy, but they all seem to be...

[Anonymous]

My kid did three and all were really well run. They are incredibly selective in hiring. They do a ton of recruiting and pay well, so they are better able than most to get quality leaders. Lots of group-cohesion efforts, too.

[Anonymous]

My daughter did one last summer, age 12, and had a great experience. They went backpacking around the northeast.
She went with a different company this year, Wilderness Adventures, in PNW. No reason other than the timing of the trip worked out better with our schedule. She is gone right now, but she looks happy in the photos!

[Anonymous]

How do they compare to NOLS and Outward Bound?

[Anonymous]

My older kid went a couple of years ago and the younger one is going next week. They are very organized, very responsive, very knowledgeable. A couple of things we liked about this company vs Nols or outward bound - each group is limited to one preexisting friendship pair, and even then they said they try to discourage them. The kids were from all over the place, not just from one geographic area.

[Anonymous]

Had many different friends do multiple trips with them and always excellent experience.