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While summer often finds kids heading off to camps to hone their skills in sports, a growing movement is seeing adults follow a similar path with their vacation time.
Hobby tourism is drawing grownups to camps where they can learn padel, master fly fishing, perfect their form in yoga — and just about anything else. It could benefit event and venue owners, too, provided they capitalize on it.
According to Adventure.com, vacations to beach destinations (disparagingly being dubbed “fly and flops”) are on the wane, and the New York Post says this is particularly true of Gen Z.
In their place, adults are choosing adventure and novelty experiences. After a school year spent trailing children around to practices, games, lessons (and shopping for the equipment for these), adults need to embrace the need to unwind and focus on self-care.
“I think we all need to take a breath sometimes,” PR guru Mathew Freud told Condé Nast Traveler (CNT) when he launched his experiential hotel Bull Burford. “The vast majority of pursuits and hobbies are about getting the left brain to shut up.”
Adventure.com says the trend is a formidable force. Research by online excursion marketplace GetYourGuide in collaboration with YouGov, saw a 126 percent increase in workshop and class bookings in 2024-25, and reported Google searches for ‘hobby holidays’ went up a staggering 9,900 percent in 12 months.
Let’s repeat that: Google searches for ‘this sort of thing increased 9,900 percent in 12 months. Clearly, for event owners and venue owners, the opportunity is there.
Hilton’s 2026 travel report found 72 percent of adults surveyed wanted to take time off work to explore and learn.
In some cases, adults want to learn a new hobby, such as beekeeping, cooking another cuisine or an art like sculpting, painting or music; in others, they want to reconnect with the sports they enjoyed prior to family life.
Recognizing this, some pro athletes have opened their own facilities. Vilas Tennis Academy, with locations in Mallorca and Punta Cana, are the brainchild of retired pro player Guillermo Vilas.
The Rafa Nadal Academy, meanwhile, also in Mallorca, offers tennis, padel and fitness camps for adults. (And can we take a moment to admire the tie-ins? Restaurants include The Players Buffet, The Roland Garros Restaurant, the US OPEN Café and the RNA CLUB HOUSE.)
Those who want to fish have choices ranging from adult fishing camps and guided wilderness trips, weekend casting clinics, all-inclusive backcountry lodges — and everything in between. Some examples:
Budge’s Wilderness Lodge in the Colorado backcountry. It’s accessible only by horseback and offers stays of varying durations during which participants can master the art of fly fishing (a designated chef cooks for each party).
High Country Guide Services, with locations in North Carolina, Tennessee and Alaska offers both wading fishing and float fishing, with various target species. Fly fishing lessons and clinics, wild trout camp and family-friendly trips, along with hiking, are on offer.
Adults who want to concentrate on their pickleball game will find no shortage of options, including Level Up Pickleball Camps, Nike Adult Pickleball Camps and plenty of others.
Golf vacations have long been a standard in the industry, so it’s no surprise that a search for golf camps for adults will come back with multiple hits. VIP Golf, which touts attendees’ ability to learn from PGA pros, has locations in Arizona, California, Florida, Kentucky, Las Vegas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Bird Golf Academy in Pennsylvania offers the chance to hone skills on a Jack Nicklaus-designed course with individual instruction over the duration of a stay from three, four or five days.
US Sports Camps has parent/child golf camps in various locations as well.
Even some enterprising gymnastics studios, recognizing that there are plenty of parents who used to be gymnasts and miss the sport, are offering their own lessons and clinics for adults. (Here is one in Maryland.)
In short, the potential pool of adults who want to investigate hobby tourism is practically unlimited but in often, the options aren't keeping up. Many team sports camps, such as those for soccer, baseball or volleyball, stop at the teen years, rather than giving adults in sport and social leagues the chance to hone their skills.
Some resorts are trying to strike a balance between those who want creativity and adventure — and those who prefer to fly and flop.
In the Catskills area of New York, Hemlock is a resort property that is offering what it deems the best of both worlds for vacationers, offering 230-plus acres with private trails for hiking and birding in the summer, mountain biking, goat therapy, swimming, tennis, snowshoeing in the winter and other options.
“We often describe Hemlock as an adult camp,” said Sims Foster, co-founder of Foster Supply Hospitality. “There’s something special about giving people permission to play again. Whether that’s climbing a tower, hiking with goats, learning Mahjong, exploring beekeeping or spending the afternoon at the spa, our goal is to create experiences people remember long after they check out.”
And, say scientists, adults benefit from them greatly lowering their risk of developing dementia, mental illness and social isolation.
Dr Karen Mak, who headed up the research at the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, told reporters at CNT, “Hobbies have the potential to protect older people from age-related decline in mental health and wellbeing. “Of the four outcomes, life satisfaction was most strongly linked to hobby engagement. Hobbies may contribute to life satisfaction in our later years through many mechanisms, including feeling in control of our minds and bodies, finding a purpose in life, and feeling competent in tackling daily issues.”
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