Inside The Grand Makers Camp in New Hampshire’s White Mountains

There are plenty of things worth missing about camp. Friendship bracelets, evenings around the fire, making something with your hands for no practical reason at all. The bunk beds and communal bathrooms tend to inspire less nostalgia.

The Grand Makers Camp, happening October 23-25 at Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, keeps the first category and leaves plenty of the second behind. Created in partnership with Hey Rhody and hosted by Editor-in-Chief and craft author Elyse Major, the adults-only fall weekend pairs the familiar pleasures of camp with luxe accommodations, chef-prepared seasonal meals, thematic cocktails, and enough unscheduled time to disappear into the spa if the mood strikes.

Crafting gives the weekend its backbone, beginning Friday with guests decorating their own wine or cocktail glasses before sitting down together for a campfire-inspired dinner and s’mores. The make-and-take projects continue throughout the weekend with creative sessions including workshops with Major, Wool & Wonder, and an enamel project. Nobody needs prior crafting experience, and the finished pieces are meant to become keepsakes rather than graded assignments, which already makes this an improvement over most camp activities involving lanyard.

Saturday morning brings another childhood-camp staple with a considerably more New Hampshire twist: llamas. Guests will head out across the Mountain View Grand property for a morning llama trek with coffee and a grab-and-go breakfast in hand, then return for a day that moves between making things, eating together, and having nowhere particularly urgent to be. A New England-inspired lunch leads into an afternoon at leisure, giving campers time to explore the resort’s working farm and hiking trails, swim indoors, or trade camp programming for a visit to the Tower Spa.

By evening, everyone reconvenes for a camp social hour and hosted dinner before settling in with popcorn and candy for the 1961 version of The Parent Trap. It’s exactly the kind of movie that belongs at camp, although watching Hayley Mills orchestrate an elaborate parental reunion feels a little different when the audience has cocktails instead of juice boxes.

Sunday slows things down with optional farm yoga, breakfast, one final enamel workshop, and time to wander the property before heading home. Across the three days, the schedule leaves room for the social side of camp without packing every hour, so conversations can continue over dinner, projects can take as long as they need to, and nobody has to race from archery to swim class when a quiet afternoon sounds better.

That balance may be the real appeal of returning to camp as an adult. The Grand Makers Camp isn’t trying to recreate childhood exactly. It takes the parts people still want, making things together, getting outside, staying up for a movie, eating s’mores around a fire, and gives them enough room to feel good the second time around.

The Grand Makers Camp runs October 23-25, 2026, at Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa in Whitefield, New Hampshire. For more information or to book your reservation, visit the dedicated page at MountainViewGrand.com.