Thank heavens for American holiday camps
FANCY a canoe?’ I asked my six–year- old son. And off we walked, two minutes down the path from our wooden house to the jetty, where a fleet of boats was waiting. out on Lake Champlain, people were paddle-boarding, fishing and banana-boating, as we glided out on to the calm waters.
An hour later, we joined my husband Phil and three-year-old daughter, Lovell, for a swim, arts and crafts and home- made chocolate-chip cookies.
this was simple pleasures territory in northernmost Vermont, close to the Canadian border, at the tyler Place, run by the tyler family since 1933.
since car use is discouraged throughout the two-square-mile resort, soon after arrival, we went to collect bicycles. Later that first night, after dinner, the children had a wagon ride under the stars and we went to a cocktail party.
I’m not sure I’ve ever eaten tastier food than I did that week — steak, lobster, blueberry pancakes with Vermont maple syrup and ice cream — and the
maître d’ sat us with different couples at every meal.
other guests seemed curious to meet the quaint family from England, and we struck up friendships with people in baseball caps called tad and sherilynne.
the children fell in love with the traditional camp experience — s’mores and songs by the fire, splashpools and pontoon rides with young ‘camp counsellors’. there were no tVs.
I attended a cookery demonstration and went birdwatching, while sportier guests competed in tennis tournaments, yoga, a minitriathlon, sailing, hiking and mountain biking. I got puzzled looks at dinner when I said I was rubbish at sport. Americans don’t do much in the way of self-deprecation.
Afternoons were family time. one highlight was a nature walk to a marshy pond, led by a local man known as ‘Nature Dave’, where the children got to hold frogs and find beaver burrows.
America has its faults, but for wholesome family holidays like this one, it leads the world.
TRAVEL FACTS
THE Tyler Place ( tylerplace.com, 001802 868 4000) costs from £184 per adult and £115 per child per night, all inclusive in peak season (June 17 to September 2). Plattsburgh, Montreal and Burlington airports are all about an hour’s drive away. Norwegian ( norwegian.com) flies Gatwick to Boston from £203 return and PenAir ( penair.com) flies Boston to Plattsburgh from £118 return.