Summer Camps in Upper West Side, Manhattan

The Upper West Side is sandwiched between two of the best parks in New York (Central Park to the east, Riverside Park to the west) and the camp situation reflects that. Nineteen programs, a genuine mix of indoor and outdoor, STEM and arts, affordable and not, and a neighborhood where parents have been doing this long enough that the informal knowledge network is extremely good. If you live here, you’ve probably already gotten three unsolicited camp opinions from other parents at the Dinosaur Playground in Riverside Park. That’s just how the UWS works.

The museum infrastructure here is significant. AMNH Adventures in Science at the American Museum of Natural History is a camp parents don’t need to explain to their kids, they already want to go. Camp Intrepid at the Intrepid Museum in Hell’s Kitchen is close enough to count as a neighborhood option. The cultural institutions that make the UWS a legitimately excellent place to live translate directly into legitimately excellent camp programming.

The range in price is real here. Boys & Girls Club of Manhattan runs multi-activity programming at $62.50/week, which is about as affordable as private day camp gets in Manhattan. On the other end, Riverside Park Conservancy Sports Camp runs $275–$600/week for outdoor sports. JCC Manhattan and Steve & Kate’s are well-regarded general camps. RoboFun is the go-to for STEM/robotics on this side of town. And Writopia Lab (creative writing for ages 6–18) is genuinely distinctive, the kind of specialty program that doesn’t exist in most neighborhoods.