During this pre-dinner interactive experience from Wolfgang Puck Catering, guests break into groups and move from station to station pickling their own ingredients. Two weeks later, the jars are ready to eat. The catering company also provides recipe ideas with ways to use the new pickled ingredients.
At Kimpton Taconic's adult summer camp in Manchester, Vermont, guests spend a weekend participating in outdoor activities, including hiking, kayaking, yoga, kite making, glass blowing, and zip-lining. Plus, attendees learn how to master the pit with alfresco barbecue lessons. The hotel offers two camp sessions (June 23 to 26 and August 25 to 28), with other weekends available upon request with three weeks’ notice. The cost is $418 a night per person.
Launching this fall, the Hilton New Orleans Riverside will be offering hands-on mixology classes in Public Belt, the speakeasy-style piano lounge on the hotel’s second floor. The crash course begins with a cocktail history lesson, followed by an interactive demonstration of the city’s signature drink: the old-fashioned. Participants receive recipe cards and a Public Belt T-shirt. The fee is based on group size, with a maximum of 20 meeting attendees. And across the Mississippi at Whiskey and Rye at the Omni Fort Worth Hotel in Texas, groups learn how to make a local favorite: the Depot. The cocktail is served with Texas whiskey, muddled blackberries, Grand Marnier, lemon juice, and sugar.
The Thompson Playa del Carmen in Mexico offers up a “Catch of the Day” program, where guests team up with local fishermen to catch fresh fish offshore, which can then be grilled or made into ceviche or sushi for the group dinner. In addition, guests can pair their fish dishes with the hotel's tequila and mezcal flight-tasting classes.
At the Towers of the Waldorf Astoria New York, small groups can book an exclusive beekeeping experience, where they can explore the hotel's rooftop hives with a culinary team member and learn how the honey is incorporated into their three-course lunch of honey-infused dishes.
At the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, groups head to the hotel’s herb garden to handpick their own mint to be muddled into cocktails during mojito mixology classes. And in Michigan, groups can create a farm-to-flute pineapple sage mojito at the JW Marriott Grand Rapids’ bar Jdek, which features an outdoor garden [pictured] and a living wall of herbs, fruits, and vegetables where participants learn how to pick pineapple sage and muddle it with fresh fruit.
In their spacious shop, the owners of Jersey City, New Jersey-based Bucket & Bay Craft Gelato Company teach guests how to make the company's inventive flavors from scratch, including gelato made with seasonal ingredients and infused with spirits like whiskey, rum, or mezcal. Bucket & Bay offers one-of-a-kind flavors such as Rose Latte (rose-petal-infused milk gelato); Purple Sticky Rice (black sticky rice and lemon grass); and Black Label Vanilla with Johnnie Walker Black Label.
At the Waldorf Astoria Orlando and Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, guests create seasonal meals by plucking produce from an indoor herb wall and vegetable garden. Elsewhere in Florida, the Hilton West Palm Beach offers an experiential Mason jar salad-making class where attendees handpick oranges from the potted trees located on the Palm Deck to make a flavorful citrus dressing.
Denver-based winery the Infinite Monkey Theorem offers a blending trial at its Austin, Texas, location in which groups create their own vessel of wine. Guests can then take home two growlers of their custom blend.
The historic Clifton Inn in Charlottesville, Virginia, offers guests the opportunity to explore the 100-plus-acre property with hands-on foraging sessions and cooking classes as part of its two-day “Forage & Feast” package. In addition, guests learn basic culinary lessons, such as how to sharpen knives and how to clean and prepare fresh fish. The package costs $4,000 and requires a minimum of six guests.
Through its partnership with Wicked Dolphin Rum, guests of the Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village in Florida can tour the distillery, learn the art of making rum, and sample specialty flights. Groups are provided with recipe cards and challenged to craft a cocktail with the company's rum and seasonal ingredients.
Located in Kent, Connecticut, on 300 acres in the Berkshire Mountains, Club Getaway accommodates corporate groups of as many as 500. The campground, located less than two hours from New York and three hours from Boston, is available for everything from picnic and weekday outings to meetings and three-day teambuilding retreats. Daytime activities include the sporty (volleyball, tennis, waterskiing), the adventurous (bungee trampoline, zip lining), and the fun (beer hikes, "Capture the Keg"), and at night, parties with themes such as Alice in Wonderland and karaoke round out adult activities. Accommodations include lakeside cabins with air-conditioning and private bathrooms, chef-prepared meals, and a sunlit meeting space.
At Camp No Counselors, teams bond over classic camp activities such as archery, ropes courses, and arts and crafts. Each retreat is customized to a group's needs and can include teambuilding activities, breakout sessions, fireside chats, and more. Camp No Counselors partners with modernized camp sites across the country in areas such as Chicago, New York, Florida, Denver, Los Angeles, plus Canada, and all-inclusive private packages include three nights of lodging and accommodations, meals, an open bar, meeting rooms with audiovisual equipment, a photographer, T-shirts, and a tailor-made selection of camp activities. Nighttime entertainment includes outdoor movie screenings, theme parties with DJs, and campfire talent shows.
Groups concerned about a potential zombie apocalypse can train at Zombie Survival Camp in Ontario, Canada. The camp's activities, though applicable in the event of a zombie invasion, are actually designed to teach real-life skills for wilderness survival and self-defense. Itinerary items include "Zomjitsu," tactical yoga, a weapons course, field tactics, fire craft, and survival knots, and the camp's "Zombie Outbreak Simulation" teaches groups how to work as an undead-fighting team. The camp is mobile and can set up shop anywhere in Ontario, and its Desboro location hosts private events, as well. Customizable options range from a three-hour training session to full weekend events.
For a completely customizable experience, Camp Bonfire works with corporate groups on selecting not only activities but also campsite locations based on specific needs. Camp Bonfire has relationships with more than a dozen camps in the New York and Philadelphia regions (the camps hope to expand to New England next summer) to accommodate groups of 50 to 500 guests. Programming is designed to help groups bond, build relationships, and refresh and relax through activities such as archery, canoeing, yoga, outdoor cooking classes, talent shows, and even a custom Camp Olympics. For groups looking to fully unplug, Camp Bonfire can set up a designated "technology area" to ensure the rest of the experience is device-free, though photographers and videographers are available on site to capture the experience. Sleeping accommodations range from open-air tents to lodge-style cabins, all with flush toilets, and meals are served buffet-style. Camp Bonfire, which works often with New York-based tech and advertising companies, can organize travel to and from campsite locations.
For a twist on traditional summer camp offerings, Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, lets groups practice their astronaut skills. Located at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, the camp's adult teambuilding outings focus on improving communication, teamwork, and decision making through simulated space missions. Single or multiday immersive training programs are customizable to meet each group's objectives and allow co-workers to assume "in-flight" responsibilities such as mission control operator or crew member. Lodging and meeting spaces are available, and meals can be catered or served cafeteria-style.
Set among 500 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains in southwest Virginia, Wilderness Adventure at Eagle Landing offers groups a getaway with unforgettable scenery. The property includes ropes courses, a 900-foot zip line, a 50-foot climbing wall, hiking and canoeing options, and much more, and professional facilitators can design teambuilding activities to help teams think outside the box and foster camaraderie and trust. Indoor and outdoor meeting spaces accommodate small or large groups, and meeting equipment is provided with all reservations. Lodging options include the Main Lodge, which holds as many as 56 and includes three meeting rooms, a commercial kitchen, and a dining room, and the more intimate Sly Lodge, which holds as many as 33. Use of the property's Cedar Sauna is available upon request.
