{"id":3640,"date":"2023-06-05T11:14:33","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T15:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3640"},"modified":"2023-06-05T11:14:33","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T15:14:33","slug":"out-about-vanderkamp-a-place-to-disconnect-and-recharge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3640","title":{"rendered":"Out & About – Vanderkamp: a place to disconnect and recharge"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alyssa Dearborn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thirty miles from Syracuse in Cleveland, NY, deep inside hundreds of acres of preserved forests, Vanderkamp welcomes solo adventurers, retreat seekers, and family vacationers. A historic camp built by a wealthy philanthropist in the late 1800\u2019s and a former church camp, the site now has a variety of luxury lodges and unique experiences.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou walk in there and you drive onto the property and instantly feel peaceful and magical, just surrounded by nature.\u201d Kera Wassenbach, an event organizer who organizes retreats and other events at Vanderkamp, said about the property\u2019s first impression.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Troy Tevens, one of the owners and founders of Vanderkamp, said when asked about the property that, \u201cThe existing lodges all have this unique, historic character. Old stone fireplaces, all this cool early 19th century architecture of Adirondack lodges. What we\u2019ve been doing over the past two years is converting these into really luxury kind of immersive lodging experiences where you have pretty amazing places inside, but untouched nature outside. And I would say the vibe is one of peace, calmness, and seclusion.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the lodges are a quarter mile into the woods\u201d he continued, \u201cand some of them are right on the lake. There\u2019s a little bit of variety, but I think the general theme is disconnect. When you get there, there\u2019s no light pollution [in] the night sky, there\u2019s no traffic. It\u2019s really a different world. A place to disconnect.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While visitors disconnect from their everyday life, they can reconnect with themselves and nature through the variety of experiences Vanderkamp has to offer. Visitors can participate in some expected outdoor activities like hiking, canoeing, fishing, and enjoying campfires. But the property offers unique ways to connect with nature as well. The idea has been popular with families and solo travelers, but Troy would like to attract more professional teams and retreat coordinators.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs we\u2019ve developed over the past two years,\u201d Troy said, \u201cit\u2019s been a real popular destination for families and couples as they go up there and stay at the lodges. But it\u2019s really our passion \u2013 and Kera\u2019s passion \u2013 to focus on bringing all kinds of great experiences out there from corporate retreats to women retreats, men retreats, transformational type retreats with coaching and yoga and things like that. It\u2019s just such a natural fit for what we do out there and just a fit for our personalities. So we started to do that sort of thing. We\u2019ve just had a coaching company that did an experience this week actually and they\u2019re doing two more this year. We\u2019re doing \u2013 hopefully \u2013 some stuff with the city of Syracuse. They\u2019re going to do some events out there.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd weddings I think are super popular as well.\u201d he added, \u201cPart of the current existing structure is a 10,000 square foot central building that\u2019s the great big wilderness type of lodge where we do weddings and events. It\u2019s got a full commercial kitchen. And then this summer we\u2019ll be developing a back area to that where it\u2019s a cool patio with a big fire pit. We\u2019re really trying to make this a unique destination for weddings, corporate events. It\u2019s something that doesn\u2019t exist in our area or even in the northeast where a lot of people do hotels and then they do retreats. We want to focus on being that retreat destination where you can exclusively rent out this place fairly easily. So you come there and you\u2019re the steward of the lake, the lodges, with you and your team just for the weekend, the week, or whatever. You come here, it\u2019s all yours, borrowed for the time you\u2019re there.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe true retreat thing,\u201d Kera added, \u201cthere\u2019s not many around here where you can actually just bring your whole team or whole group and just be yourself and have support from a professional that really understands what retreats are all about. I\u2019ve been working at retreats all over and our caterer that we\u2019ve partnered with \u2013 Southern Fare \u2013 they understand the type of food and type of experience we want to be served at retreats\u2026It\u2019s amazing how many transformational and team building and professional services are around here that just haven\u2019t had a space to be. We partner with a list of them to create experiences for retreats as well. So it\u2019s something really special in addition to the property and that you\u2019re able to be secluded, we\u2019ve got a team that can really support the retreat style.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Being able to host \u2013 and eventually coordinate their own \u2013 retreats is a very important goal for the owners of Vanderkamp. Creating a comfortable, nature-filled set of experiences for entire teams of people is something Troy is striving to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to bring people in to do their retreats with us and we also want to start doing our own retreats\u2026adding our own partnerships to it. We can do our own retreat experiences,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe\u2019re really trying to build this for the retreat customer, not only adding lodges so they can fit the amount of people they need to fit, but also building out the common amenities space\u2026We\u2019re going to be adding a lot of neat outdoors spaces. For example, behind this one common building, we\u2019re going to add this kind of hot springs experience. Stone hot tubes under a canopy of green. Just a kind of immersive, outdoor hot springs experience. And then combined with this indoor-outdoor bar and game room experience. You go there and you can gather for cocktail hours and other places where you can gather with your team and do some creative team building.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When asked about his goals for the future development of Vanderkamp, Troy said, \u201cOur idea is that we\u2019re just going to add onto this place. So we\u2019ve got lodges coming on this summer\u2026and then four more secluded cabins coming on the following year. And then in future developments, developing three unique, more remote experiences. Maybe there\u2019s a lodge that\u2019s on the lake, you canoe out to it. And then possibly a treehouse out in the woods. Just these really unique places, all of them designed a little bit different so [you] can have a different experience each time you\u2019re there.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If you are interested in learning more about Vanderkamp and its unique retreat options, visit <\/span><\/span>https:\/\/vanderkampny.com\/<\/u><\/span><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alyssa Dearborn Thirty miles from Syracuse in Cleveland, NY, deep inside hundreds of acres of preserved forests, Vanderkamp welcomes solo adventurers, retreat seekers, and family vacationers. A historic camp built by a wealthy philanthropist in the late 1800\u2019s and a former church camp, the site now has a variety of luxury lodges and unique…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1311],"tags":[1430,1429,1422,1432,1428,1431,1427],"class_list":["post-3640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-out-about","tag-camp","tag-camping","tag-june-2023","tag-kera-wassenbach","tag-retreat","tag-troy-tevens","tag-vanderkamp"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/VK-Langston-Cottage_Kitchen.jpg?fit=2048%2C1362&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3697,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3697","url_meta":{"origin":3640,"position":0},"title":"Special Feature: Providing every kid a special summer camp experience","author":"syracusewomanmag_c4lfdt","date":"July 24, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By Alyssa Dearborn Liz Schmid, VP of properties and programs for Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways and member of Camp Beyond Binary\u2019s planning team, wants to make sure that all kids \u2013 no matter their gender or orientation \u2013 are able to have a special summer camp experience.\u00a0 \u201cSo, our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Special Feature"","block_context":{"text":"Special Feature","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/everybody-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1098&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/everybody-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1098&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/everybody-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1098&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/everybody-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1098&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/everybody-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C1098&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1755,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=1755","url_meta":{"origin":3640,"position":1},"title":"The Haven at Skanda","author":"Staff","date":"April 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Creating a Safe Space for Everyone\u00a0 By Lorna Oppedisano | Photography by Alice G. 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