4 Camping Party Ideas for Adults
Many camping-themed parties focus on ideas for kids, but adults love camping too. A camping-themed party is an excellent way to bring the fun of the outdoors to an adult birthday celebration. Plan your party around a particular theme to get ideas for every aspect of the party, from food to activities.
1. Campfire Party
The ambiance of a crackling fire is the perfect end to a day of camping. It is also an excellent theme for a birthday celebration. This camping theme for adults centers around the fire. Start by planning a menu of campfire foods. Your main dishes might include mountain pies or skewers you can cook over the fire. Both options offer excellent opportunities for guests to choose their favorite ingredients to assemble a delicious dish.
For dessert, create a build-your-own s’mores bar with fun ingredients like peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. Add a few classic summer cocktails or mocktails to complete your menu. After dinner, keep the fun going with campfire games. Here are a few favorites:
- Campfire singalong: Choose classic campfire songs or a few popular favorites to sing around the fire.
- Two truths and a lie: Get to know partygoers better with this fun game that uncovers interesting secrets and life events.
- Charades: Divide into two groups and act out clues to win against the other team.
Complete the party ambiance with tiki torches or lanterns scattered around the yard. Include party favors like s’mores kits, so guests can continue the campfire fun after the party is over.
2. Outdoor Exploration Party
Many campers love spending time in nature. Plan a party for a nature-lover with an activity like hiking, bird-watching or wildlife spotting. Find a nearby nature area or park to begin your party. Encourage each guest to dress for the exercise and supply delicious and energizing snacks to munch during the excursion.
After the activity, eat together in an open area or a picnic shelter. Bring blankets or tablecloths and pack old-school picnic foods like rotisserie chicken, potato salad, veggies and watermelon.
Decorate your final gathering area with colorful banners or balloons strung on trees or hung around a picnic shelter. Send guests home with practical party favors encouraging them to spend more time outdoors. A few ideas include a pocket compass, headlamp, bug spray and sunscreen.
3. Yard Games Party
Campers often gather around their RVs or tents to play yard games and spend time together. Even away from the campground, implement the fun by setting up games in your yard or a local park. Here are a few game ideas:
- Cornhole: Space two cornhole boards apart, find four players and take turns tossing bean bags until a team reaches 21 points.
- Obstacle course: Use camping chairs, water buckets, picnic tables and other obstacles to create a challenging and fun activity.
- Capture the flag: Divide into teams and stake out your territory, then hide the flags and try to find the opposite team’s banner without getting caught.
Plan a camping-themed menu with items like fireside fajitas as your meal. Add a dessert option like apple crisp, a cookie skillet or blackberry dumplings. Fill a table with delicious camping snacks like Chex mix, queso and jalapeño poppers. Eat the meal around picnic tables or in camp chairs. Use thermoses as party favors and fill them with candy or small camping-themed trinkets.
4. Indoor Camping Party
Camping is not always warm, sunshine-filled days. Sometimes you get rainy or cold weather that pushes you indoors for the day. Model a day of indoor camping by staying inside and playing games. Set up a tent or camper for the most authentic experience or play inside your house.
Add a nighttime theme by draping your surroundings in black fabric and adding glow-in-the-dark stars to decorate the space. Use the light of flashlights and camping lanterns to complete the ambiance. Glow sticks make excellent party favors for this theme. Guests can use them while they play and take home extras.
- Bananagrams
- Battleship
- Mancala
- Uno
- Catchphrase
Invent other games with ideas like novel telephone. In this game, each player takes turns writing a portion of a short story. They pass the page to the next player with only the last sentence uncovered, and the next player must continue the story. Once each player writes a portion, read the entire story and see how the plot changes.
Plan a cozy menu with chili, cornbread, and mac and cheese. Finish it off with a delicious dessert like cinnamon pull-apart bread.
Celebrate at a KOA Campground
The best way to create a camping-themed party is to celebrate at a campground. Book a reservation at a Kampgrounds of America location for the ideal adult camping party. Some campgrounds include amenities like group gathering areas, creating the perfect space for your celebration.
Browse campgrounds in your area to find one that suits your camping party.
About the Author: Kampgrounds of America
Kampgrounds of America is the largest system of open-to-the-public campgrounds in the world, with over 500 locations across the United States and Canada. Founded in Billings, MT in 1962, KOA’s family of campground brands – KOA Journey, KOA Holiday and KOA Resort – today serve more than a million camping families each year. KOA is dedicated to “connecting people to the outdoors and each other” by providing people with a variety of camping experiences and the information they need to make the most of their camping trip. Read more of their camping and travel resources by visiting KOA.com/blog.
