Rock Point Offers Rustic Rentals to Vermonters for the First Time in 89 Years 

During a normal summer, Burlington’s Rock Point — the home base of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont — bustles with children and teens swimming, canoeing, learning archery and roasting s’mores over an open fire. For the past 89 years, Rock Point Camp has offered day and summer programs that meld spirituality and the outdoors from mid-June to mid-August on its 130-acre property on the shores of Lake Champlain.

This year, the diocese canceled camp due to COVID-19. The silver lining? Vermonters can take advantage of a rare opportunity to have a summer camp experience at Rock Point themselves.

“We're now opening our cabins and our nonprofit conference center on the lake to local families as a socially distant staycation option,” Rock Point’s marketing and communications director, Carrie Williams Howe, wrote in an email to Seven Days. “This may never happen again and isn't our normal mode of operating.”
Rock Point has decided to rent out two cabins and two conference center suites to local families looking for a unique staycation spot. Cabins — which include a bathroom and shower with hot water, a woodstove, a mini fridge, a microwave, and a camping stove — cost $650 for a six-night stay, from Friday through Thursday. A day in between each rental week allows for the cabins to be cleaned thoroughly.

The two suites, which cost $110 and $165 per night, accommodate families of four to six people and require a two-night stay. If guests have extended family members they want to include in their vacation, such as grandparents, Rock Point can offer a separate bedroom and bathroom in the conference center for an additional fee.

Guests of both cabins and suites have access to the property’s two small private beaches — the rocky, shallow Eagle Bay and the sandy far northern tip of North Beach — plus hiking trails and waterfront picnic areas.

Howe said the diocese had affordability in mind when it priced the accommodations. About a third of those who have booked so far have a connection to Rock Point Camp. Another third are connected to the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, and a third are members of the general public.
While there is still plenty of availability for the suites, the cabins are almost fully booked through the summer, Howe said. The first two families who stayed in mid-June both reserved a second week for later in the season.

“People are really loving it,” she said, noting that the rentals allow “once-in-a-lifetime access to our property.”