How Do I Book a Stay at a Gay Nudist Campground?

When we bought Twin Ponds Lodge in 2022, booking a stay here was an adventure, and not necessarily the fun kind. There was no online booking system. If you wanted to make a reservation you called us or sent an email, and then we manually entered everything on our end and hoped you showed up. In year two we got clever enough to send invoices by email so we could at least collect a deposit, but the whole process still ran through post-it notes and good intentions. Every reservation was a small project. I'd get an email, enter the reservation, email back a confirmation, wait for payment, track the payment, manually apply the credit, and pray I hadn't mixed anything up along the way. It was clunky, it was labor intensive, and it was one honest mistake away from a real mess.

After two years of that we subscribed to a proper online reservation system, the kind that lets guests book directly through the website, pick their accommodation, pay their deposit, and get a confirmation without anyone at TPL having to touch it. It was expensive to set up. It was a herculean effort to configure. And after a year with that company we had to switch providers and do the whole thing over again from scratch. I tell you all of this not to complain, but because I want you to understand what's behind the booking experience at any campground you visit, especially the smaller, independent ones.

So here's my honest advice for booking a stay at a gay campground, wherever that ends up being.

Start by finding the right place. If you don't know where to begin, gaycampingfriends.com is a great resource — it's essentially a directory of gay campgrounds and can help you find options by region. Look at a few, read about what each one offers, get a feel for the community and the vibe, and then pick the one that feels right for where you are in your journey. If it's your first time, closer is almost always better.

Once you've found your campground, spend some time on their website before you try to book. Every campground has its own system, and they are not all created equal. Some will have polished online booking where you can see availability in real time, choose your site or accommodation, and pay a deposit in a few clicks. Others will ask you to email or call. Some will send you a form. If the process feels a little primitive, work with it and be patient. Online reservation systems are genuinely expensive and complicated to set up and maintain, especially for small independently operated spaces. The people running these campgrounds are passionate about what they do, and the booking experience doesn't always reflect the quality of what's waiting for you when you arrive. A clunky reservation process has never once meant a bad weekend.

One thing worth knowing before you book anywhere is whether the campground is a private membership club or open to the public. This varies by location and there are reasons beyond preference — in many states, certain kinds of spaces can only operate legally as private clubs. Some campgrounds are co-ed, some are men only, some serve the broader LGBTQ+ community in different ways. A private club will typically require some form of membership, and each club handles that differently. The cost, the application process, and the rules around membership can all vary quite a bit from one place to the next.

At Twin Ponds Lodge we are a private, members-only club. Membership is $40 a year. You don't need to be a fully processed member before you book, you can make your reservation first, but we do ask that you read through our membership agreement and membership qualifications before you arrive. When you get here, we'll finalize your membership before you're officially checked in. It's a straightforward process and our team will walk you through it. We just want everyone who comes through the gate to know what kind of space this is and to have agreed to be part of it before the weekend begins.

Gay campgrounds are special places, and the people who run them have usually poured an enormous amount of themselves into making them what they are. Support them. Book a stay. Show up. You won't regret it.

Tommy