Best of Camp New York Awards

The Best of Camp New York Awards are the first annual camper’s choice awards designed to honor the best independently owned and operated campgrounds across New York State.

• Nominations: August 1 through Labor Day.
• Voting: September 12 through Columbus Day. During this time, we encourage you to promote the contest and invite your campers to vote for your campground.
• Winners will be announced at our Annual Conference in Cooperstown on November 2, 2025.

Nominations are collected via the form above. From August 1 – Labor Day, campers will have the chance to nominate their favorite campgrounds in various categories.

To nominate, navigate to the ballot to the appropriate section and category and simply type the full name of the campground, city, and website. You will be prompted to complete a short registration form in order to nominate.

Individuals can nominate once per category during the nomination phase.

Yes, nominees must be active Campground Owners of New York members in good standing.
To allow more campgrounds to be recognized, a campground may only win the same "Best of" title for two consecutive years.
When nominating and voting, individuals must use their own email address. Email addresses must be valid. The system we are using has a complex algorithm to help eliminate potential voter fraud. Any votes that trigger the system are reviewed. Votes that cannot be verified or show signs that they may be fraudulent are eliminated.

The voting period runs from Sept 12-Oct 13, 2025. The finalists listed on the voting ballot are based on the results of the nomination period. The top 5 nominees in each category make it to the final ballot.

The finalists on the voting ballot consist of the top three nominees from the nomination round. New campgrounds cannot be added at this stage. To vote for a campground, find its category on the ballot and select that business name. You can then continue voting in other categories. If you click the vote button, your vote has been recorded. There is no final “Submit” button.

You can vote once per category throughout the voting period.

Similar to a primary election, the nomination phase identifies the businesses that will appear on the final ballot.

The number of nominees in each category varies because selections are based on both the total nominations received and the crfiteria of each category. Some categories may have more qualified nominees than others.

No. No purchase is required to participate in the competition or to win the competition. However, promotion of the contest helps because it is the best way to remind the voters about your business and what category you’d like to be considered for.  You may be nominated in multiple categories, but you can only win up to two categories total (The top two highest-voted categories). We encourage you to highlight the top two categories you hope to win!

The best strategy for earning the title of Best of Camp New York is by providing an outstanding customer experience! We also encourage campgrounds to use resources like social media, emails, websites, even in-store signage and handouts, to remind your campers to nominate and vote.

A single individual can nominate ONCE PER CATEGORY during the nomination phase and ONCE PER CATEGORY during the voting phase! You get one nomination and one vote per category – make it count!

No! You can nominate or vote in as many or as few categories as you'd like.

We encourage you to nominate campgrounds in the categories where they truly stand out based on your personal experience. Thoughtful nominations and votes help ensure each award recognizes the campgrounds that excel in that area.

As much as we’d like to have a category so every single campground in New York could participate, it’s simply not possible. We select categories based on what categories have been popular requests to Camp New York. Also, we require 4-5 nominees on the final ballot; we need enough businesses to support the category for it to be viable.

Yes, but no more than 10% of a company’s nominations or votes can be from internal email addresses.

Yes, locally-owned franchises are welcome! It’s up to the voters to say what/who they support.

Winners will be announced at the Campground Owners of New York annual meeting on September 28, 2026. Campers and Consumers will find out that week on social media, on our website, and in the 2027 Camp New York Travel Guide.

So glad you asked – we absolutely do! Please email us for additional information! info@campnewyork.com

Winning or placing among the top two finalists is a prestigious achievement that reflects a campground’s excellence. The winners and finalists are recognized at the CONY Annual Meeting, with post-event coverage featured on a dedicated section of the Camp New York website for 1 year. Additionally, winners and finalists will be announced in a special section of the Camp New York Travels, a trusted resource for campers near and far searching for the best places to stay across New York. Campground can also showcase their accomplishments by using our free winner and finalist logos/graphics, and by purchasing winner plaques and window clings to proudly display their achievement. Contact us to learn more about these opportunities.

We know the Best of Awards matter to the community and to the Campground and organizations that are nominated. That’s why we take its integrity so seriously. We expect all nominees to abide by the following rules of fair play, and we reserve the right to exclude any nominee found to be in violation of these or other rules posted here.

Nominees/entrants are prohibited from soliciting votes by offering payments or exchange of value of any kind.

Individuals may nominate 1 Campground per category and may vote for 1 Campground per category.

An individual Campground may be nominated for multiple categories, but will only be allowed to win a maximum of 2 categories.

We do have systems in place to detect fraudulent voting. When we see evidence of fraudulent voting, we may eliminate all suspect votes at our discretion. In extreme cases, we will remove entrants, as well.

No more than 10% of a business’s votes can come from internal email addresses. 

Our commitment to integrity is simple: We let the campers decide – and we never, ever pick favorites. No member or CONY Board of Directors member will receive special treatment.