Hockessin, DE Outdoor Activities

CBS Baltimore lauds Robin Hood Paintball as one of the best paintball arenas near the city, but the year-round, 10-acre facility is actually eight arenas in one. Here, players clad in protective gear race around the airball field's bobbing inflatables, duck behind the wood-spool field's namesake spools or wrap their opponents in giant piles of unused thread. Elsewhere, they sneak through the tall trees and verdant brush of three wooded fields or storm the arena's towering castle. Thorough safety orientations prepare each player before they enter the facility, where referees keep watchful eyes over every game to ensure everyone's safety and compliance with the rules.

Right where the mouth of the Susquehanna River yawns into Chesapeake Bay lies the protected, uncrowded waters of Havre de Grace harbor. BaySail's instructors take advantage of these opportune conditions, operating a sailing school that's accredited by the American Sailing Association. Upholding training standards that have won the ASA's School of the Year award, they lead sailing classes ranging from introductory lessons to certification courses in coastal cruising and bareboat chartering. In addition to lending its fleet for lessons, BaySail's team rents its vessels—from a Capri 22 to a Hunter 460—to members. The sailboats also glide out on chartered cruises, taking guests to nearby destinations such as Inner Harbor and the Sassafras River, where sassafras trees come to spawn every winter.

More than 12,000 square feet of indoor rock-climbing surfaces greet climbers at Doylestown Rock Gym, where they can test their scaling acumen on a network of bulges, overhangs, chimneys, and cracks. As climbers scramble over the massive facility, an alert staffer remains ready to assist when needed and remind nervous beginners that there are no mountain lions around. The space presents suitable challenges for all skill levels and facilitates advancement in the sport through individual and group instruction by on-staff experts.

At Mansion House Paintball, mature trees tower over wooded fields with boughs battered by kaleidoscopic shrapnel. Paintball soldiers dive behind these tree trunks or weave through barrels, wood panels, or cable rungs in all-season, outdoor battle played in rain or sunshine. Individuals can walk on for games during the weekend, and private groups or corporate teams can reserve the fields for parties or retreats to determine who cleans out the corner office’s adjoining stable.

Rolling hills, wooded terrain, and shimmering waterways serve as the canvas upon which Beckett Golf Club’s 27-hole, 9,577-yard golf complex shines. The swath of verdant playing grounds forms three distinct nines that golfers mix and match to create varied 18-hole rounds. The longest layout, the blue course, confronts players with bends and jumps in the form of dogleg fairways and water hazards on three holes. A fast-starting swing is a must for golfers starting on the red course, where the first hole—a 498-yard par 5—is also the layout’s most difficult, bending sharply to the left with a lush patch of trees that prevents shortcuts and golf-cart drag races. The shortest of the three nines, the white course puts water in play on two holes and revels in the rolling fairways and medium-size greens that characterize the entire 27-hole layout.

The 18-hole course at Chapel Hill guides golfers along lush fairways framed by dense tree lines and confronted by water on 11 holes. Six holes—beginning with No. 1—demand precise course-management skills when navigating shots around the stream that cuts through their fairways, demanding that players lay up, muscle their shots over, or swap their golf ball out for a beach ball. Laid end-to-end, the course measures 6,089 yards from the blue tees, the farthest of four available for play on each hole.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 70 course
• Total length of 6,089 yards from the back tees
• Course rating of 69.7 from the back tees
• Course slope of 125 from the back tees
• Four sets of tees per hole