Ferienhort Classic-Camp — four weeks on Lake Wolfgangsee

The Classic-Camp runs for four weeks and is the longest and best known of the Ferienhort camps. Its academic-style structure is a daily rhythm of five programme units, two in the morning, two in the afternoon and one in the evening, from which participants choose their own activities. The camp has a boating focus: sailing and rowing on Lake Wolfgangsee with the association's own fleet run through the whole stay. Because the camp is long enough for it, three training courses are offered only here and can be joined on site during the first week: a crew leader course in boat handling and responsibility for a crew, with a boatswain course for younger participants; a media course covering filming, editing, photography, presenting, music and event technology; and a creative workshop qualification in the Villa Kunterbunt.

The camp price covers accommodation on the camp site, four meals a day and supervision by the camp team, together with the full activity, water sports, creative and evening programme and the excursion and hiking days that form part of it. Group leaders are selected through a multi-stage application process and trained in the association's own seminars, and the maximum ratio on this camp is ten children per group leader. A supervised group coach transfer from and to Vienna is offered separately and is not part of the camp price. Reductions of between a quarter and the full camp price are available through the association's social fund where there is social need.

Participants live on the camp site in the main building. Each group has its own living area with bedrooms and washrooms, and groups are allocated by age and gender. Younger groups sleep in dormitories of sixteen to eighteen beds with their own washrooms, showers and toilets. Older participants stay in rooms of two to eight beds with more privacy, sharing a shower and toilet with the neighbouring room. On this camp there are six groups of up to fifty-four children each, and two further groups of younger children from the Compact camp are on site at the same time.

The camp has its own kitchen team and prepares four fresh meals on site every day: a breakfast buffet, a hot lunch, an afternoon snack and dinner, with a soup of the day and a salad bar that changes daily. A vegetarian selection is available. Baking cookies and grilling bread on a stick over the campfire are part of everyday camp life, and meals are taken together on the camp site.

Water activities include sailing and rowing with the association's own fleet, swimming, cliff jumping and stand-up paddling. On land there are volleyball, basketball, football, baseball, tennis, a fun court, disc golf and archery, indoor halls for wet weather, mini golf and table tennis, climbing, bouldering and high-ropes elements, and camp classics such as 360-degree football, Quickball and Russian skittles. Quieter options include music on piano, drums, guitar, singing and karaoke, crafts, painting, body painting, jewellery, friendship bracelets and tie-dye in the creative workshop, photography, film, radio and event technology, and simply relaxing by the lake. Camp highlights include a trip to St. Gilgen, a hiking day, a talent show, a disco, and sailing and rowing regattas, with evening campfires, movie nights and a torchlight walk.

The camp stands on the association's own site of 400,000 square metres on the shore of Lake Wolfgangsee, in a quiet location outside the village and surrounded by lake, forest and mountains. There is private lake access and the association's own boat harbour. Sports provision includes outdoor pitches for volleyball, basketball, football, baseball and tennis, a fun court, a disc golf route and archery, indoor halls for wet weather, mini golf and table tennis, and a climbing wall with bouldering and high-ropes elements. The creative workshop, known as the Villa Kunterbunt, is used for crafts, painting, jewellery and textile work, and there is a music room, a large stage, a multi-purpose hall used for group meetings and indoor games, and campfire areas. Accommodation and catering are in the main building on the site, which can host up to 420 children and young people.

Four weeks is long enough for participants to settle in fully, try things they have never done before and build friendships that last beyond the camp. Days follow a clear rhythm of five programme units with group meetings after breakfast, at midday and in the afternoon, and a midday break for rest. Evenings bring the camp together for regattas, campfires, movie nights, a talent show and a disco. Children may keep a mobile phone with them and have time each day to call home, usually during the midday break, but the camp deliberately keeps phone use within an age-appropriate frame so that the stay is shaped by shared experience. Parents have a named contact in the educational leadership team throughout.