ENSR International Summer Camp — Champéry, Swiss Alps

Campers choose one of two programmes. Language Studies, Sports and Leisure fills the morning with French or English lessons — 22 periods a week in groups of four to seven students, so the teacher can build an individual programme for each camper — and gives the rest of the day to sport, excursions and social events. Students who want a certificate can follow a preparation course for the DELF diploma at levels A1 and A2 or for the Cambridge YLE exams (Starters, Movers, Flyers): 88 lessons of 45 minutes with evaluation tests and exam methods. Multisports and Leisure replaces the lessons with a full sports programme for campers who prefer adventure and sports challenges.

The camp takes place over three consecutive weeks in July and campers may book one, two or three of them. The published price covers full board, the language lessons of the chosen programme and every activity on offer during the rest of the day. Transfers from Geneva Airport, insurance for campers living outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland, the Europa-Park weekend and the individual sports lessons are booked separately and are listed under extras.

Campers stay at the Hôtel Suisse in Champéry, a building in the old style of a traditional Swiss house. Rooms are two-bed with a private bathroom, and the common rooms are broad and open with views over the mountains. Wi-Fi is available throughout the hotel, with access limited and supervised according to the age of the camper. Cleaning of personal clothes is included for campers who stay more than two weeks.

Full board is included for the whole stay.

The sports programme usually includes the adventure park, badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, climbing, cross-country, horse riding, mountain biking, swimming, tennis and unihockey, with tournaments and team events across the stay. The sports centre is a two-minute walk from the hotel. Free time — about two hours every other day — can be used for individual tennis lessons, horse riding or a paragliding flight, each booked and paid separately.

The camp uses the sports centre of Champéry, two minutes on foot from the hotel, with courts, outdoor fields and swimming. The hotel provides the dining room, common rooms, laundry and Wi-Fi.

Champéry is a small village in Valais surrounded by the Alps, at the edge of one of the largest ski and mountain-biking areas in Europe, and small enough that everyone is treated as a local. The camp has run there every July for more than sixty years and brings together campers from many countries, so the language a camper studies in the morning is the language spoken over lunch.