Surval Summer Camp in Montreux

Mornings are for language study: girls choose intensive French, English or Spanish and work in classes of eight to twelve students. On average they receive eight hours of dedicated language lessons a week. Lessons are interactive and dynamic, using role play, music, films and games alongside more formal teaching, and the language carries on through the day in daily interactions, local excursions and cultural activities. Private language lessons are available on request.

The camp fee covers language tuition in English, French or Spanish; culinary arts, arts, sports and adventure; all activities and outings, including cultural excursions within Switzerland; the loan of textbooks and class materials; use of the facilities, fitness suite, library and internet; en-suite accommodation and all meals; health and accident insurance; laundry, excluding dry cleaning; all linen; and the residence tax. An application fee and a deposit are charged on booking. Airport transfers outside the official arrival day, additional days and the optional weekend trips carry a separate charge.

Girls live in comfortable shared rooms of two to four, each with an en-suite bathroom and a balcony looking out over the lake or the mountains. Rooming is arranged by age and nationality to encourage cultural exchange, and experienced staff are on hand around the clock. All linen is provided and laundry is included.

All meals are included and freshly prepared on site, with healthy and varied options, including vegetarian dishes and special diets.

Afternoons and weekends fill with water sports on Lake Geneva — sailing, paddleboarding, wakeboarding, waterskiing, rafting and swimming — and with hiking, cycling, climbing, tennis, dance, yoga and bubble football. Recreational outings include bowling, laser tag, the rope park, the water park and go-karting, and the creative and cultural programme covers cooking, baking, etiquette, arts and crafts and drama, gathered under the camp's Savoir Vivre strand. Campers visit Swiss landmarks such as the Château de Chillon, the Gruyère cheese factory and the Cailler chocolate factory, and overnight trips may reach Europa Park in Germany or Disneyland Paris. Optional weekend trips, charged separately, go to Zermatt, to Europa Park and on a tour of Switzerland. In summer the town hosts the Montreux Jazz Festival.

The camp runs on the Surval Montreux campus above Lake Geneva, with classrooms, a fitness suite, a library and internet access, a dining room where meals are prepared on site, and residence rooms with en-suite bathrooms and balconies over the lake or mountains.

More than two hundred and fifty girls from around the world come to Surval each summer, in three age groups — nine to eleven, twelve to fifteen and sixteen to eighteen — so that the programme fits the age. For some it is a first trip away from home, for others preparation for a school year at Surval. What holds it together is a small, supervised boarding environment, a wide programme of sport, adventure and creative work, and the chance to live a language rather than study it.