Hello once again from the International Summer Camp Montana blog and I hope you have had a great week thus far.  Do you know that there are only 6 weeks to go until the start of the 1st session at camp?  That means that there are just 9 weeks before the 2nd session and 12 weeks until the start of the 3rd session.  Not long to wait now!

In this week’s blog we will talk about how our campers arrive at and depart from camp.  The arrival days are very busy and there is plenty to organise for these times!  All staff members are involved; whether it is counsellors meeting campers for the first time or the kitchen staff preparing the first meals of the session!  Moreover, each Head Counsellor will meet every camper in their section, in order to place them into a group for their stay at camp.

Many of our campers arrive with their parents, particularly the younger campers who are away from home for the first time.  It is very common that families will have been on holiday for a few days in Switzerland or even driven over to camp from neighbouring countries.  In addition, parents are often past campers of ISCM; they really enjoy coming back and seeing how camp looks today!

However, many parents do have a challenge to come to camp on the arrival day.  They choose to arrange transportation so that campers can travel by themselves or are accompanied during their journey.  Therefore, as part of an additional request we can provide an ‘airport transfer’ service from Geneva airport to camp.  In addition, we can arrange for one of our drivers to collect a camper from a specific train station (for example Sion or Lausanne) or even arrange for a taxi to collect the camper from an airport or train station in Switzerland.

For the ‘airport transfers’ the Head of the Language program (Nicolas Evéquoz) is in charge of our team of staff at the airport.  He is very experienced in this field and has lived through every challenge possible!  The planning for the arrival of campers takes a great deal of preparation from the Administration and Camp Director.  Often there are 6 or 7 buses to arrange and campers are arriving from the early afternoon until late evening from the airport!

At the end of the session, it is just as busy and again all the staff are involved in the departures.  Many campers have early morning flights booked; early morning is busy to ensure that a breakfast is ready, bags have been loaded on to trailers (the night before of course!) and that campers are awake.  All campers who are registered with the ‘airport transfer’ will have left camp by 1000 on the departure morning.  If they are lucky enough to have a later flight, they will go on a fun excursion!  The remaining campers are collected by their parents and there is just enough time to enroll for next summer before we all say our goodbyes!

If you would like to find out more about the airport transfer service that camp offers or to discuss the arrival or departure arrangements for your children please do not hesitate to contact us!