Switzerland 2026
Embark on a Swiss adventure! 8 days of epic outdoor fun, cultural immersion, and global friendships await. Sign up now!
Embark on a Swiss adventure! 8 days of epic outdoor fun, cultural immersion, and global friendships await. Sign up now!
Get ready for an unforgettable adventure! We’re thrilled to announce our first-ever international camp for Scouts and Young Leaders, taking place in beautiful Switzerland during the February half-term of 2026! We’ll spend 8 days exploring the country. Join us for a week of fun, friendship, and international Scouting!
We’ll be staying at Kanderstead International Scout Campsite, a remarkable place where Lord Baden Powell’s dream of a year-round jamboree has come to life. This vibrant alpine hub attracts 17,000 Scouts and Guides from 90 countries each year, fostering global connections and empowering young people to shape a brighter future.
Our action-packed program offers something for everyone. From heart-pounding adventures to enriching cultural experiences, we’ll explore the best of Switzerland. We’ll also schedule downtime for relaxation and team-building activities. Once we know who’s joining us, we’ll tailor the itinerary to their specific interests and ambitions.
| Day | Example Program |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Arrive in Switzerland: We will be staying at Kandersteg International Scout Campsite. International Scouting Winter Olympics: Meet and compete with scouts from around the world. |
| Day 2 | Igloo and Snow Cave Building: Learn and experience things you can only do in countries with a proper winter Ice Skating: Ice skating on ice that is not artificially frozen! |
| Day 3 | Snow Adventures: Snowshoeing, sledging, and curling |
| Day 4 | Explore the mountains: Switerlands informal mountains are on our doorstep. Winter Light Trail: Reflect and experience a winter light trail through the woodlands with scouts from around the world |
| Day 5 | Cross-Country Skiing: Learn this unique skill |
| Day 6 | Schilthorn: Visit this famous viewpoint with 360-degree mountain views |
| Day 7 | Winter Survival Experience: Learn all the skills needed to survive in the wild during the winter International Campsite: Experience the world’s most unique scouting campfire with scouts from around the world. |
| Day 8 | Heading Home: Heading back home with a lifetime of memories |
| Note: This is a draft schedule and does not accurately represent precisely what the international camp will involve. We will work with the young people to ensure we achieve their aspirations and adapt to the availability of activities. | |
Alex and Phil will lead the team, which will be assembled once we know how many young people are signed up.
The wider team working on the international camp is built from leaders in all our sections, with vast experience ensuring the trip will be a resounding success. Leading the team is Alex, who has extensive experience running residential non-formal education programs for children aged six to seventeen in the UK, USA and China. He has worked with various organisations, including creating a template camp for the American Diabetes Association, now used nationwide for 1000s of children.
We understand that international trips can be costly. To ensure that financial barriers don’t prevent anyone from joining us, we’re committed to raising funds through events, grants, and sponsorships. Every penny raised will directly reduce the cost of the trip, making it accessible to all our Scouts and Young Leaders.
We aim to raise a significant portion of the trip cost through fundraising, grants, and sponsorships. Without these efforts, we estimate the cost per young person to be around £950. The more we fundraise, the lower the final price for families. Our goal is to reduce the fee by up to 80%!
There are also multiple grants within Scouting that we can draw on; for example, 10% could be funded by district funds. The Scout Association HQ can finance up to £500 per person to support members in a position of financial hardship to take part in international experiences.
We have aimed to include almost everything within the fees, so there are no hidden charges. The fees include:
There are a few things that are not included in the camp fees, and there are:
We will work with families to create a manageable schedule for each family. Below is a draft of what these may look like.
Deposit: £50 (deadline Jan 31st 2025)
Remaining Amount: 75 per month from Feb 2025 to Jan 2026
We will head to Switzerland during the school’s February half-term 2026. Leaving on the Friday/ Saturday and returning the following Saturday/ Sunday.
This camp is hopefully the first of a regular international camp we want to run. For our first international camp, we are concentrating on any member eligible to be a Scout & Young Leader in July 2026. This means anyone with a DOB between 15/02/2008 and 14/02/2016 can attend, assuming they are a member of 1st Sedgley.
This is absolutely fine, and you can attend; you will also be invited to all the preparation activities while at Cubs, so you will not miss out on anything. You will likely move to Scouts before we go to camp. Your Cub leaders will be looped in with all the planning, and the scout leaders can be contacted using the details in the signup email.
This is absolutely fine, you can still attend. However, to attend, you must maintain your membership at 1st Sedgley by becoming a young leader in one of our sections.
You should also know that Dudley Scouts are organising a trip to the same campsite for Explorers in the summer of 2026; however, we have no further details yet.
You can attend as long as you are 17 on the earliest day we plan to leave. However, after you turn 18, you will be treated in the same way as under-18s per Scouting guidelines which can be viewed below.
Unfortunately, we can only take members of 1st Sedgley to camp. However, if you remain in Scouting, there is a small chance we will still be able to take you, but you would need to reach out to us as soon as possible.
We hope to run more international camps in the future (2027/ 2028 ish), which would allow anyone unable to attend this once to have another opportunity.
We are working to see what grants we can get to cover the cost of this camp. However, we are aware of the following at the moment:
If you know of any potential sources of support, please let us know.
On the questions page below, we have detailed all the questions we think would be relevant to anyone. We have also added the presentation slide pack for your reference.
To sign up, click the ‘Sign up’ button below and complete the deposit payment.
Note: We intend to go to Switzerland, but there is a small possibility that we may need to change the country based on the availability of activities and accommodation once the numbers are confirmed. If this is required, families will have the opportunity to withdraw with a full refund.
An explorer, adventurer and TV presenter, Dwayne's been seen in BAFTA nominated Channel 5 series Race to the Pole, on BBC Springwatch, Countryfile, National Geographic and Disney+.
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