Summer camp's on: the high-end kids' clubs, tutors and camps to book for your children

With lockdown lifting and quarantine exemptions now in place between the UK and lots of our favourite holiday destinations, it’s time to consider your options.

One thing’s for sure, your kids are probably as desperate to get away as you are and you could all probably do with a break from each other. So whether you book a holiday packed with activities your youngsters can go off and do solo or hire an extra pair of hands to keep them entertained, it’s all for the taking.

“We’ve had a lot of UK Staycation enquiries,” says Nicola Dicketts, co-founder of London-based My Kids Tutor, “for people renting holiday houses or with second homes in the country. They’re looking for tutors to ‘live in’ Monday-to-Friday, teach the children school subjects in the morning to combat the ‘Covid slide’ and then get out there with them in the afternoons and play tennis or cricket, or just have fun.”

This makes sense given the fact most children have been uniquely starved of both friends and face-to-face social interaction since March.

“These kids have been repressed for months, they’re bored of their parents,” says Dicketts.  “My son is on his gap year, imagine that, an 18-year-old in lockdown in his gap year with his parents for four months. This is so not how he imagined spending it. Whatever age your child is, they’re saying ‘Enough! Let’s break up this little clique here.”

Conveniently, Scott Dunn, is launching its first ever UK Explorer’s Club on 1 August – at Gleneagles hotel in Scotland, which sits within a 850-acre sporting estate. Running as a pop-up throughout the summer, The Explorer’s programme (daily, 10am-3pm) caters for every age from 4-month-olds to mid-teens.

It focuses on getting creative play and nature walks with resident Henry the Dog for little ones and for older kids there’s things like tree climbing, falconry, clay pigeon shooting and off-roading on ArgoCats. There are, of course, indoor adventure areas and chill out spaces for rainy days. A five-night package for a family of four including all accommodation and kid’s club activities costs from £5,950.

Should your offspring be up for something a bit more ‘back to nature’ in the UK, you could consider sending them on a 5-day tech-free Camp Wilderness holiday on an estate in Hertfordshire (£320 per child, for ages 8-14). Run by the Bushcraft Company, your kids will sleep in bell tents under the stars, learn archery, fire and shelter building, wilderness first aid and pizza making. Plus, this year’s camps are being hosted by British explorer and adventurer Ed Stafford, who will attend as many as possible.

The WHO named Switzerland the safest country to be in during the pandemic and family-friendly sister hotels Grand Hotel Kronenhof and Kulm Hotel St Moritz, both in the wide open Engadine Valley, are great bases for a family break. Each summer all children over 6 years old staying at either hotel get free entry to the excellent and fully supervised Engadine Kids Sports Camp, a ten-minute shuttle bus ride away on Lake Silvaplana. Here, they’ll do stand-up paddle boarding, canoeing, trampolining and taking the gondola up into the mountains - all in small groups based on age and native language. Grand Hotel Kronenhof has also introduced complimentary outdoor kids yoga classes.

Over in Italy, Sicily’s Verdura Resort has now re-opened its award-winning academies in tennis, football, golf, fencing, swimming, diving and karate. Its junior golf academy, led by Giacomo Dovetta, one of the world’s top junior coaches, runs all summer long (3 days tuition from €170).

Forte Village in Sardinia has also re-opened its sports academies – in football, rugby, netball, cycling, boxing, dancing, magic and chess. A highlight this summer will be the five-day training camps with former Rugby Union player Austin Healey, who will be in residence from 5-22 August (from €600 per child).

It’s also worth checking in with tour operator Football Escapes, which at last enquiry, still had places on two camps being hosted by Michael Owen from 15-22 August at neighbouring properties in Portugal this summer – one at the Conrad Algarve (from £7,810 for a family of four), the other at Quinta Do Lago Magnolia Hotel (£4,690 for a family of four).

Elounda Peninsula All-Suite Hotel on Crete has just launched a 3-day Kid’s Spa Wellness Programme (€100) at their Six Senses Spa for anyone aged five-to-twelve. Daily three-hour sessions will include fun wellness and nutrition workshops and group spa treatments that encourage children to integrate wellness into their lives. The resort has also just launched a new six-bedroom Diamond Residence – a waterfront villa ideal for families.

Should you be feeling bold enough to go further afield for a last-minute summer break, you could jet off to COMO Uma Canggu in Bali, which says it plans to open to international tourism from the beginning of September. Then you can sign up your young for surfing lessons at the hotel’s Tropicsurf Turtle Club, which offers tailored learn-to-surf programmes (about £50 per day) for kids aged eight-to-fourteen. This will combine marine life education, conservation awareness and ocean safety with a surfing lesson in the lagoon pool before heading out into the shallows for a spot of body boarding.

What about taking to the high seas with a tutor? Michael Fenton runs The Yacht House, a British posh yacht chartering company. “We started a sub-service a few years ago called ‘Tutors on Board’ after wanting a tutor for our son when he was doing his GCSEs and then thought this is interesting, people agonise about going on holiday when their kid has to get their dissertation in or revise for this or that… why not take a tutor with you?”

“If people want somebody sporty, we’ll make sure we send them someone who can windsurf so they can tutor them in the morning and take them windsurfing in the afternoon. Our tutors are chosen not just for their academic skills but for being personable as well,” says Fenton. “So it’s very good value because not only are they going to teach but can also be a companion to your children as well, which gives everyone a break.”

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