Three American camps said yes. I never got on the plane.

The short version of how I know

In 2000 I was nineteen, from Cumbria, and I found out this was even a thing from a classified ad in the back of The Sun. I filled the forms in on paper, travelled up to Newcastle for a face-to-face interview, and a while later a letter arrived offering me not one placement but three: New York, Los Angeles and Hawaii. Then my daughter was born, eight days before my flight, and I chose the delivery room over the departure lounge — no regrets, ever.

Twenty-five years on I still have the whole map of how it works — and, this is the point, no stake in which camp you choose and no agency paying me a penny. I'm on my own, and this book is the honest map I needed then. It exists so you actually go.

Every other guide is written by someone selling you a placement

Camp America, Challenger, AmeriCamp, Camp Leaders — they all publish helpful-looking pages. But every word exists to get you to apply through them. Their cost pages show the sticker price, not the real one. Nobody who makes money placing you can write this. I can, because I don't.

• Every programme compared side by side — with no commission riding on which one you pick.
• The real costs, including the fees they don't show you on the front page.
• How selection actually works — what camp directors are really looking for.

What's inside

1. 1 Introduction: Hawaii, and the Flight I Never Took
2. 2 Does This Still Happen?
3. 3 The Programmes, Honestly Compared
4. 4 What It Really Costs (and What You Really Earn)
5. 5 How to Actually Get Picked
6. 6 The Visa, Demystified
7. 7 Life on Camp: The Good Weeks and the Hard Weeks
8. 8 After Camp: Making the Most of Your Time in America
9. 9 Your Action Plan
10. 10 Closing: Go Do What I Didn't