Is Camp America Worth It? An Honest Answer From Someone Not Selling You a Place
For most people, yes — but not for the money. A camp summer is genuinely one of the best things you can do young, and genuinely hard at the same time. You'll likely come home roughly even, not rich. Whether that's "worth it" comes down to what you actually want from it.
I can answer this straight because I've got no placement to sell you. So here are both sides, honestly.
The brilliant side (and it's real)
The most consistent thing coaches say, in review after review, is some version of "I made friends for life." Add the moments with the kids, the travel to parts of America you'd never otherwise see, host families who take you in, and the person you come back as — more capable, more independent, having been responsible for children thousands of miles from home. That's the true postcard, and it's why people go back year after year.
The hard side (that nobody selling it dwells on)
Homesickness is normal and usually hits in the first couple of weeks. The hours are long — 7am to 10pm has been reported, plus getting up in the night with the kids. You'll be more tired than you've ever been. And the pay is modest: after tax and deductions, take-home often lands below the advertised figure. It's rewarding and relentless, both at once.
The full both-sides picture — built from hundreds of real coaches' words — is in the book. £14, instant PDF + ePub.
Get the book — £14The bit that's partly luck
Your experience depends enormously on which specific camp you land at, and the agencies mostly don't run the camps themselves. A well-run camp is a life-changing summer; a badly run one is a long, hard two months. You can't remove the luck, but you can load the dice with the right questions before you accept — which the book walks you through.
So, the honest verdict on the money
Do the sum and most agency campers come home somewhere between even and a few hundred pounds down, once flights and the post-camp travel are counted — and count it worth every penny. Touring soccer coaches, with no placement fee and free board, can actually come home a bit up. Either way, the return on this isn't dollars. It's the summer.
The headline from everyone who's been: almost nobody regrets going. Plenty found it harder than expected; a few had genuinely rough camps and will tell you so. But even most of those wouldn't undo it. Go for the experience, expect the hard weeks, and it's very likely worth it.
This is a general, impartial view, not a promise about your summer — every camp and every person is different. Figures referenced are for 2026.
Who it's really for
It's worth it if you want the experience more than the money: the friends, the travel, the responsibility, coming home more capable than you left. It's a harder sell if you're mainly chasing a summer's wages — you'll likely be disappointed on that front alone. And it rewards a certain type: the people who throw themselves in, say yes to things and genuinely like kids have the best summers; the ones who hold back tend to have lonelier ones. If you've got a coaching qualification and you're serious about it, a first summer can also become a proper pathway — the coaching companies run routes from summer camp into longer roles, and returners get the better camps and the better pay.
Ready to do it properly — and not end up at a bad camp?
Get the book — £14