Podcast Episode Archives - There's No Place Like Summer Camp

I’ve changed it up this episode with a peek behind the curtain of who I am. What brought me to do Camp America, what experience did I have and how summer camp actually was. Next Tuesday, we’re discussing tips for a 16-year-old wanting to do Camp America.

In this episode, there are a lot of exciting updates to share. From editor updates to personal life and podcast episodes going forward. You won’t want to miss out on those. In this episode, we discuss the cliques of summer camp, including what to expect as a camp counselor for kids too.

This one comes up constantly and it’s an understandable question. You and your mate both want to go. You’ve talked about it for months. The idea of doing it together sounds brilliant. So can you just both apply and end up at the same camp?

Technically: sometimes. In practice: it’s complicated, and this episode explains why Andrew actually thinks going with a friend might not be the dream scenario it sounds like.

Camp America, Camp Leaders and BUNAC all work by matching you to a camp based on your profile, your skills, and what camps need. You don’t just pick a camp like booking a hotel. Camps select you from a pool of applicants, or you get matched through the agency’s system.

For two people to end up at the same camp, both of you need to be wanted by the same camp, in the same summer, for compatible roles. That’s a lot of variables to align. It’s not impossible, and agencies do sometimes accommodate requests from people who want to be placed together — but it’s not guaranteed, and trying to force it can limit your placement options.

Here’s the argument Andrew makes in this episode, and it’s worth taking seriously: going alone is part of what makes camp so good.

One of the most commonly reported things by people who’ve done Camp America is how quickly you make friends. The shared experience of being thrown into a completely new environment with a group of strangers accelerates bonding in a way that normal life rarely does. Within a week, people you’d never met before start to feel like family.

If you arrive at camp already attached to a person you know, there’s a genuine risk that you:

– Spend your time gravitating toward each other instead of pushing yourself to meet new people

The discomfort of going alone is basically the mechanism through which camp works. Removing it removes some of the magic.

If going together is genuinely a hard requirement for you, contact the agency directly and ask about their policy on placing friends together. Some agencies will note the preference on your applications and do their best to match you. Go in knowing it might not be possible and that if it’s not, that might actually be fine.

Also consider: even if you end up at different camps, you’re both in America for the summer and will likely have time to meet up afterwards during the travel period. People do this all the time.

Go. Whether together or separately. The experience is worth it either way. But if you’re on the fence about going alone — don’t let that be the reason you don’t go. Solo is the better bet.

Read about how Camp America was for me as a solo traveller in my two books:

It usually happens at the most mundane moments. You’re doing the washing up, or you’re on a bus, or you’re sitting in a meeting at work, and out of nowhere something from summer camp surfaces with complete clarity. A specific smell. A phrase someone used to say. The sound of the bell for breakfast. The way the light looked over the lake at a particular time of evening.

This episode is about those things — the ones that come back uninvited and remind you that some experiences just don’t fully leave.

Smell is the most reliable one. The specific combination of sunscreen, insect repellent, lake water and whatever the dining hall was cooking constitutes a scent that doesn’t exist anywhere else and when you encounter something close to it — even years later — it can stop you dead. This is apparently just how human memory works but it feels particularly acute with summer camp because the sensory environment was so different from everyday life.

Sound is the other one. Camp songs, obviously. But also specific phrases — call-and-response chants, inside jokes that became camp-wide shorthand, the particular cadence of a camp director’s announcements over the tannoy. These things encode themselves at a depth that most experiences don’t.

Beyond the sensory stuff, camp generates a specific category of memory: things that were completely normal at the time and are now absolutely inexplicable to anyone who wasn’t there.

The rules that made no sense but everyone followed. The traditions whose origins nobody actually knew but which happened every year without question. The particular person in your cabin who did something so memorably weird that their name has become a shorthand in your vocabulary — even though you haven’t spoken to them in five years.

These are the things that make the Camp America alumni experience so specific. You can meet a stranger who also did camp and within about three minutes you’re comparing notes on things that would require twenty minutes of context to explain to anyone else.

The reason this episode exists is that summer camp nostalgia is one of the main audiences for this podcast. Not just people preparing to go, but people who went and are still processing what it meant. The randomly-remembered things are the evidence that it stuck — that it was, as many people say, genuinely the best summer of their lives.

If you’re in that camp (pun fully intended), the books are where I unpack those summers in full: 

his one comes up more than you’d expect. And the honest answer is: it depends. Which I know is not the satisfying definitive response you were hoping for, but it’s genuinely the right answer and this episode unpacks what it actually depends on.

Whatever agency you apply through — Camp America, Camp Leaders, BUNAC — to work at an American summer camp you need a J-1 visa, which is a US cultural exchange visa. The US government controls who gets this visa, and a criminal record can absolutely affect your eligibility.

The key factors are:

Camp America, Camp Leaders and BUNAC all require criminal background checks as part of the application process. Camps themselves also typically run their own checks. This is non-negotiable — you’re working with children.

If you have a conviction you’re concerned about, the recommended approach is to contact the agency directly before you get deep into the application. Have an honest conversation about your situation. They will give you a clearer answer than any podcast can about your specific circumstances, and it’s much better to find out early than to invest months in an application that can’t proceed.

If you have any offence related to children — full stop — you will not be placed at a summer camp. This is absolute. It is not a grey area and it does not depend on the agency, the camp, or how long ago the offence was.

UK applicants will typically need to provide a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check as part of the application process. This shows your criminal record history. You can apply for a basic DBS check yourself online; the agency will usually specify which level they need.

The absolute worst approach is to have a conviction you’re unsure about and just not mention it, hoping it doesn’t come up. US background checks are thorough. Getting caught out mid-process — or worse, once you’ve arrived at camp — is an outcome that’s easily avoided by having an honest conversation upfront.

If your record is genuinely clear and you’re asking out of general anxiety about the process: you have nothing to worry about. Go apply.

I have quite a few updates to share in this podcast. This isn’t your typical Friday episode.

*SPECIAL EPISODE* In this episode, we have our first female guest on the podcast! This interview delves into what life is like for a girl with four years of Camp America under her belt, what its like to be a Camp America Interviewer, and the best advice she has to offer!

Hello and welcome to There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. I’m your host, Andrew Waterhouse, and in today’s episode we’re taking a look at whether you can do camp America with tattoos. So, come on in to our tent, and I’ll spill the beans.

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of, There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. We are here in a Friday episode where we answer your questions about volunteering for summer camp.

Just before I begin, I have an update for you, regarding the general state of where There’s No Place Like Summer Camp is and any sort of projects I’m doing on the side for the show and the book website. Now this one is particularly around the website because one thing that I’ve noticed that I’m really maybe missing out on is getting the word of, There’s No Place Like Summer Camp out there. Now I’ve made some changes in regards to how the blogs are going to be working from now on, on the website, because they seem to be. It’s a bit of a strange situation but a lot of people search for things around camp America and volunteering for summer camp, but the way the podcasts are, it can be pretty hard to look at a podcast first before you go to Google, a lot of these questions you’ll be googling.

Now, one of the things that Google somewhat lacks at the moment is being able to take a look at a podcast episode or some sort of audio and push that towards a user, rather than push them towards a standard blog or news article type of thing. So, going forward, the announcement is. We’re going to be transcripting, every episode of There’s No Place Like Summer Camp, which is a bit weird at the moment because as I’m saying this is going to be transcripted into a blog post itself.

There’s quite a backlog of episodes that have to go through and work through so they’re not probably going to be all up to date at the same time. But just to keep you all aware. There’s No Place Like Summer Camp is going to have a better presence on the internet, a better presence on Google in particular because all the episodes will have some text-based content and when you search the sorts of questions or any of the other episodes that I’ve done already, they’ll pop up a lot more frequently, and it’s going to be a little bit of a manual process I think. And you’re going to have to kind of bear with me on that front.

It was something that I did initially do so write some of the earlier episodes of There’s No Place Like Summer Camp. They do have their own blog articles but I found that it was taken up a little bit too much time to do the episodes every week, as well as writing them up, and then working on the book as well. But I think I’m in a position now where I found a really good tool that will help me for this so just to keep you all up to date.

There’s No Place Like Summer Camp, is going to be having text-based blog posts going forward, and hopefully, that will get the name out there. So if you think anyone will benefit from these podcasts, the website and all that sort of thing please recommend them. It’s very much appreciated as well as any reviews on podcast apps because that really helps get the name out there, helps the podcast bump itself up a bit if it’s got some reviews, and I’d really appreciate all feedback.

Now, onto this week’s question, because every Friday is a questions episode. This is can you do camp America with tattoos, so let’s get on to the question.

So doing Camp America with tattoos totally applies to actually all the agencies out there, it’s not just Camp America it’s not just Camp Leaders or BUNAC, it applies to them all, and pretty much the long and short of it is that every camp has their own dress code.

For example, camps are going to have their own dress code on the clothing that is worn. That has to be appropriate for walking with children, it makes total sense. And this extends also to tattoos. It also extends to things like piercings. It totally depends on the camp they make their own rules for their kids, some don’t care as long as your tattoos aren’t offensive, but some may ask that piercings are removed and tattoos, get covered.

Now, in your interview with camp, they will make a mention of these types of things if they see this sort of thing that’s on your summer camp profile when you’re creating your profile in camp America or any of those other agencies. If they see something that’s in your profile that they have particular rules around the person interviewing you is definitely going to make a note of that and make sure to tell you like oh by the way we have this rule in our account that means tattoos have to be covered, or you’re okay with this, and that sort of thing.

So, when you apply through your summer camp agency there is a part in your profile section, when you fill this sort of stuff out. It’s kind of similar to the smoking question that I had a few weeks back. So if you haven’t checked that episode out already, make sure you do if you’re smoking at summer camp. There’s a whole episode on whether you can smoke while working at camp. Click to learn more about the smoking episode here.

There is a reason for this as well because it’s not just the camps themselves that make these roles just plucking them out of the air. Some parents can actually get a bit funny about seeing staff with loads of tattoos and piercings because it sends off a different kind of message to someone without these sort of things. But the long story short, is, if these are on your summer camp profile when you’re applying for summer camps, then your camp director will already know what sort of person they’re hiring what sort of things they have, and what you’re coming with, so don’t worry it’s not that big of a deal if you are applying to volunteer at summer camp with tattoos.

Now as we close this podcast off, I have a very special announcement for Tuesday’s episode because it’s a change of schedule. In Tuesday’s episode we have a very special interview. I should leave it there. I’ll see you on Tuesday. It’s going to be a really good episode. Trust me, I cannot wait to share it with you all.

So, till the next time campers.

This podcast is a long one! In this episode, we talk about summer camp bingo, or a shortlist to prove that you’ve done everything at summer camp!

A heads up, CC USA has opened their applications for 2021. Same for other agencies too by the way, so get on that if you’re interested!

Welcome to summer camp bingo! This is a shortlist of things to prove that you’ve been to summer camp. See how many you can tick off!

Now there’s gonna be loads I missed from this list – it could be another episode! If you think there are glaring missing things message us and I’ll use it in part two of this episode.

The treks of America are a subset of summer camp that many volunteers like to do. In this episode, we take a look at what Camp America treks are, how much they cost, and whether they are worth booking.

Camp America Treks are pre-organised roadtrips that you book onto in advance. You travel as a group of 13 and you’ll be assigned an awesome trek leader who will be your guide and your driver and will generally take care of getting you from one place to next and ensuring you’re safe and having fun! You’ll be travelling in a cool customised van with 14 seats, wifi, and plenty of roadtrip tunes! Accommodation will vary depending on your trip and most nights you’ll stay somewhere new. They are the perfect and easiest way to see a lot of America in one go and have a variety of trips starting from 3 to 23 days – so there’s bound to be a trek to suit you!

Its all about group travel + if you do Camp America and then Camp America trek, you get a 15% discount on the prices (a bit dodgy though if you ask me).

Camp America Treks: They are paired with Intrepid. And looking at their prices for guidance, it was around £1500 – £7500. Quite a wide range but there’s quite a range of different trips you take. There are 10 treks at the time of recording. And only 4 destinations: Vegas, Los Angeles, New Orleans and New York. There are different durations of the trip, up to 22 days.

Specifically, around the prices for these, I couldn’t find a trace of anything. I don’t know if its Corona having an impact on this, but the prices were all not revealed – or they are just expensive and don’t want to promote them.

Now, another big player in this is TrekAmerica. In fact, I’d go as far as to say they are bigger than Camp America Treks. They are recommended by other agencies like Camp Leaders and I in fact know 2 people that did these treks themselves.

They have 74 trips on their site and a wide range of treks you can opt to take after your camp ends. The prices are from £329 to £8229 and there’s a ton of difference in the middle.

In my opinion, Trek America is the go-to for these trek like experiences. I know the couple that went on this themselves loved it. But personally, I think it is a lot of money and you can have just as much fun, or if not more fun by arranging your own travel with friends from camp. The USA is your oyster!

Listen to the podcast below!