Volunteer Summer Camp Week in the Mountains of Albania

The trip is run by Young Life, a Christian youth organisation, and the Albania camp sits in the mountain village of Erseke. You fly into Tirana (or sometimes Ohrid in North Macedonia, which has limited flights), get picked up by local staff, and travel to the camp property. From there you're part of the Summer Crew — a mixed team of volunteers from Albania and surrounding countries — and your job is to help make the camp week work for the teenage campers.

A typical day on crew looks like this: morning meetings and small-group devotionals with your team, breakfast, then workshops that summer crew members lead, morning games, lunch, free time and cabin activities in the afternoon, dinner, club, and evening events. You might be running activities, practising English conversation with campers, leading a workshop, or helping with games and evening programming. The sample itinerary has you attending a local church and helping with camp preparations before the campers arrive.

The two options are a shorter Tirana City Camp (23–26 June 2025) and the main Albania Young Life Camp (14–19 July 2025). The costs shown are approximately $950–1000 plus flights if you're coming from the US, which covers camp accommodation, meals, transport, camp fees and local housing and exploring. Volunteers from the European Division are told to speak with their local staff person about serving on Summer Crew, as their costs are handled differently.

The wider aim is friendship and faith: you're building relationships with Albanian and European staff and leaders, joining daily devotionals and worship, and learning about the culture. The FAQ notes that camps follow any COVID restrictions in place at the time, which may change before the camp week. It also confirms this is a missions-service experience, so you can fundraise your costs with direction from your team leader and donations are tax-deductible. Albania is described as safe, and camp teams register with their embassies for updates.

If you're an individual aged 18 or over, or part of a church or team, you can inquire about joining Summer Crew. Arrival and departure dates depend on your itinerary; the latest you should arrive in Tirana is early morning on 17 July and the earliest departure is early morning on 23 July. Beyond that, the camp itself is the focus — you're there to serve, not to train, so there's no fitness programming involved.

What's included

- Camp accommodations - Meals - Transportation - Camp fees - Local housing and exploring - Daily devotionals and worship - Camp overview and orientation

What's not included

- Flights - Travel insurance - Personal expenses - Any costs beyond the stated package