What we do

Summer activities for children, crafts and camping

We run an outdoor activity and crafts camp for the first three weeks of the summer holidays and over the Autumn half term in Dartington, Devon and for the fourth and fifth week of the summer holidays in Radford, Bath. Each child chooses their five favourite activities from those on offer to fill their week and can then choose to camp: joining in evening activities and eating home-made organic food.

Fantastic summer holiday activities

Real activities with professional instructors

A YD summer activity holiday offers kids the chance to go on their own holiday on their own terms. They get to choose which activities they want to do from our exciting range of adventure activities like rock climbing, caving and quest games and arts and crafts activities such as pottery, mosaic making and batik and tie dye. All of these activities for children are run by dedicated instructors who know their activities inside out and have been running them for years. >> read more...

We're different

What makes YD unique

We offer realness, freedom and fun on our activity holidays and treat children with the respect and dignity they deserve. We don't impose unnecessary rules or impositions or enforce fun; we give kids the time and the space to make friends and enjoy themselves on their own terms. Our guiding principle is that it's their holiday after all. We make all our activities as authentic an experience as possible. We go rock climbing outdoors on the fantastic cliffs, tors and gorges local to each area; we get muddy down a nearby limestone cave in underground challenge; we use an expert weaver and dyer for our batik and tie die and an expert potter who fires the pots on site in a marvellous raku pottery kiln.
We always strive for fun over other, more adult, considerations such as learning and developing. That's not to say kids don't learn anything at YD its just that we don't force feed them anything. You can't stop kids learning anyway so all we do is provide a wonderful environment for them to get on with learning on their own terms and in their own time.>> read more...

Two sites to choose from

Youngdartington near Totnes, Devon and Young Radford near Timsbury in Bath and North East Somerset

Youngdartington

Park School is a wonderfully secluded site on the Dartington Hall estate; so much so that many local people don't know it's there. It has a large playing field, a pond, lots of other grassy areas to run around in, a small woods with a tree swing and a big woods with lots of opportunities for forest school and bushcraft style activities for the children.

Young Radford

Our brand new site for 2012 is at Radford Mill farm near Timsbury in Bath and North East Somerset. It has loads of big flat fields to run around in, a beautiful stream to splash around in and dam, loads of trees and willows everywhere, compost loos, a catering kitchen and a nice indoor space called the Piggery (because that's what it used to be).
It's really close to fantastic caving and rock climbing in the Mendips and near Cheddar and there's a brilliant place for kayaking near Saltford just 20mins away. >> read more...