Discover the Best Activities at the Santander Surf Camps

Activities at the Santander Surf Camps

If this is the first time you are enrolling your children at the Natuaventura Santander Surf Summer Camps, it is perfectly natural to have questions like: Will they do other activities besides Surf lessons? What type of activities are in the programme? Are they suitable for all ages? Do they need to pack anything special in their bag for these games?

To answer every possible question you might have about our weekly organisation at the Montecorona Hostel, we have prepared a selection of the 5 best activities at the Santander Surf Camps to help you understand how our camps work.

1. Introduction: activities at a Summer Camp
2. The calendar organisation with Surf lessons
3. Themed day activities: workshops, afternoon games and evening show
4. The excursion to Berria beach
5. The Yellow Humour games
6. Visits to La Maruca
7. The Spartan Race

1. Introduction: Activities at a Summer Camp

Summer camps offer a unique and unforgettable adventure, ideal for fostering independence, friendship and skills in children. Thanks to this magic — far from the daily routine — children and teenagers have the opportunity to immerse themselves in a variety of activities that not only entertain but also educate and develop personal strengths.

In the world of Leisure and Free Time there is a vast range of activities that can take place at summer camps. To put it simply, when preparing a 15- or 10-day camp programme, the team of monitors plans several types of games: workshops, short games, long-duration games, special activities, group dynamics, themed days and evening shows.

This classification is then shaped by other criteria such as the type of camp, the age groups or the objectives to be worked on with the campers as a whole. In this case, the Surf course at our camp would determine the weekly calendar.

2. The Calendar Organisation with Surf Lessons

The Surf course run by the school will determine our activity calendar within the Santander Surf Camp. In the case of the 15-day Santander Camp, there will be 6 lessons over the fortnight, whilst in the case of the 10-day Santander Camp there will be 4 lessons over the ten days.

This means that when organising our programme we must account for the fact that on between 4 and 6 days within the camp, our children will dedicate half a day to being on the beach practising this sport, accompanied by their monitors. Since they attend the Surf school in age groups, the younger and older campers will go on alternate days.

Dedicating these sessions to Surf is very beneficial for the group of campers because it takes them out of the routine of the venue and into somewhere as special as the beach — a place children love. On the other hand, it also changes the rhythm of the schedule, and on the days when this sport takes place the monitors will plan more relaxed activities so that the group of campers has enough energy to reach the end of the day.

Similarly, on days when no age group has Surf, the time will be used for joint games to foster unity throughout the summer camp.

3. Themed Day Activities: Workshops, Afternoon Games and Evening Show

It is common in Summer Camps to dedicate an entire day to a theme, with a different theme each year. On that very special day, activities run from morning to night following the same thematic thread, with monitors playing a character.

Themed days normally include a craft workshop so that campers can be creative and take on different roles within the game, a game lasting several hours after lunch with a performance by the monitor team, and finally an evening show to close the day.

The most distinctive element of these days is the camp’s decoration in keeping with the chosen theme, monitors in costume throughout the entire day, and the surprises that can be included during mealtimes. The aim of these games is for children to feel as if they are inside a film or immersed in another magical world — who would not be surprised to wake up to a Hogwarts letter on the breakfast table or a Mario Kart race during the afternoon snack?

4. The Excursion to Berria Beach

We cannot talk about the Santander Surf Camp programme without mentioning the famous route to Berria Beach. After a 40 km bus journey from the Montecorona hostel, the campers begin a trekking route from the town of Santoña, walking along the seafront and reaching the foot of the mountain. From there they walk with views of the coast and the Cantabrian cliffs, enjoying the green and fresh landscape of the north. At the end, a wide beach awaits where they can take a dip and spend the rest of the day playing beach activities and sports with their monitors.

5. The Yellow Humour Games

At Natuaventura we have a circuit packed with inflatable structures and giant constructions that are set up for an entire day at each camp. The children are split into teams and rotate through each attraction to enjoy themselves and have a great time. It is without doubt one of the most highly rated and in-demand activities at our summer camps.

6. Visits to La Maruca

The accommodation for the Santander Surf Camps is 2 km from La Maruca beach, which is reached via a short walk along the paths of the Barrio Monte neighbourhood. This location means that several times over the fortnight the group can head down to the coast to spend a morning or afternoon there. The beach occupies a privileged spot at the mouth of the San Pedro estuary. Right along the edge of the beach there is a large viewpoint belonging to the Coastal Interpretation Centre, which opens out onto a large green area where the monitors settle in with the children to spend the day. From there they can go down to swim in the sea or buy an ice cream on the promenade.

7. The Spartan Race

Another unmissable day at the Santander Surf Summer Camps is without doubt the Spartan Race. Thanks to the facilities at Los Jardines de África near the hostel, the monitors have access to sports courts, wide green areas and sandy terrain ideal for organising a genuine obstacle course. Marked from start to finish, campers complete a course crawling through mud, lifting tyres with ropes, climbing walls, jumping fences and sliding down tarpaulins. Meanwhile the rest of the children watch the race live on a projector screen inside the venue. All these elements make it a truly bold and thrilling adventure that campers experience as if fighting at the Battle of Thermopylae. It all ends with a refreshing water balloon fight.

In short, choosing one of the Surf Camps — Santander 15 days or Santander 10 days — is a safe bet if you want your children to live a complete experience they will always remember. Most campers return every year and continue to choose these camps as their favourite activity of the summer. Just be warned: once they set foot in the Montecorona Hostel, they will not want to come home!

More about surf summer camps:

• Santander Surf Fortnight Summer Camp
• Santander Surf 10-Day Summer Camp
• Surf summer camps: what should I pack?
• What is a Surf Course at a Summer Camp like?
• Surf summer camps: our accommodation at Monte Corona, Santander
• Surf and Sustainability: Protecting the Beaches of Cantabria

Other sources:

• La Vanguardia: «Summer Camps: A world of learning and fun for unique experiences»
• Wikipedia: «What is surfing?»
• The real Spartan Race in Spain
• Turismo de Cantabria: La Maruca beach
• Berria beach: El Diario Montañés