Our Summer 2026 on the Black Sea: A Season to Remember

Summer 2026 has wrapped up, and the campus feels oddly quiet without it. Six sessions, children from more than a dozen countries, one long stretch of sun on the Bulgarian Black Sea. Now that the last suitcases have gone, we wanted to sit down and go back through it all: the Oxford English mornings, the long afternoons outdoors, and friendships that formed so fast nobody wanted the final day to come. Think of this as a thank-you, and as our summer camp Bulgaria 2026 in pictures.

If your child was with us this year, you will spot a few familiar faces. And if you are weighing up an international summer camp on the Black Sea for next time, this is honestly what the season looked like.

It started with hellos

Every session kicked off in more or less the same way. Cars rolled in from all over, there was a bit of shyness in the doorway, a first wobbly English "hi" to a roommate. A day later you would never have guessed it. Children who turned up not knowing a single person went home with a phone full of numbers from half of Europe, and a few from much further than that.

Some came as a whole family

For a few families this year, the goodbye was easier, because there was no goodbye at all. Through the VIEC Family Package, parents stayed on the same campus while their child joined the programme, which made the first days especially gentle for younger and first-time campers. The child had a full summer of English, sport and new friends; the family was a short walk away, and everyone met up again at dinner. For the youngest ones, and anyone away from home for the first time, having a parent close by made all the difference.

Mornings belonged to English

Every morning from 09:00 to 10:30, the classrooms filled up. Oxford English lessons, run together with the Oxford International Study Centre, with children grouped by level so nobody was bored and nobody was lost. Hands went up, mistakes got made and laughed off, and somewhere around the second week the kid who had barely spoken on day one was loudly disagreeing about football, in English.

The grammar matters, of course, but it is not the thing that stays with us. It is the look on a child's face when they catch themselves, halfway through a sentence, simply saying what they mean in English without stopping to translate. That look is the whole reason we do this.

Afternoons belonged to the outdoors

Then the classroom doors opened and the real summer took over. With the Black Sea a few minutes away and courts and pitches right on campus, the afternoons vanished into sport, games and whatever happened to start up. This is the bit children phone home about, and the clever part is that a busy afternoon outdoors kept everyone chatting away in English without a single one of them noticing.

And there was so much more to do

Between the lessons and the sport, there was not much empty time. Some children practically lived in the dance studio. Others got hooked on the art room, or a board game that carried on for three evenings straight. Whatever your child turned up loving, or stumbled into completely by accident, summer 2026 had room for it.

And it ended with "see you next summer"

The last morning was always the hardest. Addresses swapped, a few tears, a lot of promises to come back. If you ever want to know whether a summer worked, that is how you can tell: the children were already asking about next year before their bags were even packed. Thank you to every family who sent their child to us in 2026, and to every child who made this place feel like home.

The campus is quiet again now. It will not stay that way for long. We have already started planning the next one, and we would love your child to be in it.