Nature and outdoors

Overnight Outdoor Education Program

YMCA / YWCA of Vancouver Island Camp Thunderbirddistance not known

! $134 a child is over your $10 budget

Two children draw bows with arrows nocked, seen close up from the side.

Cost

$134 a child

$2144 for 16 children

The $134.00 rate is for one night and four meals. Two nights and seven meals is $212.00, three nights and ten meals is $288.00, and four nights and thirteen meals is $357.00, all per participant. Additional cabins, if available, cost $100 to $200 per night depending on the type of cabin.

Ages & size

Grades K to 12

Capacity not published

Duration

Length not published

May to June

Days not published

Book by

Not published

Plan this trip

Fieldy handles all communication and booking for you.

What it actually looks like

Photos from YMCA / YWCA of Vancouver Island Camp Thunderbird's website

Our note

Chaperones sleep in the cabins and supervise before and after every meal, so you need one adult for every eight children and they need to be up for it. Cell reception is patchy and children are asked to leave phones at home, which is the point but worth warning families about. The published fees are from 2017, so ask for a current quote.

What the children do

A one to four night stay at Camp Thunderbird with programming, meals and accommodation all included. Arrival is 10:00am and departure is 2:00pm on the last day. Students are arranged into activity groups of 10 to 14 and rotate through activities such as canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing on natural rock, archery, orienteering, hiking, atlatl, low ropes, campcraft and teambuilding, with evening wide games and campfires. Swimming is only offered to groups staying overnight because of the time the swim challenge takes. Chaperones sleep in the cabins with the students. Grade 7 groups can add the Climate Alive and Natural Selection science programs. Their most popular stay is 2 nights.

Children sleep in bunk beds in a cabin or yurt with an adult from their own group, and eat family style at tables of up to ten in the dining hall. Across the days they paddle on Glinz Lake, climb real rock, shoot archery, navigate an orienteering course and walk forest trails. Evenings are wide games like Capture the Flag, then skits and songs around a campfire.

Good to know

Beds, all meals, washrooms and shower houses are on site, and one adult per eight children comes at no charge. Your group has to bring a certified first aid attendant and a vehicle to use as the emergency car.

Sources disagree. Their own pages give two different answers for how many adults have to come on an overnight stay. One says one adult per nine children, the other says one per eight. We use one per eight, from their 2026 teacher booklet. Worth settling when you book, because it changes how many staff you need.

Sources disagree. The price for bringing camp staff to your school is confusing on their own page. The column is labelled as a price for each participant, but the rows are priced by group size, so it reads as a price for the whole group. We have taken it as the whole group. Confirm the total before you commit.

Sources disagree. Three different phone numbers for the camp appear across their pages. We use the one their camp page calls the new number. If it does not connect, the older camp line and the main Y office number are both still listed.

Sources disagree. The same camp address is written two ways on their own pages, one ending in ca and one in com. We use the ca version, which is what the rest of their site uses. If one bounces, try the other.

Washrooms

The three Animal Cabins have a 3-piece washroom in cabin. The yurts have a shower and washroom house nearby, and the Shrub Cabins have a shower house and outhouse nearby.

Lunch space

Day groups can choose to eat in the dining hall or bring their own lunches, which are enjoyed in a picnic area at camp.

Rain backup

Needs confirmation

Strollers

Needs confirmation

Wheelchair access

We can arrange for additional supports such as all-terrain wheelchair rental. Please contact us to discuss how we might work together.

Bus parking

Coach buses do not fit on Camp Thunderbird roads. Only school buses should be booked for student transportation. If this poses a barrier, please contact us.

Nearby park

Needs confirmation

Restrictions

We ask that peanut and nut products are not brought to Camp Thunderbird.. Coach buses do not fit on Camp Thunderbird roads. Only school buses should be booked for student transportation.. One of the accompanying adults must be a certified first aid attendant.. A vehicle must be brought to the site and must be available and designated as the emergency vehicle.. Children under the age of 12 must be directly supervised at all times.. Chaperones are required to sleep in the cabins with the campers to provide support and supervision.. We request that students not bring electronics to camp.. No food is kept in the cabins.. Our kitchen/cooking facilities are not available for group use. All food prepared in our commercial kitchen must be prepared by our kitchen staff.. The Y Outdoor Centre / Camp Thunderbird is a non-smoking and non-vaping facility.. Pets are not permitted.

Details checked on 2026-09-03 against the venue’s own pages. Something wrong? , it takes one tap. · Venue page · 672-884-1264