Your running speed is not important or a requirement to attend the camp. We are looking for enthusiastic young runners who want to learn and experience a new culture. Every training session will be joined by local guide runners and our coaching team and we will ensure that every pace / runner is looked after from the fastest to the slowest. 

We would expect that most athletes will want to run daily (we will have 1 scheduled rest day during the camp) but the distances covered will vary depending on age, experience and usual training volume at home.

Training sessions during the camp will include a variety of running sessions, drills, gym sessions and more. The exact running volume and frequency for each runner will be in accordance with your own training level, experience and current fitness. 

Our coaching team are highly experienced at working with young runners and also at altitude. We will survey the attending runners in advance in order to work out the appropriate recommended training volume for them. Each athlete will be carefully monitored during the camp to ensure that they are not over doing it, but also that they are able to get the most out of the camp experience.  

Our coaching team are very happy to speak to personal/club coaches in advance of the camp to understand the current situation and any specific information relating to that athlete. 

 There are also excellent cross training options available on site (bike, cross trainer, pool).

The camp officially starts and finishes at Nairobi airport (JKIA). International flights to Kenya are not included and must be arranged separately. 

We have staff travelling to the camp from the UK and if you wish to travel together with our UK based coaches you can select the same flights they are booked on. These are as follows: 

Outbound to Nairobi: 
17th August Kenya Airways (KQ101) London Heathrow 18:25 (arrives Nairobi JKIA 18th August 05:00)

Inbound to London:
29th August Kenya Airways (KQ108) Nairobi JKIA 23:40 (arrives London Gatwick 06:50 30th August)

Please note that these flights depart from London Heathrow and arrive back to London Gatwick. 
These flights can be purchased as 1 ticket by using the ‘multi city’ option on the Kenya Airways website. 

If you are on these flights, our team will meet you pre check in at Heathrow and you can travel together from there. 

The camp officially starts and finishes at Nairobi airport (JKIA). International flights to Kenya are not included and must be arranged separately. 

We hope to welcome young runners from across the world so we have an arrivals window into/out of Nairobi JKIA as follows: 

Arrival:
18th August at Nairobi JKIA between 00:00 – 15:30

Departure:
29th August between 12:00 – 23:59

Please note that your flights must be within these windows in order to ensure that we can connect to domestic flights to/from Eldoret. 

Our staff will meet you on arrival at Nairobi as you come through the baggage collection area. (You must also pass through immigration control and we will provide all necessary information for this in advance of travel) 

Our team will then look after you from the moment you arrive in Nairobi, until we accompany you back to your departure terminal for your return flight home. 

Please note that only those with valid travel tickets are allowed to pass through initial security and into the international departures terminal at Nairobi JKIA. Therefore we will accompany runners up to this point only. Our staff will remain on site and contactable at all times until we have confirmation that athletes have checked in and made their way to the departure area. 

If your flights are delayed and you miss the arrivals window into Nairobi, or if your outbound flight from Nairobi is delayed beyond the departure window, our team will continue to provide all necessary support to look after you for the duration of your time in Kenya. This may incur additional charges such as extra accommodation, additional staff time and / or rebooking domestic flights to Eldoret. 

Kenya Experience staff will look after you throughout your stay and invoice you/your parents for the additional costs afterwards. 

Domestic transfers from Nairobi to Iten are included as part of the camp.

We will fly from Nairobi to Eldoret, and then take private hire buses to the camp in Iten. 

The domestic flight is with JamboJet and takes less than a hour. When you book your place, we will book you onto the corresponding Nairobi – Eldoret flight. This means we will have athletes on multiple flights throughout the day which will minimise waiting times in Nairobi and ensure that your overall journey time is as short as possible.

We will have staff on every flight and at Nairobi and Eldoret airports. There will be no point in the transfer from Nairobi to Iten where you are not supervised by Kenya Experience staff. 

The same process will occur for the return journey from Iten to Nairobi. There are multiple flights on this route each day and we will book you on the appropriate flight to correspond with your flight out of Nairobi. All flights and all points of this transfer will be supervised by Kenya Experience staff. 

Our accommodation is the High Altitude Training Centre in Iten.

Our inbound and outbound flight windows have ensured that we will spend all 11 nights of the camp in Iten with no need for any accommodation in Nairobi. 

The High Altitude Training Centre is the premier training camp in Iten, and is home base to a plethora of internationally acclaimed stars when they are training in Iten. It is a safe, comfortable and well equipped accommodation for us to use as a base venue for our camp. 

Rooms are simple, clean and comfortable with en-suite bathrooms including hot water showers, they are not luxury hotel rooms. All athletes will be in a Twin Room with another same sex runner on the Young Athlete Camp. There may be single occupancy rooms available on request at an additional charge, but we encourage young runners to embrace the training camp environment by sharing rooms with a roommate. 

The camp provides full board accommodation with 3 meals a day served buffet style. Hot drinks and snacks between meals are also available.  Drinking water is provided at each meal. Additional bottled water for use between meals must be purchased and is available on site for a very small fee. 

Special dietary requirements can be catered for. 

The facility includes a gym, swimming pool and sauna. Please note that athletes attending the Young Athlete Camp are not permitted to use the swimming pool unless there is a life guard present. 

The full Kenya Experience team will be present during this camp, with additional coach and pastoral support from UK based coaches Dan Studley and Matt Seddon. 

The usual Kenya Experience team is led by Willy Songok – a lead tour guide of over a decades experience. Willy has lead Kenya Experience camps since 2017 and will be your first port of call throughout the camp. Willy is supported by our coaching team led by Richard Mukche and guide runners led by Emmanuel Bundotich. 

Dan and Matt are UK based coaches who run the UK’s leading young athlete training camp Junior2Senior. As well as running Junior2Senior, Matt and Dan are both coaches within the UK education sector. They are perfectly placed to provide additional coach and pastoral support for the young athletes attending the Kenya Experience Young Athlete Camp. 

Additionally, we will have a full time female member of staff during the camp to provide additional care and support specifically to our female runners. This role will be updated in due course when this staff member has been confirmed. 

Kenya Experience are established in Iten over 15 years and we have excellent contacts and lines of communication with local doctors should any of our guests require medical attention. 

Certified first aiders will also be present throughout the camp. 

There are hospitals and clinics locally in Iten which can deal with minor aliments and accidents. 

Should more specialised treatment be required, there are excellent private hospitals with western style facilities in Eldoret (32km from our accommodation). These private hospitals will require payment in cash which can then be claimed back through your insurance. Should the need arise, Kenya Experience staff can make these payments on your behalf and then invoice parents for reimbursement. 

We have been operating running camps in Iten since 2010 and have not had a single negative security incident. 

Iten is a friendly welcoming place where foreign runners are accepted and welcomed by local residents. 

Our accommodation employs a full time security guard to ensure all visitors to the site are accounted for at all times. We have an excellent and established relationship with the local police force, but it is very rare that we need them to intervene for any reason. 

As with all foreign travel you should be aware of local customs and norms and act accordingly. Our staff are there to ensure this is the case. 

We will have a full behaviour and code of conduct agreement in place which all runners must agree to in advance. 

We will run the camps in accordance with the UK government guidelines for school trips abroad. This suggests that the minimum staff to child ratio should be 1:8. In reality our staff to child ratio will be much lower than that, likely a 1:4 or 1:5 ratio during non training times and a 1:2 ratio during training runs.

In and around the camp, we will have 5 full time staff members with additional staff supporting individual aspects of the camp where necessary. 

During training runs we will have additional local guide runners who will thus keep the ratio to not more than 1:2 when we outside of our base accommodation. 

In addition to these Kenya Experience staff there are also the HATC staff and 24 hour security guard. 

The camp is designed to allow young runners to travel and experience the entire process independently in a strongly supported environment. 

However, if you wish to travel alongside your child to Kenya, and / or to stay with them during the duration of the camp you are very welcome. 

There are many options for this and we can help you with arrangements however it works best for your family. 

Possible options: 
– Travel with the athlete to Nairobi then leaves them in our care at handover. 
– Travel with athlete to Iten and stays in a separate, near by accommodation. 
– Travel with athlete to Iten and stay at the same accommodation. 

If you choose to stay at the same accommodation as your child, our preference is to allow them to share a room with another athlete on the camp in order to access the full experience, but this is not compulsory and we can work with you to best support your child. 

Yes. 

Mobile phone and internet signal in Iten is excellent and there will be no problem contacting your child. If for some reason you are unable to communicate with them directly, our staff phone numbers will be available to you throughout the camp. 

Please note however, that we will be encouraging young runners to minimise screen/phone time during the camp and encouraging them to embrace the slower paced, simple life enjoyed by the elite runners in Kenya. 

Yes. 

The majority of runners who attend a training camp with us are solo travellers and we anticipate this being the case for the Young Athletes Camp as well. 

You will meet people during the camp who will likely become friends fore life! 

Our staff are experienced at integrating young people who have never met before and will ensure that no one feels left out and we form a strong team bond. 

No problem! 

Please email us and we can arrange a call with our UK based team.