Leirikesä – best children’s camps in the world!

At the Leirikesä camps, children and young people will get happiness, joy, friends, and unforgettable experiences all year round.

Leirikesä camps are intended for all children and young people aged 7–16. In cooperation with families, schools, municipalities and cities, stakeholders, and several organisations, each year we offer nearly 4,300 children and young people an unforgettable holiday - a Leirikesä summer.

At our camps, skilled and safe employees ensure that everything goes as planned, that the programme is of high quality, and that the food is good. We employ over 250 young adults yearly to bring out the best in Leirikesä.

You are welcome to join our camps - as a participant or as a partner - and enable the best holiday ever for children and the young!


Day camps for children mean fun and safe activities near your home!

Day camps mean that you will take part in activities from morning until afternoon, and then you go home at the end of each day of camp.

Learn more about different day camps

  • Partiolaisten päiväleirit (The camp programme is in Finnish)
  • Scouternas Dagsläger (The camp programme is in Swedish)
  • Scouts Day Camps (The camp programme is in English and Finnish)

Day camps are meant for school children aged about 7–10 and about 10–12 years. Day camps are organised in June in Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa as well as during school autumn and winter holidays in Helsinki. The day camps are often organised near the participants’ homes.

A day camp normally takes 4–5 days, from Monday to Thursday or Friday. The programme usually takes place between 9am – 4pm.

Day camp price

The price for a day camp is determined by the number of camp days and the child’s municipality of residence, and varies between 100 € - 200 €.

The price includes lunch and snacks, care by the counsellors, primary accident insurance, and plenty of fun-filled programme for the entire duration of the camp. Some camps offer the possibility of a benefit, available via application, that will lower the cost.

Camp programme and activities

At day camps, you get to know your new friends, have fun and play games, make trips to the surrounding area, do woodwork and other handicrafts, cook, and do other fun camp stuff. Each camp day includes lunch and snacks.

A child can participate in one or several day camps per year.

Sign up for a camp

You can find all the day camps in the Leirikesä Booking service. The booking service allows you to sign up for camps, review and modify your own and your child’s information, and pay for a camp using one of the many payment options we offer.

A night camp in the great outdoors is a personal holiday and a safe adventure for your child!

Night camps mean that you spend full days and nights at the camp, from start to finish. At night camps you sleep with the other campers in a tent or indoors at the camp premises. There are things to do and guided activities from morning till night.

Learn more

  • Kiljava Leirikesä®
  • Kesärinne Leirikesä

Don’t forget the night camps in the winter season!

Night camps are meant for children aged 7–12 years, young people aged 13–15 years, and some camps are even available to young people of 16. Night camps normally take 3–6 full days. They often begin on a Sunday and end on, for example, the following Wednesday or Saturday. Night camps are organised between early June to early August, that is, for the duration of school summer holidays. There are also some night camps available during school winter holidays.

Our night camps also provide opportunities to intellectually disabled children and young people. Children who need a full-time personal assistant can also participate in our camps. We can provide an assistant in these cases.

Our night camps are organised in the Southern Finland area, for instance in Hyvinkää or Tuusula, at our modern and high-quality camp centres. You can come to all our night camps in your own car or chartered bus (at an extra cost). You can book a seat in the chartered bus when signing up for a camp.

Night camp price

Typically, a one-week night camp costs about 170 € with discounts. You can find detailed pricing information in our price list (in Finnish only).

The price for a night camp depends on several aspects. Based on camp duration, the basic price varies between 248–320 € but there are several different discounts available. You can learn more about these discounts here.

Compared with the example prices above, camp costs are higher for children with intellectual disabilities or for those who require a personal assistant.

Camp price includes full board at the camp, tent accommodation at the Kiljava summer camp or indoors accommodation at the winter camp and Kesärinne summer camps, care by the counsellors, primary accident insurance, and plenty of fun-filled programme for the entire duration of the camp.

Camp programme and activities

The Kiljava night camps in the summer are traditional tented camps and at the Kesärinne camps participants sleep indoors in the centre premises. The camps offer action-packed themed activities, social clubs and crafting groups, and relaxing moments at the tent village within your own group.

When the kids have free time, they engage in things such as climbing walls, jumping on trampolines, or swimming in a lake or the sea – each campsite provides slightly different programmes. In winter, we sleep indoors at the camp centre and have activities both in- and outdoors.

Every camp day includes up to five shared meals, with a chance to do a little shopping at the camp kiosk during the day.

Sign up for a camp

You can find all the night camps in the Leirikesä Booking service. The booking service allows you to sign up for camps, review and modify your own and your child’s information, and pay for a camp using one of the many payment options we offer.

Leirikesä promise

Read the Leirikesä promise below – this is what we guarantee for all children and guardians who take part in one of our camps! Read the entire promise here (in Finnish only).

1. Leirikesä offers traditional camp atmosphere and captivating programme

2. Best possible care is taken of all campers

3. You will learn new things at the camp and it supports the children’s growth

4. The camp provides the services of an enthusiastic, professional, and trained staff

5. There is good information flow between the homes and the camp


Subsidised holiday for all kinds of children

A subsidised holiday means that the child can take a holiday at a night camp at a lower price. Nearly all children can apply for a subsidised holiday at a Leirikesä night camp.

Subsidised holidays are about 50 % cheaper

A subsidised holiday costs about one half of the camp’s regular price. A typical six-day subsidised night camp costs about 170 €. Without the subsidy the same camp costs about 320 €.

We grant the discount based on social, financial, or health reasons related to the child or family. There may be one or several reasons, and the reasons do not have to be directly related to the child who will be attending the camp.

In principle, a child may attend one (1) camp per year at the discounted price, but it is possible to get another discount during the same calendar year providing that there are empty slots at the camp.

There are no limitations as to how many camps you can attend each year if you are paying the full price yourself.

Apply for a discount when signing up

You can apply for a discount at the time of signing up for a camp by filling in the discount-related fields in the child’s registration form.

Social reasons may include one or several of the following:

  • supporting the child’s social growth
  • loneliness
  • bullying
  • internet or game addiction
  • learning difficulties
  • immigrant background
  • refugee background
  • multicultural background
  • family’s coping
  • substance abuse in the family
  • older parents
  • blended family
  • multiple birth family
  • broken home
  • single parent
  • more than three children in the family
  • recent birth of a younger sibling
  • serious illness or death in the family
  • socially marginalised family

Financial reasons may include one or several of the following:

  • unemployment
  • low income
  • large family
  • student household
  • retiree household
  • guardian’s gambling addiction
  • becoming overburdened with debts
  • debt arrangement
  • recovery proceedings

Health reasons may include one or several of the following:

  • child’s long-term illness (such as coeliac disease, diabetes, asthma)
  • person(s) with intellectual, hearing, or visual disabilities in the family
  • child’s or sibling's developmental disorder (such as ADHD, dysphasia)
  • allergy/allergies that impact the child's daily life
  • physically challenged person(s), for example people who require a wheelchair to move around, in the family
  • mental illness in the family
  • severe illness (such as cancer, addiction, rheumatism) that impacts everyday life in the family

When are you not eligible for the discount?

At the moment, you cannot get a discount for day camps. Also, the following aspects make you ineligible for a night camp discount:

  • attending child comes from a professional foster home, institution, or comparable limited-company type of organisation
  • attending child does not have permanent residence in Finland

Other support for camp fees

We may also grant a benefit to support a child's camp fee if there are financial challenges in the family. After this benefit is applied, the customer typically pays an excess amount of 20–50 EUR. Learn more about the benefit and how to apply for it by clicking here (in Finnish only).

You can also inquire about financial support from your own municipality’s social services.


Leirikesä ry (registered association) provides camp jobs for more than 250 young adults every year

We are a popular employer and - especially when it comes to summer jobs - may receive as many as one thousand applications each year from eager applicants. Our youngest employees are fifteen years of age and they usually get their first real glimpse of working life via us. Everyone chosen to work for us will receive training and induction to their individual duties and to Leirikesä operations in general. We provide written contracts of employment and after the employment relationship ends, each worker receives a work certificate.

Leirikesä ry acts as the employer for each employee. We comply with collective agreement(s) and provide occupational healthcare. In addition to an extremely meaningful job, we offer a magnificent work community that has produced many lifetime friendships!

Different camps offer different tasks and duties with variety and sufficient challenges for everyone. Leirikesä also offer quite good possibilities for career advancement to duties with more responsibility in the camp organisation. It fills us with pride when we recount stories of shy and timid assistant counsellors who have grown with us all the way to camp leader, with excellent means of succeeding also in later working life!

We are hiring all year round

  • we recruit employees each year for the summer season in December-January online
    • we provide training for work tasks in the spring before the summer season starts. These trainings teach you about camp safety, camp practices, Leirikesä values, and our way of working. Our youngest employees are trained in everyday working aspects as we go along.
    • during spring, we recruit employees for various preparatory and communications projects from those who already have a history of working for us
    • in August, we recruit employees for our autumn camps from those who already have a history of working for us
    • in October-November, we recruit employees for our winter camps from those who already have a history of working for us
    • we recruit camp leaders for next summer's camps from those who already have a history of working for us normally during October
    • after choosing the camp leaders, we recruit management and project teams for next summer's camps from those who already have a history of working for us in October-November

Are you one of the creators of the world’s best camps for children?

Leave a job application and we’ll find out! 😊


Contact information

Call us: +3589 8865 1280

Mon–Thu 10am - 3pm

closed on Fridays

If we are unable to answer your call, please leave a message in our answering service and we’ll get back to you. You can speak to us in Finnish and English on the phone.

Email us at: toimisto@leiri.fi

We handle our email messages in order of arrival on weekdays approximately between 10am–3pm. You can email us in Finnish, Swedish, and English.

Chat with us

You can ask about issues regarding our camps or our association. We are online whenever you see a dark blue chat icon in the lower right corner of the page (mainly Mon-Thu between 10am–3pm, occasionally in the evenings as well). You can chat with us in Finnish and English.


Leirikesä ry (registered association)

Leirikesä ry is an organisation of preventive child protection, operating through open camps for children. Each year, about 4,300 children and young people attend our various night and day camps. We provide jobs to about 250 seasonal workers at our camps yearly. Leirikesä is a non-profit association with sponsors such as the Funding Centre for Social Welfare and Health Organisations (STEA), several municipalities, and foundations. Leirikesä is part of the Scouts and Guides of Finland community in the metropolitan area.

All Leirikesä operations are politically and religiously independent. The background communities for Leirikesä are the association of Pääkaupunkiseudun partiolaiset ry and the Kai, Eeva, and Aarne Vähäkallio Memorial Foundation. Leirikesä is a member of the Central Union for Child Welfare, SOSTE Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health, and the Finnish Association of Private Care Providers.