Founded nearly 85 years ago by the educationalist Kurt Hahn, Outward Bound was built on a simple, unfashionable belief: character matters as much as academic achievement. Kurt noticed that when people were placed in challenging outdoor situations – cold, tired, and occasionally lost in nature – they grew. Confidence increased. Friendships formed. Self-expectations were exceeded.
Outward Bound programmes continue to embrace this philosophy. Students hike through mountainous terrain, scramble through gorges, climb rock faces, jump off cliffs, paddle rivers, and cook and sleep outdoors. Phones and social media are left behind. It is not designed to be easy, and that is point.
“For teenagers in an Outward Bound programme, being outdoors accelerates self-discovery by removing familiar comforts and forcing real responses to challenge,” says Debbie Gorski, General Secretary of Outward Bound Monaco.
“This is a life-changing personal development experience, with both mental and physical challenges, that enhances team working and leadership skills and confidence building. For these students, facing uncertainty and shared hardship reveals resilience and fears more honestly than a classroom can.”
Each year, Outward Bound Monaco students, aged 10 to 17, are escorted from Nice airport to centres in the Lake District, West Wales and Scotland. They return happily tired, muddier, and changed – with a supply of stories to tell instead of stories to show.
“The skills they have learned – perseverance, confidence, teamwork, and adaptability – carry directly into school, work, and home life, where challenges rarely come with clear paths or easy solutions,” says Debbie, who also does marketing, communications and PR for the Monaco chapter. “They realise that effort, resilience and calmness under pressure matter more than comfort.”
Courses run one, two or three weeks with prices ranging from €1,499 to €3,099. “At the moment, we are offering an Early Bird discount for anyone who books before January 31. And, more importantly we believe that any young person who wants to go on an Outward Bound programme should be able to do so. If you need financial assistance to pay for a course, please ask us.”
Outward Bound Monaco is a registered association in the Principality since 2004. “We are extremely honoured to have HSH Prince Albert as our Patron. He is incredibly supportive to us and always seems to enjoy meeting our triumphant excited students.”
Debbie adds, “Without phones or status symbols, our Monaco Outward Bound students learn more about who they are under pressure, how they rely on others, and that confidence often grows not from ease and luxury, but from enduring difficulty and succeeding anyway.”
For more information or to book a place, visit the website or send enquiries by email.
Article first published January 29, 2026. Photos Outward Bound Monaco Facebook.