Our advise

Accommodation and food

Monastery provides beds with blankets, pillows etc. but we advise you to take mats and sleeping bags with you, as not only our group comes to work at Valaam, but also many other volunteers and workers, and sometimes monastery faces problems with accommodation, especially in the summer. As monks usually find rooms for us 1-2 days before our arrival, it’s impossible to say, how many persons will live with you – 2 or 10. Men and women never live together.

Sometimes volunteers remove in other, more comfortable rooms during their stay.

There’s only cold water in the dormitory, and shower is provided twice a week.

Simple food (breakfast, dinner, supper) also will be provided by monastery. It’s good in the monastery. If you are vegetarian, you’ll be able to eat only vegetarian food, as the meat is served separately.

There’s a special “monastery” diet: they eat eggs, milk, fish only during 4 days of the week.

There is 1 shop, where you can buy food, sweets, shampoo, hygienic wares... There are some souvenir shops and 1 cafe, also bakery, post, drugstore on the island. Any of this establishments can be easily closed “for vacances”, as only 1-2 persons work there. We advise you to take all the necessary medicins with you.

Dress code. Rules of behaviour

Traditions and dress code of the monastery didn’t change since the 18th century. Monks wear long hear and beards, they’re dressed in black. On the territory of the monastery and farm you should also keep some rules:

- Girls always wear long skirts, which should cover their knees. Their heads should be also covered by kerchief or something like this... Also your should wear long-sleeved shirts... It’s allowed to work in the trousers if you wear it under the skirt. When you visit churches, don’t forget to cover your head.

- Boys shouldn’t wear T-shirts and shorts in the monastery, their legs and hands should be covered. Don’t cover your head while visiting church!

Don’t smoke and drink alcohol on the territory of the monastery, don’t be too loud.

Please, bring with you

• warm sweater, jacket, socks for the cool nights and work;
• boots for working on the fields (the earth could be very wet!). It maybe rubber boots;
• raincoat;
• working clothes;
• for girls skirt under the knee and kerchief;
• rubber and rag gloves;
• swimming suit and bath towel;
• bedroom-slippers;
• flashlight;
• cup, spoon, fork, knife, bowl;
• medicines
  (everyone could have problems with stomach or catch a cold).

It will be great if you can sing or dance your national songs. Do not forget to bring information about your country (cards, photos), pics of your family and friends, games, creative ideas and good mood.

Free time

During the free time you will have a chance to visit different churches and temples situated at Valaam and learn much about Russian orthodox culture. Those monks, who have no desire to see tourists and women, live not in the central monastery, but in the skethes. You can see the buildings of skethes, but it is often not allowed to enter them. In the souvenir’s shop near the monastery you can obtain the map of the island with all the roads and skethes.

Valaam is wonderful place for fishing and swimming. As the water in Ladoga Lake is rather cold (about 15 C), you can swim in the inner lakes, which seem to be a little bit warmer. There’s a place for playing volleyball, so you can take a ball with you.

Volunteers like to go for a walk along the rocky shores of the island.

During the work-camp monasrety organizes two excursions. You will make a walking-tour of the monastery buildings and water sightseeing tour of the sketches in the islands.