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Angloville

Why choose Angloville?

Angloville is one of the biggest providers of free educational & cultural exchange programmes in Europe. We offer a fun and intercultural experience during which international participants can discover 15+ European countries for free, having their board and lodging in beautiful countryside hotels covered, while meeting young European students and practicing English with them. We welcome 8000+ participants every year. Featured in: Lonely Planet, Forbes, Fashion Magazine, Travel Magazine, Glasgow Guardian.

DESTINATIONS: France, Italy, Malta, Germany, England (United Kingdom), Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Belgium, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and many, many more!

Website
angloville.com
Founded
2011

Impact

We serve local communities is by partnering with local businesses for accommodation and activities that are often family-run small businesses. This is close to our values as we value the growth of small businesses and helping local communities. We are proud of our corporate responsibilities by supporting the local community and charity events.

Reviews

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Jodi
1/5
No, I don't recommend this program

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS DISHONEST FIRM

My first program with AV was in July 2023 with a teen program, as a volunteer they gave me my own room as I travelling alone, second was an adult program in Dec 2023, they allowed me to pay for my own room so accommodated my needs. As for the ESL mentor role in July 2024, they stole my deposit , forced me to share a room even though the ESL mentor package said you'd get your own room, and didn't pay me for my time, they gave a volunteer their own room yet force ESL mentors to share against their will.

Cons
  • Slave labour
  • Bad food
  • Doesn't accommodate special needs
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Pat
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Angloville review 2024

I cannot recommend this program enough to anyone who is looking to do travelling cheaply and to meet inspiring like minded people. The venues you get to stay at are incredible and the locations are beautiful. You get plenty of free time and there's always something to do at the hotel or close by. The participants you work with are intelligent, interesting and fun to talk to. It doesn't feel like teaching at all yet you also learn so much from the participants. It is overall a very fulfilling and rewarding experience which I will be doing again.

Pros
  • The people I met
  • The experiences I got
  • The memories I made
Cons
  • Some venues don't have the best food
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Kathryn
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Friendly people and good overall

I really enjoyed my time participating with Angloville and met many other people who had engaged with multiple programmes. The experience was incredibly rewarding and enriching. The program is well-organized, and the coordinators ensure that every participant feels comfortable and engaged. I would suggest it to anyone looking to meet new people, learn about different cultures, and travel to parts of the world they would not normally visit. Whether you are a seasoned traveler or someone looking for their first adventure abroad, Angloville offers a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in different cultures while making lifelong friends. The connections I made and the experiences I had were truly unforgettable. It’s not just about teaching English; it’s about exchanging ideas, stories, and perspectives with people from all walks of life. The program also allows you to explore beautiful, lesser-known destinations, adding a touch of adventure to the learning experience. I highly recommend Angloville to anyone eager to broaden their horizons and embrace new challenges.

What would you improve about this program?
To provide more structure with programme framework to clarify what is expected of participants throughout the duration of the week, ie. to support the local participants. This would support the engagement and level of learning experienced by the local participants as it would provide the international participants guidelines and support to help in the most effective way, eg. How/when to give feedback, what areas to focus on, what the prompt sheets are designed for
Pros
  • Location
  • Friendly people
  • Learn about new cultures
Cons
  • Lack of coordination and communication between delivery operations and central Angloville team
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Vijay
1/5
No, I don't recommend this program

Angloville-Kurpe Arte -Novogorod, Poland

I was a native English-speaker 'mentor' for this English conversation program in Poland. We were promised 6 nights in a 3-4 star hotel+3 meals a day. The reality was we were put 2-to-a room in the staff quarters-old dirty furniture with bugs+ yuki food which made you pyuke. In the evening nothing cooked -just cheese+ bread. 1 mentor was bitten in the eye by a bug in her room. Polish students pay Euros 1000+ for this program I doubt Angloville spent 100 Euros on the mentors. They even have the nerve to charge 35 Euros to the mentors as 'admin fee'. A horrible experience. Slave labour never again. Avoid like the plague.

Pros
  • Nothing!
Cons
  • Slave labour, terrible food, awful accomodation.
  • terrible food
  • dirty bug-ridden accomodation
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Hsina
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Warsaw

I was very excited to return to Warsaw after twenty two years this time with Angloville. I first went on a coach travelling over twenty seven hours. However this time around it was a different experience as now many Polish people spoke English compared with 2001 when Poland was being prepared to join the European union. My stay was great this time at Lamza ...a train ride outside of Warsaw...beautiful countryside and serene. The program was at Arti hotel. Meeting Lovely Mentees and fellow international Mentors.

Pros
  • Food locations
Cons
  • Need better conditions to sleep and refresh.

Programs

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Alumni Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with verified alumni.

Why did you choose this program?

I chose to do Angloville as I love to meet new people, travel and learn about new cultures. I really liked the idea of helping non-native English students practice and gain confidence in speaking over a one week stay in a hotel.

I did 2 weeks of volunteering on Adult programs in Poland and it was a fantastic way to meet Polish students, eat Polish food and see more of the country that I would never normally go to in my travels. It was also a great week to meet other native English speakers who were also mostly traveling Europe like myself.

I was already in Europe at the time and found Angloville through the internet. Everything seemed very organized on their website and it did turn out to be a very efficient company to volunteer with.

What did your program provider (or university) assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?

Angloville provides 1-week accommodation at a nice hotel (2 or 3 sharing a room) usually quite far away from the bigger cities in Poland and other nearby countries (plus transport to and from the hotel/city).

While on the program, they provide you with food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and water, tea and coffee. You just need to cover your flight costs to get to Poland, travel insurance, as well as your accommodation in the city before and after the program.

They also provide a city tour the day before the program starts, which was great to meet some of the other volunteers and learn about the Polish city!

What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?

Enjoy the week and get to know as many of the volunteers and students as you can. It is such a great opportunity to meet people from many different backgrounds and you will surely make some friends for a lifetime along the way!

Have fun and give your knowledge of English to someone that will appreciate learning from you :)

What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?

At Angloville, the 6 days are long, but they are filled with many speaking and activity sessions that make the day go by really fast. You get the chance to speak English on a 50-minute one-on-one session with almost all the students, and on the adult program, we could socialize during the evenings.

Depending on which hotel you are at, there can be a pool, gym, sauna, spa, etc that you can use in your free time.

Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?

I guess I had a little fear of not knowing anyone before you participate in the program. However, you quickly realize the first day when you meet at the meeting point that everyone is super friendly and wanting to learn more about each other. From that point on, you will not stop talking!

The adult age groups were varied and its great to see the bonds between the volunteers and students throughout the week.

It was such a great experience to do Angloville and it's one that I will always remember! If you volunteer for just one week, you will definitely want to do another!

Staff Interviews

These are in-depth Q&A sessions with program leaders.

Liam Nelson

Job Title
Program Coordinator
Liam started coordinating Angloville's English language immersion programs early in 2016. After 12 years in the fitness industry managing gyms, and 2 years TEFL teaching in Germany, he took up this new role as an exciting way to combine his management and teaching skills. While based in Warsaw, he travels all over Poland to some beautiful isolated locations where he helps native English speaker volunteers to help Polish learners to speak English.
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What is your favorite travel memory?

So many great memories come to mind! Island hopping in Greece for an amazing combination of fun and beauty, touring around the interesting cities of hugely underrated Belgium, including staying on an eco-friendly barge in Ghent - but my favorite memories probably come from Spain.

Andalucia was the most facinating for me with its passion, its fresh calamari, its flamenco, its Moorish architecture, its stone squares that come alive after midnight, its barren but beautiful countryside interrupted by olive trees, castillos and big black bull silhouettes!

Traveling up into the mountains near Granada we stayed in a tiny village that was literally at the end of all roads and tracks. Although it was mostly a mountainous dessert, the natural springs mean you also had some lush green areas with delicious figs just falling off the trees to be eaten. The silence and the beauty was just breathtaking.

How have you changed/grown since working for your current company?

It has been great for me to combine my management skills with my teaching skills in one position. I can help develop both the learners the teachers, and in doing so I have developed myself.

There is a big focus in the world today on soft skills, and these are certainly needed in my job. Developing people skills I think is about understanding people and understanding yourself, and that is a life-long journey. There is no better way to understanding people than spending a week with around 40 of them from all over Poland and all over the world, from age 18 to 86, and from every career background imaginable.

I can be with participants exercising at 7:30am and can be saying goodnight after socializing well after midnight. So there is plenty of opportunity for learning and sharing ideas. With every program I learn something new about business, about other countries, about life, about people or about myself.

What is the best story you've heard from a return student?

Many students and volunteer teachers talk about the program being a life-changing experience and form lasting friendships.

Of course the students come to improve their English but often they end up valuing even more the inspiration they take from meeting so many interesting people from around the world.

The sort of people that are attracted to the program are usually open to and interested in new experiences and meeting new people. This in itself creates a fantastic atmosphere, where everyone learns from each other in so many different and unexpected ways. Our native speaker participants are often invited to come and stay at the homes of Polish participants and others even get jobs.

A recent returning Polish participant had taken time off work to secretly go on the course to improve her English and when she returned her boss immediately noticed a huge difference. So, it's good to hear that people are also achieving their original goals!

If you could go on any program that your company offers, which one would you choose and why?

I would go on a week long program leaving from Wroclaw. We give our native speaker participants a free city tour and meal the day before the program, and Wroclaw is the best city for this in my opinion.

We have a fantastic tour guide there and Wroclaw is such a charming place with all its little gnome statues, and with such a fascinating history as a former German city.

From Wroclaw we travel up into the mountains near the Czech boarder to Hotel Chojnik. The staff are so friendly and there's billiards, sauna, gym, table football, tennis courts, volleyball court and even cute bunny rabbits in the foyer. Weather permitting we also do a walking tour up to Chojnik Castle for even better views.

What do you believe to be the biggest factor in being a successful company?

Firstly you need to have a really good product that people want. People can spend a lot of money traveling to language programs in the UK, or maybe they can spend less traveling to programs in Malta, but they can spend much less staying in their own country, which of course is more convenient too.

It is also win-win as our volunteers gain a huge amount too: a free stay in a beautiful location, teaching experience and development, and a unique cultural experience. As we have been in the market longer than most of our competitors we have had the opportunity to gain a huge amount of feedback and improve things over the last 5 years, and we are still refining that product today.

That being said, a product or concept can still be copied, so I think the most important thing is still the people. As they say, if you get the right people in a room together, the rest will usually take care of itself. I think at Angloville we have some fantastic people, and as coordinators we hopefully have the skills and attitude to lay the foundation for the even more fantastic people that come on our programs every week.