Gotoco FUNDED TEFL Adventures (Bali, Thailand, Colombia, Europe, SE Asia!) Reviews

The Gotoco programme in Colombia has been a fantastic experience. I really enjoyed the initial hostel stay at Salento, trekking Cocora valley, coffee exploration, and walking around town in Chinchina with other Gotoco participants. I was able to explore different parts of Colombia, make new friends and have learned a lot from my experience abroad. Would totally recommend it to anyone looking to get out of their comfort zone, learn something new about a different culture and themselves, and earn fully-funded TESOL certification that could lead into a career that's both fulfilling and can take you to even more places in the world.

I heard about Gotoco through signing up on freshers week at the University of Glasgow. I was then emailed closer to the time of program and signed up. I went to Thailand for six weeks and taught English. It was an amazing experience and really tested myself outside of my comfort zone. The Gotoco team were great and answered any queries we had about the trip. They also checked in on us to make sure we were ok while out there. We ended the experience with a week long culture trip to Koh Pha Ngan. Overall I would recommend this experience to anyone keen to travel and live in a different country.

I spent my summer in Thailand teaching English to kindergarteners. Despite that being the main selling point of the trip, GOTOCO provides so much more than a teaching experience. I fully immersed myself in another culture, the beautiful nature, and the incredible cuisine (which I miss very much). It honestly seemed too good to be true, but it wasn't and I had the most incredible summer which I got to spend with wonderful strangers my age (now friends) who I'd otherwise probably never have met. Everything was funded, food, flights, cultural trips, (even alcohol to my surprise), and the GOTOCO staff members were helpful and accommodating at every turn. I was surprised by just how much of Thailand I was able to travel around and experience (fully accompanied and paid for by GOTOCO), the whole experience was unforgettable and I recommend it to absolutely everyone reading this.

I did the Thailand and Bali programmes this summer and had such an amazing experience. The teaching was really fun but also very valuable. Additionally, I was lucky to get on well with the other volunteers and made some new friends for when we are back in the UK. I got so much out of my summer with gotoco. I visited lots of amazing places, met great people , saw beautiful things and did lots of fun activities. The accommodation was all provided and gotoco even took us on some extra trips which were very fun. I am very grateful for the experiences I had and would definitely recommend gotoco .

Free month with nothing going on? Jump into this program, it is awesome and such an experience that does not come every so often. Be open minded and be ready for your life to be open because of the cultures that the program provides for you. Furthermore, it is free so there really is nothing for you to lose by participating, so i would recommend you to give it a shot and see how the experience goes teaching kids and spreading knowledge to kids who otherwise will not have the chance to experience such things.

I had a great experience! By the end of the trip, I felt very comfortable finding my way around the country. I gained confidence and found it easy to speak to others, both gotocoes and locals, by the end of my time there.

It was great to meet other like-minded travelers from gotoco and have an authentic cultural experience in the school.

The application process was very easy, and the gotoco team were quick at replying to any queries I had. Even though it did take a lot of time to sort everything for the trip, it was commincated very clearly.

The most enjoyable part of the trip was when in my free time I went to chiang mai with a group of colleagues. We did a elephant tour which was quite a exciting experience as we were quite literally bathing with these giant creatures.

The highlights on my experience were definitely when I was teaching at schools as it made me happy seeing the students actually learn english throughout the day. The second highlight would be the free time that was given as this meant I could go off and do my own ting, thus not being bound to the group.

I would recommend gotoco as you are a well funded and professional organisation, Everyone I have met from GOTOCO has been nothing but kind and respectful when I had questions.

This program has benefited as it has allowed me to explore teaching as a career as well as letting me discover one of my favourite countries that I have been to.

I had a wonderful time teaching English as a Foreign Language with Gotoco in Poland! I taught English for three weeks in Poland through the company Angloville, and then went on Gotoco's 'cultural tour' of Warsaw and Krakow. Angloville provides paid 2-9-day 'cultural immersion' camps to for children and adults to practise speaking English in Poland and a range of other countries. I was on three 'junior' week-long summer programmes at the same venue in August 2022, which meant I was working with children aged 11-16. The days consisted of conversation sessions (40-minute conversations between two participants and one native speaker), presentation sessions (when 1-3 participants per native speaker developed a speaking presentation on a topic of their choice to be presented at the end of the week), games, challenges, art workshops and speaking to the participants in English at other times such as at mealtimes. The Angloville programmes were intense, with scheduled activities from 9am-9pm, but there were plenty of breaks within this, and the 'gamified' English-speaking format helped ease the exhaustion. If I hadn't done Angloville through Gotoco (who pay travel costs), I think I would have resented having to pay travel costs to volunteer on quite such an intense schedule. I found the teaching element lots of fun but slightly too repetitive by the end of three weeks at the same place. I really enjoyed the subsequent cultural tour, highlights being a Chopin concert in a park in Warsaw, walking tours in both cities, the night market in Warsaw and the salt mines and Jewish quarter in Krakow. Food, accommodation and travel costs were covered for the duration of the trip, a feature that sets Gotoco apart from many companies which offer TEFL opportunities. Gotoco provides a great chance to meet new people, a cheap way to travel, teaching experience and a good first taste of solo travel. I've made some close friends, developed my professional skills and experience, and had a wonderful time teaching and travelling through Gotoco.

Spent a great few weeks in Italy gaining my TEFL qualification and learning so much about the Italian culture and language! We had a training session for a week in Sanremo where we learnt everything we needed to know to go on to have our own classes for the next two weeks. I stayed with a host family while teaching at the summer camps which was the most amazing experience! I got to explore the local area and cuisine after my classes and at the weekends, including visiting the gorgeous Lake Garda!

The most rewarding experience! Our group (4 girls) were placed in a private kindergarten school in Phuket for 1 month to teach English. Thanks to the funding sourced by Gotoco, I was able to experience living in Thailand on a very comfortable budget!

Accomodation: shared double room in a nearby condominium.
Food: we were given a stipend so mainly ate in restaurants (which works out pretty cheap & was a great way to try different Thai dishes)
Tips: bring a rain poncho/umbrella; pack some UK memorabilia to show in class
Favourite part: travelling on the weekends and meeting up with other teachers on the programme
Least favourite part: having to leave :(