Program Reviews

I had a wonderful experience at Abbey Road’s St Laurent Homestay Program. Even though I was only there for three weeks, I learned so much about the culture, language, and lives of Laurentines! The classes were super helpful to learn the ins and outs of the language, and a lot more about the vocabulary that one could use in everyday conversation. My experience with my host family was amazing, Cathy and Herve were the sweetest people I have met in a long time, and they always made sure that we felt at home with them, helping to acclimate to the new schedule and lifestyle in France. I would recommend anyone to stay with them, and I can faire tes that any other kid that will stay with them will have the same enthusiasm as I do. I will continue to stay in contact with them, because I hope to maintain the close relationship I have built with them over the past few weeks. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here in St Laurent!!

I loved the fact that the group was small and that allowed for more growth and was a better social scene. I loved all the variety of different activities such as snorkeling and shopping and visiting museums and the electives. I wish there were a couple more activities and maybe a little more free time of long mounts of time where we could just head to the beach for a day or maybe go out for lunch or something. I thought my host family was so amazing and I thought it worked out perfectly. The host family living situations were perfect and I wouldn’t change a thing about them. I had an amazing experience and I thought the teachers and all the adults were just absolutely amazing and super kind and understanding. I am very sad to leave, but I know I made the best of my trip.

I spent three weeks in St-Laurent-du-Var with Abbey Road programs this summer, and it was absolutely amazing. I made lifelong friends and memories that I’m never going to lose. I’d highly recommend the home stay program for any student looking to really immerse and learn the language, as my host mom helped me a lot with my accent and learning how to express thoughts and feelings. The food was wonderful and the classes were beneficial and fun (shout out to Sarah and Camille for being the BEST teachers). There were a few small things that the program could have done better, for example communication between staff members, host families and students. I also would have appreciated knowing the schedule for the week a few days before or having a digital version of the schedule. Aside from those things, however, this has been an incredible experience.

The Modern Europe tour provided a fantastic outlet to explore Europe, and it's history, in a very fun and interesting way. The cities picked were perfectly selected, and the staff facilitating the program were compassionate and fun to be with, whilst also balancing a safe environment with a good amount of autonomy from the group. I think that this trip was an incredible experience, and my views of Europe as a whole have grown significantly because of this trip. The program did a very good job in conforming to people's needs, and was very inclusive to everybody involved. One thing I would improve upon is the overall preparedness by the coordinators of the trip. I found that numerous things had to be cut short, or missed, because things like tickets, passes, and itineraries were not planned in advance. I found this particularly frustrating when there were very interesting things I wished to see, but couldn't because we had to spend time buying tickets for something which could've easily been done online.

So far I have loved the entire experience! I made friends on the first day and I know hat I’ll be friends with them forever. My favorite part about the program is how much freedom we get in the city. The administration trusts us so much and it really makes me feel independent. Another fun part about the program is the weekends. Every weekend we go to a new place outside of Nice. So far we have gone to Cannes, Monaco, Italy, Antibes, and a couple other places. They give us leniency in foreign cities too which is fantastic. I enjoy the ability to live with other people my age. It is great to know that if I want to hang out with someone there are 30 people right down the hall. I feel like I have grown so much over the duration of this program and would surely do it again!

I have had a lot of fun at this program !! I have also improved my français!! This program has also allowed me to experience independence as well as learn new things about myself. I would highly recommend this program to my friends and family !! This program allows students to experience living in France for a shirt period of time while going on adventures, meeting new people, and improving your French skills !!! I am very satisfied with this program and I am happy that I chose Abbey roads to improve my French skills !! To be able to speak français and spend time in France has always been my dream and I feel like this program is the perfect way to start mon rêve français !! My family and I are very satisfied with Abbey roads and the program has been a lot better than I expected !! Thank you !!

To preface this, I think you should know that I received an International Baccalaureate Scholarship from my school that allowed me to go on the trip. I chose Abbey Road’s Modern Civilization program for a multitude of reasons. I really wanted to get something out of a summer program beyond simply sightseeing. It was really important to me that my program does not resemble a surface-skimming tourist group. Whenever I travel, I love truly experiencing the foreign city and not just moving from monument to monument with blinders on. The fact that Abbey Road has you staying in a location for at least a few days and really experiencing the culture was extremely appealing. 



I got more out of the trip than I could have ever hoped for. I got to immerse myself in the vibrant cultures of all four countries, I fell in love with France, I got to see so much incredible architecture that I cannot possibly name them all, I got to learn about the German perspective (both historical and contemporary) of WWII and the Holocaust, I made two amazing friends that will last a lifetime (I’ve honestly talked to them every day since returning home), and I got to sample all of the regional foods, discovering some favorites along the way. 



By going on this trip, I truly enhanced my view of history and broadened my global perspective. In addition, I honestly believe that I was able to grow as a person. I had never really been on my own before (I have a twin brother) and I got to see how good I was at handling my own affairs. 
I went on the trip by myself, without knowing anyone prior to arriving at JFK. I immediately clicked with my two future friends in the airport and in the first city, Berlin, and that chemistry lasted the duration of the trip. As the trip went on, I found myself getting closer and closer to my two friends and was able to get along well with the others in the group. 

 
 The staff did an excellent job orienting us with each new city. The hotels were topnotch. The rooms were lovely, the locations were perfect, and the breakfasts were superb.

I would definitely recommend it or any other Abbey Road program. 



It has been 3years now that I came in Cadiz and I’m still keeping in touch with most of the people I met there. I am French and was 14 at the time, I wasn’t really fluent in English and in Spanish either. Being in a Spanish host family and sharing my bedroom with an American helped a lot, I admit the first days were really hard but American teenagers are way more outgoing than the French ones and I had no difficulties to integrate. I had to think in English and in Spanish 24/7 to communicate and it is the best way to learn languages. What’s more, the staff couldn’t be better, we had so much fun with them. This trip was my first time being alone abroad and I could not have imagined a better experience... We surfed, went to pretty beaches, visited museum, and even went to Gibraltar ! The morning lessons in Spanish were really playful, we spent half time inside and halftime outside in Cadiz while making games to speak with people. I will finish by talking about the free times, we had 2 a day, one before eating and one after diner, it was honestly my favorite time of the day, my roommate and I used to adore visiting by ourselves the little streets of Cadiz, the parks... We even had our favorite places ahah, the immersion was real !

Overall, I cannot think of anything that I would have made the program any better than it was; everything was really perfect. In the town of Nice, there was so much opportunity to learn. Old Nice was filled with shops and markets, where the venders rarely could speak any English. Near Old Nice, in Garibaldi Square, I made friends with some local skateboarders, who not only gave me an opportunity to learn colloquial and slang French, but also provided some great action photography for my elective course. And when we were not in the town area, my friends and I would go down to the beach, get gelato, do some shopping, or learn some more French with our educators.

Every weekend we would take day trips to different towns nearby. From Antibes we could see the Alps, others gave a fantastic view of the French countryside or the Mediterranean. St. Paul de Vence even gave us a view of all three at once! Some trips were to the beach, others to old medieval style towns, and we even took a trip to Italy for a day. The day trips were really fantastic because they let us experience not only our “home” town, but others as well, many of which were actually quite different.



One of the most amazing things is that everybody got along. From the start, we were all friends, and we got along like one big family. Some people were from US, Canada, and other countries, and we had no problems getting along wonderfully. I was friends with everyone on my trip, and ended up spending my time with all of them at some point or another. It was truly a perfect group of people. My trip with Abbey Road was the best experience of my life. I had so much fun learning and experiencing France first-hand.

The teachers were fantastic, the other kids were fun to hang out with and as excited and enthusiastic as I was, and we were in what I now consider the best place on Earth, while experiencing other cities as well. It was the perfect situation, and the people running the program were extremely accommodating, telling us that anything we wanted to do would be seriously considered. And these suggestions often came to fruition, which led to an amazing experience for everyone on the trip. My travel with Abbey Road was perfect, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

My daughter is the entire world to me and to place her in the hands and trust of people we do not know took a lot of salesmanship on Abbey Road's part. Rachel had a wonderful, safe and educational summer and at no time was I fearful of her safety. Someone from Abbey Road staff was always on hand, from second #1 at Kennedy Airport to the conclusion of the program, in our case me meeting Rachel in Boston. She loved her experience at the Leadership Academy program in Suffolk University. Rachel came home bright and energized and with a renewed confidence. She was very proud to be able to participate at a college level program and I am hoping that this will continue into the school year. Once again sincere thanks to Abbey Road Programs for the remarkable job.