Program Reviews

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.

I started Abbey Road the summer after I stopped going to summer camp and I was looking for something to do that would be both productive and fun. My mom found it online and she sent me the link and I thought it looked like a really fun and educational thing to do. When I first decided to do Abbey Road, I was deciding between the Nice and the Western Civilization program. I chose Nice first because I was taking French however this summer I wanted to take the opportunity to go on Western Civilization program. 



I used to live in Europe when I was little. I lived in Belgium and England for a couple years. My parents and older sister have all these memories of us visiting all these places, but I can’t remember any of it. I really wanted the opportunity to explore Europe and the Western Civ program offers that. You get the chance to see and learn about the best parts of all these great countries. 



The staff was really great, helpful and informative. For class, usually we had a reading in our packet that corresponded to the place we were visiting that day. We would either do the reading the night before and go discuss it onsite or read it onsite and discuss it there. I really liked this style of learning because when you’re a traditional classroom and you’re reading an excerpt about St. Catherine of Siena for example, it’s not really all that interesting. However, when you read the excerpt about St. Catherine in Siena at St. Catherine’s Cathedral in Siena and you see the head St. Catherine, it just has a much bigger impact. I feel like I can recall text better and I feel more comfortable with the history. This is an academic summer program. It’s not just an excuse to wander around Europe. You get to experience another place and you absorb and learn about the culture. You are taking classes and actually learning something instead of just being a tourist. You are actually engaging in a bigger experience than just a vacation. 



Western Civilization program exceeded my expectations! I have been recommending it to people when they ask me about my summer.

What I discovered was that learning to be independent wasn’t as hard as I had thought, at least, with all of the helpful program staff it wasn’t. It felt like learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time- you teeter off on your own, but there are always arms there to catch you if you fall. The Abbey Road staff gave us just enough independence to try and learn how to live on our own, how to budget money, and how to do our own laundry, but they were always there to help us as well. Things like grocery shopping on Mondays or having cooking groups on Wednesdays taught me skills that I took home with me, like preparing a healthy meal and budgeting.

Abbey Road also improved my people skills. When living in apartments with 3 or 4 roommates, conflicts are inevitable. Throughout the program the staff was always there to sort out major issues, but they put a lot of emphasis on dealing with personality conflicts in an independent, mature positive way. It’s likely that I will have a lot of roommates in my life, and the Abbey Road staff taught me valuable communication and problem solving skills so that I can fix small issues and avoid conflicts with people in the future.

My experience with Abbey Road was so amazing and made me so much more confident as a person that I would love to return one day as a staff member and give students that same experience.

I had a fabulous summer in St. Laurent, France. I stayed with 3 other American girls in a French home. My host family was really great. They were very welcoming. My host mom was good about asking us about foods that we wanted to eat. She also served us traditional french foods that we sometimes liked (lol!). She did send us a packed lunch but I do admit that we often grabbed a bite at the local cafes, which was a lot of fun.
We had language class most mornings but had lots of time after that to do other things - explore, go shopping etc. I also took a gym class (totally optional) which was fun. Our trainer had us doing all sorts of exercises - and I am not the exercising type! Other kids chose to do other activities.
On weekends we went on lots of excursions to other places in France and we also crossed into Italy for a day. I made so many good friends. This was my first time overseas and I felt safe and supported the entire time.
I didn't actually end up spending much money while I was there, which made my parents happy. Everything is really provided by the program. I spent a small amount on pastries, coffee etc and a bit on gifts. But I did not have to worry about money at all for the day to day type things.
I really have no complaints at all. The home stay worked well for me - I really wanted to meet a French family and take in the culture. It worked out perfectly.

I went on this program in the summer of 2018. I would definitely make the same choice if I had to again. I had a really great experience, Nice is a lovely city. I thoroughly enjoyed the amount of free time the students were allowed, it gave me the opportunity to be independent and responsible and spend my time in Nice exactly as I wanted. The food there was spectacular, and the beach is by far one of the best parts of the city. The best part of the program is the weekend trips that are scheduled, some highlights including Monaco, Eze, Antibes, Cannes, and San Remo. I did the four-week option, which was a lot of time away from home, but I am so happy that I chose to spend as much time in France as possible. The staff is supportive and friendly. I loved the facilities, the location of the building is perfect and I loved the privacy of the single rooms and private bathrooms. This trip helped me grow as a person and a French speaker and was overall a life-altering experience.

Not only did I grow in my knowledge and speaking of Spanish language and culture, but I made great lifelong friends! The staff was amazing and so supportive, if you were having a bad day or feeling sad, they would really ask what was wrong and actually cared about the answer. The housing and food situation was great and modeled college dorm life. I was in the group apartments and it was a great way to grow close to the group of girls in my apartment. The activities were also super fun and varied in type/ length, so everyone had an activity that catered to their interests. The elective classes were a great way to learn something specific (I took photography and learned a lot!), have a more chill class with your friends, and the teachers are all super sweet and caring. I am so glad I went and miss it so much!

I'll admit to being a pretty serious "helicopter parent," with lots of involvement in my kids' lives on a daily basis. My first motivation in seeking a study-abroad program was sending them somewhere amazing, to do something other than be a tourist AND without me there to make it a vacation. At the same time, I wanted them to be safe, see interesting places, learn about food and language and culture, and be a part of a group of kids from all over the world.

After researching a number of programs, Abbey Road seemed to be the program that met all of these requirements for me. The itinerary seemed to have enough travel to see multiple locations but enough study time in each place for them to remember something. The rest of the decision was just blind faith in the unknown and an overall trust in testimonials on the web site.

The program itself accomplished everything I had hoped for. The boys came home talking about Florence and Paris like our own neighborhood. They add small, yet distinct references about Greek philosophy into their everyday conversations. They recognize exotic locations in movies and remember how they felt standing right there in person. They are more responsible with their belongings, and less critical of foreigners.

My oldest son is now at college, and the experience of keeping track of his own things in Europe was the perfect preparation for living in a dorm. Whenever I ask if he's ok, he replies that he made it through Europe alone, so he'll be fine. His month in Europe gave him the confidence and the skills to live away from home, and that's exactly what I wanted for him.

My younger son is a junior in High School and he gets himself up for early morning jazz band every day. He adds that doing homework in our kitchen is 100 times more comfortable than reading Plato at the Acropolis in 100 degree heat. I couldn't be happier that he understands the difference between the two.

There is nothing in the U.S. that could have given my boys the same type of experience they received from traveling with Abbey Road staff members and teachers. I'm a lucky dad to have Abbey Road contribute to the character development of my kids.

This was my first time studying abroad. When I signed up to take AP Spanish I knew that I wanted to improve my Spanish speaking skills and I knew I wanted to go to Spain. I wanted to really be immersed in the culture and learn the language and learn about where I was staying to make everything worthwhile. My friend Mark and I went together and our moms were really involved in the search. They had this convention with all these different summer programs and they got a lot of different information. We wanted to find a program that offered a good balance of independence, learning, excursions, and a homestay. Abbey Road seemed to have everything that we were looking for.



During the program my Spanish has definitely improved. Ever since the 9th grade there hasn’t been any English spoken in my Spanish classes and my experience this summer being so exposed to Spanish has really helped a lot. In the south of Spain they have these tough hard accents and I think exposure to that has really helped.

The classes we had during the program were quite different from what we have been doing back home, and this is another reason why I chose Abbey Road. I was able to spend an hour and a half in the classroom and an hour and a half talking to people and finding things, which was a more engaging way of learning. When you’re actually exposed to what you are learning it’s a totally different experience.

The teachers and the program coordinators were amazing, especially Chris [the program Director]. During summer programs there are always certain situations that happen and I think he handled them really well. The staff always had a positive attitude and was open to hearing suggestions. They taught us that you can have so much fun by learning the language or about the culture. The whole experience was just so personal that anything that I felt I needed people were always there to help out or if I wanted to do a certain thing they would make time to do it. And it wasn’t just during the program that the staff was really great, even before the program started the staff was helpful. I could contact anyone in the program and they were willing to talk to me.



Mark and I were staying with Rosa, an amazing and such a typical Spanish mother. Rosa had three sons and a granddaughter so there was always family around. It was never quiet which was perfect and exactly the experience we were looking for! It was such a great homestay experience. We always had the option to go out to eat, but we always ate at the house because we loved the food and we loved hanging out with the other boys at the house. Rosa mainly made Spanish food, but sometimes she would try to make something more American for us.

Experiential learning is something that Abbey Road really takes pride in. It’s a great thing because even though you sign up for classes you want to take you really just want to be spending time in the city and making friends. When you mix classroom learning with cultural immersion, it just makes the whole thing more enjoyable.