Program Reviews

As a parent, I was a little nervous about sending my daughter to a sleep-away camp, especially in another country, but I didn't need to worry. From the beginning, the Intercultura team was warm, organized, and clearly invested in making sure the students felt safe, included, and supported.

When my daughter came home, she couldn't stop talking about her experience. She made close friends, gained confidence speaking Spanish, and had so many stories about the activities, excursions, and life at camp. What stood out to me was how much she grew in just a few weeks, not only linguistically, but personally (independence).

I loved that the program balanced learning with fun. The students were immersed in Spanish and Costa Rican culture, but it never felt like school. They were busy exploring, connecting with others, and building independence in a supportive environment.

The friendships she made were probably her favorite part. Months later, she's still in touch with friends she met at camp, and she's already asking if she can go back.

If you're considering Intercultura for your teenager, I wholeheartedly recommend it. It was one of those experiences that will stay with my daughter for a long time, and I'm so grateful she had the opportunity to be part of it.

So after my daughter did the Intercultural Summer Camp, she raved about living with a local family, which she thought was going to be the worst part of the camp but actually ended up being on of the best. I had already planned on going to take classes myself after her experience, I need Spanish for my work and where I live there is a huge Latino community. But I had planned on a hotel, of course, seeing as I'm 50! Anyway long story short, she finally convinced me and I decided to give the homestay program a try, and it was for sure the best part of my stay. I mean, I loved the Spanish classes, my teachers were amazing, they were true professors and all the classes were actually fun, which sounds oxymoronic to me, fun classes, but there it is, I loved them. But getting back to the family stay, that was above and beyond. Doña Élida was like a second mother to me (even though she's only a few years old then me), and her kids are like my nieces and nephews. I've invited them all to visit us in California, and I really hope they come, I'd love to be able to offer them the same experience I had, it was totally life-changing, I can't even really describe how, it just made me feel different and see the world (and the Latinos in my home community) really differently, and understand things so much better than before. One thing though - the food is GREAT! Be prepared to eat well!!

I visited both Heredia and Samara campuses. Both were fantastic and had their unique perks. Heredia I was immersed in city living. When i wasn't studying, I visited the local cafes, ate traditional food at the sodas and went on day trips (everywhere is accessible from Heredia!). Samara is beachy and chilled and a great place to study. It’s loads of fun. If you stay on the Intercultura campus (which I recommend highly) you will experience views like never before right on your doorstep. Exploring Costa Rica through Intercultura is a great way to go if you’re a first time solo traveler or seasoned explorer looking to connect with people and learn.

I'm not going to lie, I was nervous about sending my 15 year old daughter on her own to Costa Rica, but I'm so glad I took the risk. Intercultura takes incredibly good care of the students right from day 1. Holli and Amy are the two dedicated coordinators for the program, and they met with you online before departure, and answered every one of my many many email without ever getting annoyed with me! The Camp itself also has two 24/7 chaperones, Yessenia and Lia, and they are with teens all the time, and they are great, just really good people and fun, and Yessenia has years of experience, she's the head chaperone and you can tell she knows how to handle teens and create an experience where they have fun but stay safe.

The host family in the city campus is amazing, my daughter Ella felt like she was part of the family immediately, and she loved the food - rice and beans is the national dish, they call it gallo pinto! It was a family made up of the mother, her daughter and the grandmother, which I liked because that felt really safe to me, and it was.

The city school itself looks beautiful from the pictures, they these tropical gardens inside the school, so teens could hang out there with their friends in any free time they had, and had Intercultura staff right there to help with anything they needed. Ditto for the beach school, except even more beautiful because it is literally RIGHT ON THE BEACH. It was like a 5-star hotel except a fraction of the price.
Ella even enjoyed the classes, which I had my doubts about, but the teachers are trained to teach teens, the classes are specially designed for them, and she said they were actually fun, if you can believe it. 4 hours of class, but fun?! Anyway, her Spanish teacher said she made amazing progress, so I'm really happy, and I know that emotionally it was a real growing experience for her, and she loves the friends she made there last year and still keeps in touch. She asked if she could go again this year, and we're trying to make it happen... we'll see!

I went from zero Spanish to fluent in 6 months in Intercultura's Spanish program. Their classes are led by dynamic, talented teachers and their cultural activities (dance, cooking, excursions) and homestay families allow you to truly embrace the local culture and have the full immersion experience! Their TEENS program is especially impressive as it allows teens to connect with local Costa Rican teens and enjoy activites which fit their interests and needs. If you are an adult or if you have teenagers this is is the school for you, they have something for every type of learner!

My wife Laurean and I sent our son there in 2025, after I studied in 1994 (!) and now my wife went in 2026.

When it came time to send my son to a Spanish language program in a Spanish- speaking country, I started by reconnecting with Intercultura. I studied at Intercultura in 1994, and it was an experience that has stayed with me for life. I loved the school, the teachers, my host family, the leap I made in speaking Spanish, and the beautiful country.

After reading the recent student reviews and the biographies of the qualified teachers on their website, I was happy to see that Intercultura continued to thrive for over 30 years. I felt very comfortable sending him there - some of the wonderful administrators I had 30 years ago were still there including Adelita and Laura, two former teachers who founded the school themselves!

My son studied at Intercultura for two weeks in July of 2025. He spent one week at the beach campus in Samara and one week at the campus in Heredia. The class sizes were small - he was one of 4 students at the beach class and one of 3 in the Heredia class. The classes were very interactive and he had of focused conversation time with topics designed for teens. He said the school also offered lots of activities outside of class time and he was never bored. One of the things he loved the most was making friends with Costa Rican kids that were at the school studying ESL. He is still in touch with with a few kids there. His confidence speaking Spanish greatly improved and he had a lot of fun and a great learning experience at the same time.

When it came time to send my son to a Spanish language program in a Spanish- speaking country, I started by reconnecting with Intercultura. I studied at Intercultura in 1994, and it was an experience that has stayed with me for life. I loved the school, the teachers, my host family, the leap I made in speaking Spanish, and the beautiful countryside.

After reading the recent student reviews and the biographies of the qualified teachers on their website, I was happy to see that Intercultura has continued to thrive for over 30 years. I felt very comfortable sending him there - some of the wonderful administrators I had 30 years ago were still there, including the directors Adelita and Laura, two former teachers who started the school themselves.

My son studied at Intercultura for two weeks, this was in July of 2025. He spent one week at the beach campus in Samara and one week at the campus in Heredia. The class sizes were small - he was one of 4 students at the beach class and one of 3 in the Heredia class. The classes were super interactive with lots of focused conversation time and they were designed for teens, with topics he actually wanted to talk about. He said the school also offered lots of activities outside of class time and he was never bored, amazingly. One of the things he loved the most was making friends with Costa Rican kids that were at the school studying ESL (he is still in touch with with a few kids from there). His confidence speaking Spanish greatly improved and he had a lot of fun and a great learning experience at the same time.

I loved my time at Intercultura! I found it on Global Scholarships, where it was named one of the best seven Spanish schools in the world, and the only one in Costa Rica, which I really wanted to visit. I also liked that the school listed their teachers’ qualifications on their website, along with student reviews of the teachers, I think this is really important because you know they’re actual teachers. Anyway, the teachers I had were excellent - they really cared about how much I was learning and what our class was getting out of each lesson. They made the lessons fun and relevant and I got to practice speaking a lot. I also liked that they had a really clear structure - first we’d do pre-conversation vocabulary and grammar point review, and then a topic was chosen that included those points, then you progress from easier to harder activities related to it. We also had freedom to expand upon the topic and go with other subjects that would come up in the class related to our interests.

After class we had tons of fun activities (which were free) that exposed us to Costa Rican culture, and I got to continue to practice speaking Spanish. My Spanish improved so much, and my cooking Costa Rica style too!

I loved spending time at the beach and also being at the city campus - they were two different, but both great, experiences. The school was very well run and organized and felt personal but not too small at the same time. It was fun to meet people from other countries and local Costa Ricans as well, it really opened my eyes and made me realize how easy it is to get past the differences just by having contact with people from so many different backgrounds, including different religions and sexual orientations, it was a really open and diverse atmosphere, which I loved. It’s part of the school’s philosophy and you can see they really mean it, it’s not just a blurb on a website.

I studied at Intercultura and loved the experience so much I went back to teach English! The school has a perfect balance of professionalism, culture and comfort. It is obviously well run and truly makes sure you receive the Costa Rican cultural experience. The cooking classes were amazing and having the chance to do latin dance classes inside the school was a lot of fun! There were always resources and recommendations available for different interests in the area. The teachers were professional and adapted to the learning styles of the students in the class. This school is what brought me to CR and the reason I returned.

As a professional journalist with a strong interest in languages, I was terrifically inspired by the quality of teaching at Intercultura and the application that it had for my work as a writer and publisher. After spending just two weeks at Intercultura studying Spanish - a new language for me - I was able to deliver a short valedictory in Spanish and leave the school with an appreciation of both the language and the local culture. Intercultura is a vital part of this culture, and a tremendous opportunity for students from around the world to expand their knowledge of other cultures and their impact on everyday life.