Program Reviews

My three weeks at Na'atik Language & Culture Institute exceeded all expectations. The program's strength lies in its thorough, personalized approach to language education combined with meaningful cultural experiences.

~Language Instruction Excellence~
My instructor, Pedro, provided outstanding one-on-one teaching. Rather than focusing on vocabulary memorization, he emphasized proper grammar foundations and conjugations, leading to rapid improvement in my comprehension and pronunciation. The 18 hours of weekly instruction, combined with constant practice opportunities, helped me master complex concepts like reflexive verbs and direct/indirect pronouns. His passion for teaching and patience with my learning process made even challenging grammar concepts accessible.

~Homestay Experience~
I had the pleasure of staying with the Garcia Uicab family, which made this experience truly special. Their warmth, patience with my Spanish learning, and genuine inclusion in family life created an immersive environment that accelerated my language progress. From shared meals to daily conversations, they provided constant opportunities to practice while making me feel genuinely welcomed.

~Cultural Programming~
The extracurricular activities offered were thoughtfully designed and educational. I enjoyed the Traditional tortilla-making class, embroidery workshop, and guided historical tours, which provided deep insights into local Maya culture and history. Each activity was led by knowledgeable instructors passionate about sharing their heritage.

~Staff and Support~
The Na'atik coordinators provided excellent support throughout, balancing guidance with independence. Their nonprofit model, which funds English education for local students, adds meaningful purpose to the experience.

Highly recommended for serious language learners seeking cultural immersion in a supportive, educational environment!

My granddaughter, age 16, and I went to Na'atik for a week to study Spanish recently - I had been there before and thought she would enjoy it as I had. We both thought our instructors were great, and that we gained a lot from their help. Our host family was just the best! We also really enjoyed the activities outside of school. The school staff are all very helpful, and the people of the town are really friendly. Everyone should try a delicious marquesita, sold in the town plaza. I also definitely recommend visiting the Mayan ruins at Chacchoben, as well as beachside Bacalar. The restaurant La Playita there is definitely worth a visit.

My weeklong stay with the Garcia Uicab Family was amazing. I had a tremendous amount of fun and this is a giant step out of my comfort zone to visit a foreign country by myself as a 16-year-old. The food the family served was out of this world and I was looking forward to every meal because I knew it was gonna taste good. Also, the staff at Na’atik were amazingly welcoming, and they helped me tremendously to get where I needed to be. The activities available were an insane amount of fun. The cenote trip is definitely worth it and I got some amazing videos and pictures out of it. I also did the bike adventure with Bruno. Right now, most of the people here are on break so it was only me and Bruno. The bike trip super interesting. We rode on a historic and iconic road that goes from Felipe Carillo to the ocean and I learned all about its history, the seasons here and we stopped at a lagoon, I got to try sapotes and mangoes. And even though I’m not totally fluent in Spanish, I was still able to have a conversation with him basically the entire time and I could understand everything he was saying, and I even got to teach him about some of the American culture on the East Coast. In general, I had an amazing time on this trip and honestly, I would do it again if I had the chance to, and I would bring my friends because something like this would be tons of fun with people you know and before I came here, I was a little nervous, but after being here for a week, I feel like I’m a part of the community and this is more than worth it so I definitely recommend.

I feel excessively effusive but I don't think I could have had a much better experience than the one that Na'atik provided. I felt so taken care of with my host family and by day 3 felt completely comfortable either interacting or taking alone time. They were incredibly accommodating with my dietary restrictions (pescatarian) and generous with helping me navigate Carrillo (took me to Carnaval, to the combi station when I went to Bacalar, offered me rides late at night, etc). I was really glad I got to stay in a home with kids as well, which was incredibly fun. Similarly, the Na'atik staff is fabulous. Everyone is so kind and seemed genuinely invested my experience. I loved the "water cooler" chats, getting activity suggestions, and opportunities to practice Spanish with other folks.

I cannot be more complimentary of my classes either. Of course the advantage of having private classes is that it went at my speed, and I certainly felt that I had days where I was a bit slower on the uptake. But ultimately, I can't believe how much more comfortable I am speaking Spanish and UNDERSTANDING in just two weeks.

Activities-wise, my only regret was not getting to do more of them, and not taking the time to wander around Carrillo more (but neither of those have anything to do with Na'atik). Keep doing what you are doing! This is a fabulous program! I am already looking at my calendar to figure out when I can come back.

Everyone here is great. Wish we could have stayed longer. Learned a lot! Class size was small, and for a week I had 1:1 with my professor. Winter is a great time to visit if you don't love the heat. The town is charming and safe. The staff are fantastic, the host family was lovely, the excursions are well done and support local efforts.... Make sure to go on the bike ride, get a maya massage, check out the archaeological sites...

If you're on the fence, I did the research, and this is the best choice.

Also make sure to stop at Carnes Ahumadas 100% Maya.

This was my first time coming to Mexico. Na’atik guided me about the process the whole way. Although being a seasoned traveler, I had no idea as to what I should expect here in Mexico despite watching videos and reading about it. It’s really hard to know a place unless you’ve actually been there.

Felipe Carrillo Puerto is a small busy city with friendly people. Tourists are indeed, uncommon here, but with a little Spanish and an open mind, you can get around relatively easily.

If this is your first time, coming to Mexico, there are many different variables that can affect your experience. This was definitely the case for me, but Na’atik very professional, and positive in assisting me with a number of different things that didn’t go the way that I would’ve hoped during my three week trip. I came here speaking a little Spanish, and I’m speaking a more Spanish than before and able to understand a considerable amount more. The course is tailored to your needs based on what you communicate. People at the school were extremely helpful and caring. They did everything they could to help make this experience a great one for me.

A homestay experience is really the combination of the individual plus the family, therefore, one’s experience for a homestay can be really unique from someone else’s experience. There are some times of year that the neighborhoods are really loud with parties and if it’s a hot time of year without air-conditioning, the circumstance would be really challenging. There is also the burning of garbage which happens, many times on weeknights, especially outside of town, which often includes burning plastic, which can make someone from the United States, feel rather ill at times. That being said, my overall experience here, with the people was a very positive one. I learned a lot at the school and especially a lot about Mexican culture. Felipe Carrillo Puerto is a great base to travel further a field into the Yucatán to explore the great things that this part of Mexico can offer to just about anyone depending on your interests.

This was a great experience being truly immersed in the culture. I enjoyed every aspect of the experience from the instruction to the homestay and feel I have made strides in my language journey. Full disclosure that these are humble surroundings ie bucket showers but I loved it as part of of the authenticity of living with folks whose language you are looking to share and gave me a real appreciation of the people that live here. I might return in a year when my Spanish is even better to continue to improve

I visited the Na’atik school in Felipe Carillo Puerto for ten days. As a young, solo traveller who has grown up in a large city, it was a whirlwind of new experiences, and it has absolutely shown me a different perspective. I was able to try many things during my short trip and I believe that there is something for every sort of traveler: the gorgeous cenotes, authentic cooking classes, Mayan ruin expeditions and cool T-Shirt making. I highly recommend this program to anyone looking to improve their Spanish fluency or be adventurous by immersing themselves in the Mexican-Mayan culture. I would urge any prospective traveler to stay and spend time with a local homestay family as it was, with no doubt, the most enjoyable, educational and enlightening component of my stay. The homemade food is unmatched as well!

We very much enjoyed our time with Naatik in Carillo. The immersion experience was everything we expected it to be, and more. Very friendly and supportive staff. The teacher was excellent. He understood our goals and targeted the learning accordingly. Being a native Spanish speaker he had an in-depth knowledge of the language and was able to provide clear and concise explanations. On top of that, he was approachable and friendly with a good sense of humour. Lots of laughs! He also shared a lot about Maya culture and history which added a lot to the experience.
Carillo is very safe and we were easily able to explore the town and surroundings. People in general were friendly and it was refreshing to be off the beaten tourist track, in a "real" Mexican town.
Our host family was welcoming and friendly and provided a comfortable and clean room and we enjoyed the discussions at mealtime.
We highly recommend this organization.
Linda and Karin

I entered into this program because I've been trying to learn Spanish for work, as well take a well-needed vacation in another locale. I'd say I'm very much satisfied on both fronts.
The spanish was probably the most important part for me. I received about 4 hours of instruction a day from a bilingual teacher, Maestro Cesar. He spoke really well in both languages, helped me to identify personal objectives and create a personalized lesson plan, and covered topics in class that were both educational and fascinating on a personal level. I know just enough about teaching to know that he's clearly had some amount of professional training on how to do it.
Something that I found with personal classes/immersion that was missing from other types of Spanish learning is this capacity/path that leads to fluency. I think a lot of resources I'd used in the past (language apps, some online classes, videos, etc.) gave a good grounding, but there wasn't anything to get you to the level where you were having actual productive conversations with native speakers. Like Ronnie Coleman (famous bodybuilder) says, "There ain't nothing to it, but to do it."
Felipe Carrillo Puerto is this quiet, smaller town between cities on the Yucatan Peninsula, it's very tranquil, giving you a lot of opportunities to relax, try immersion, and do local stuff in a calm environment. The weekends, or well-planned afternoons, give you opportunities to head to Chetumal, Bacalar, Talum, or a handful of other places to take in local sights/attractions that aren't available in Carrillo, go to fancy restaurants, or in general do touristy stuff without the pain of having to live among tourists for a week or more (I actually really liked going to El Parque and randomly seeing a new vendor sell something I haven't seen before, but they just don't see keychains). I did a lot of my street-food testing and general relaxation in Carillo, and headed to Bacalar for kayaking around La Laguna de Siete Colores, buying souvenirs, and fine dining.
I think what was most interesting to me was the way that my rapidly developing Spanish changed the trip over the course of 2 weeks and about 40 hours of personal instruction. I learned how to better communicate to store owners to find some of the specialty items I was looking for over the course of the week. I went from barely hanging on to my homestay family to being able to have decent conversations and joke around from them, I was upset at the local attractions' insistence on responding in English when I had decent Spanish coming to Bacalar, and I'd like to think I was pretty helpful as a volunteer for some of the English immersion classes.
The homestay family was very kind to me. They fed me pretty well, went out of their way to make me feel included in their day-to-day life, and were available whenever I needed help. I remembered taking a trip to an abuela's house to do some Dia de Los Muertos celebrations and eat a bunch of tamales with the family-there's some sort of unspoken closeness to helping unwrap tamales with someone that I can't really explain. I leave with some sense of familiarity, but also this sense that there's something much deeper and richer here than I could have possibly found out on my own, like a lil fishie growing up and realizing they've been swimming over a cenote (find out what that is! by traveling to another country and swimming over it!)
Anyways, the irony of being in an excellent language program is that I now feel empowered to do trips in other parts of Latin-America/parts of the world that have many Spanish speakers, and don't feel a strong need to come back (I'm still planning to do the online courses). I definitely recommend this program for anyone who wants to travel, but doesn't have an idea of where they want to go, or anyone who has a desire to be in Mexico or learn Spanish.