CIS Abroad - January in Costa Rica

Overall, I had an amazing experience traveling through the CIS Abroad program to Costa Rica. In my honest review though, my program was not very organized. They did do a great job preparing you and making you feel safe and having everything you needed to travel to a new country. However, when it came to planning trips and excursions, class organization, and an accurate description of the program application, they did very poor. First off the application did not give a good description of what excursions were included and not included and did not have an accurate syllabus online. It was very different from what we actually did and that left everyone taking the same class as me very frustrated and we had to work out all the issues together once we got there to still get our moneys worth of an experience. On the website it said that two excursions were included in the pay and that was wrong we only had one included and had to pay any other ones we wanted to do, and they were not cheap. The program coordinator was understanding and did try to help us work through these issues but it still showed disorganization and not much communication on their part. I still had an enjoyable experience after working through these issues and planning my own trips once I got there, but it was a hassle working through the issues that were not communicated on the website description of the program. This was also my first time traveling abroad and Costa Rica was an incredible place to visit. I loved all the people in my program and it was fun to get to know them better and people with a desire to travel like you. This trip made me want to travel more and gave me the confidence that I am able to do that on my own. I also learned that I love the vibrant, friendly culture of Latin America and can't wait to see more of it.