API Study Abroad in Granada, Spain

Very well organized program. Sent information about process in an orderly manner.

Great experience here finding our way in the city.

The teachers understand that Spanish is not your first language and therefore they are very patient.

API is a wonderful program provider to go with. They are one of the cheapest program providers for Spain, but everything they do is very high quality! We have always stayed in nice accommodations when traveling, the housing they arranged for me with a host mom was perfect, and they really do a great job of taking care of the students. There are several excursions built into the trip, all of them worthwhile, informative, and fun experiences! API makes sure that students get to see the highlights of the cities they visit, arranging tour-guided trips to El Prado and El Palacio Real in Madrid, and El Escorial, and around the city of Toledo rather than just releasing us into foreign cities. I highly recommend studying abroad with API!

Granada is a beautiful city. Though API bills it as a smaller city, there are over 200,000 people and it has a big city feel in the main shopping district (at least, it does to a midwestern suburbian girl like me!). After dark, it is NOT wise for girls to walk alone, and in fact it is not advisable for girls to walk alone in empty streets. One afternoon, I was approached by drug dealers when walking with a girl and a guy in a deserted neighborhood close to the Alhambra. That section of town is a little sketchy.

But on the whole, Granada is really a perfect location. The weather is temperate, the people are reasonably friendly (more so than in other Spanish cities I visited), the scenery is GORGEOUS, and it is a perfect picture of the typical Spanish town. Street vendors display colorful goods, some priced and others for barter; buses, motos, and pedestrians fill the busy streets; and cute little shops line the roads, some very sophisticated and expensive, others selling cheap souvenirs and hand-made goods.

The Alhambra, a great palace and fortress built in the 1300's by Moorish rulers in the area, overlooks Granada, and it is well worth seeing at least once -- ESPECIALLY the gardens!! They are gorgeous. I could have spent hours in the gardens, snapping perfect beautiful photo after perfect beautiful photo. And the views of Granada from the gardens of the Alhambra are hermosa, as well.

The food in Granada is very much like what we are accustomed to in America. Though it is Spain, and some native dishes are foreign to the American tongue, I have found very mainstream food selections everywhere in Granada, from the Burger King on the corner to the dinner my host mom cooks at home! But beware, the Spanish have bread with every meal. At first, it is tempting to load up on the ever-present carbs available at mealtimes, but soon you may notice that your pants don't fit as well, and you'll have to cut back. I certainly did!

API stood out to me as a fantastic program provider from the start. Before deciding to study with API, I was actually planning to study in Australia with AustraLearn, and I spent several months working with AustraLearn. But when they informed me, two months before I was supposed to leave, that the program cost was going to be $3,000 more than the printed price, I started researching other abroad programs and found API Granada and quickly applied and was accepted last-minute.

With API, the prices were exactly what they said they would be. API was candid about EVERYTHING. In contrast to AustraLearn, API had all the questions answered upfront, and they were very honest about the pros and cons of studying in each location, and even about ordering a cell phone through API. They made all of the information very easy to understand, unlike AustraLearn, and were always cordial and helpful over the phone. After comparing my experience with AustraLearn to my experience with API, I am convinced of API's superior quality as a program provider!

Not only is it a more efficient and more user-friendly company, but API really makes an effort to accommodate students. Before taking our Spanish language placement exam to determine which classes we could take, the directors informed us that if we didn't do as well as we needed to do to receive credit, we could appeal the decision and probably get moved up where we needed to be. This was a HUGE relief for me, while taking the test. It's the little things like that, that really distinguish API from other program providers. They want us to have a fantastic experience, and it shows. I HIGHLY recommend API as a fantastic study abroad experience!

I'm from Southern California and I have never traveled to Europe before. I did not know anyone in the program and was a little worried about being out of my element abroad. API made it VERY easy and convenient to get from the airport to where they had arranged for us to stay in Madrid. The hotel was in the middle of town and it was absolutely the best. We spent a few days in Madrid and went to Granada via bus, which was like a charter bus in America.

My housing was in the center of Granada and my roommate and I could not have been better paired. Being from the opposite side of the country I was slightly worried we wouldn't get along, but we are not the closest of friends. API gave us a tour across the city and showed us how to get to the school. They took us up to the Alhambra, which would have cost about 12 euro (about 15 dollars) and provided a guided tour. It is one of my favorite parts of Granada. Daily a few of us would go and get a drink and FREE tapas which only Granada offers.

The University is really nice, although it is almost 100% other American students. I would like to have more opportunities for intercambios to meet and chat with Spanish people my age.

I stayed with a host family and it worked out very well. I'm a pretty picky eater and she catered to my taste very well but still gave us some freedom to pick what we wanted for breakfasts and dinners.

When picking which city to go to, I knew I would have more opportunities to travel if I lived in a big city. But it is only a short ride, about 10 euro to get to Malaga. In my 1 semester abroad I went to 8 other countries and it was a very reasonable price. When I traveled to the bigger cities there was definitely more pick pocketing and other urban life problems. I compare it to where I live at home. I live in San Diego, and as nice as it is to go to LA, I really like and would promote slightly smaller cities that have a less crazy urban life vibe but still have so much beauty and fun.

API helped me pick my city and do all the processes from my transcript, getting my Visa, any and were there if I had any issues abroad (which there were none).

I absolutely loved my time in Granada. I've talked about it so much that most of my friends now roll their eyes and sigh anytime the word Spain even comes out of my mouth. I chose that city because it is a college town, so I knew there would be lots of Spaniards in my age group, and because it was smaller I thought it would be easier to get into the habit of speaking Spanish more regularly. Also, the city itself is absolutely beautiful + they have one of the most famous gelato shops in all of the south-Los Italianos- I'm pretty sure it was featured on the Travel Channel, or by Rick Steves. The thing I enjoyed the most was just being outdoors on a regular basis, being from a large city in Texas I spend a good amount of time experiencing my city as I drive, I loved getting to walk around, bike ride, hike and just sit outside with a cool drink. I also got very lucky as I was able to experience Spain during a World Cup year so there was lots of excitement, made even better by the fact that they won for the first time ever! The hardest thing was probably adapting to day-to-day activities. Everyone tells about about the history of Spain, the importance of Catholicism, flamenco, tapas, etc. What I didn't know before arrival was what was difficult to adjust to- bringing my own toilet paper to some bars, not having AC on a regular basis, siesta (its real, and once you get used to it, it's glorious) getting used to literally everything being closed on Sundays, etc. As you get accustomed to those things, they become less of a big deal-but I wish I had known ahead of time. Overall, I loved my experience and I would return in a heartbeat.

I feel like the host family experience really helped me get immersed in the program. They allowed me to meet their family and really feel at home. The academics were somewhat challenging and I went to class Monday through Friday for four hours a day. My schedule was set up so that I was able to take time throughout the day to enjoy everyday Spanish life including siestas, tapas, and cafe con leche. Granada has a small town feel, with everything in walking distance including the Albacin, Alhambra, the Cathedral, etc but also always has something going on and a great night life. Malaga, which has an international airport,is only an hour bus ride away. There is also a beautiful beach city called Nerja that we went to a few times over the semester that is so beautiful! I would not have chosen any other city to have spent 5 months in. It is such a unique city that really captures the authentic life of Andalusia.

I traveled with API to Granada in Spring of 2008 and absolutely love it. The staff took care of everything the moment I landed in Madrid and really made themselves available to students. Housing was exactly as it was described and all of the classes I needed to get credit for were offered in the program. The excursions were excellent as well. I have traveled all over Spain and studied in Madrid and Salamanca, but Granada is definitely the place to be. Great night life, great people, and you can easily travel all over from the city. I would repeat my trip in a heartbeat!